21 Questions with Pro Triathlete Levi Lukacs

1. So you’re born and raised in Hungary. Tell me what it was like?

Growing up in Hungary was great because it’s a mix of country side and hilly mountains so my dad always took me outside on adventures. When I had free time with my friends, we always went to a lake and we always did some kind of fun activities in the water or in the mountains. My dad had horses so a lot of times we went horse back riding. Overall, my whole childhood was more outside and adventuring all kinds of fun stuff and doing all kinds of sports.

2. In your experience, what percentage of Americans even know where Hungary is?

Hungary is a small country with not even 10 million people so not a lot of Americans know about it. I would say not too many with the everyday people but with the triathlon/sport community more people know because they travel more.

3. What do you miss most about Hungary?

My mom’s cooking, and the cost of living.

4. What’s your favorite part about being in St Louis?

Triathlon/sport community, people are more friendly, there’s always something going on every weekend like games, events, concerts, races.

5. So how old were you when you did your first Tri?

​I was 22. I did a relay in 2016 where I was a runner and we took third place overall. That’s where I got ‘infected’ with triathlon. My first actual triathlon I was 23.

6. What made you want to do Triathlons?

That’s a funny story. I was doing Modern Pentathlon for 15 years professionally. When I left that sport, I started working at a bank and once my boss came in with an Ironman finisher shirt and it looked so cool and I asked him about it and he invited me to do a relay Ironman 70.3. That’s how it all started.

7. Before this whole COVID thing happened, how many Triathlons did you think you’d race in 2020?

I was planning to do around 9-10 races focusing on the 70.3 World Championships in New Zealand.

8. What Triathlons were you able to race this year, and how’d you do?

My only race I did was a local sprint race called Ballwin Triathlon where I took first place overall and a new course record.

9. Who has the second fastest course record?

That’s funny because that’s also me. I broke my old record by 3,5 minutes.

10. You’re being coached by Nate Kortem, that sounds intense. What is that like?

He has a lot of experience and knowledge and when I say that I mean they went to 2 Olympics and they won a lot of big races so if I have a question for him about something he always has the answer for it. He’s super into data and numbers! 

11. How many days a week do you train?

So right now with this whole COVID thing, I train every day of the week and usually Monday’s are my easier days but a lot depends if were training for a race or if I am going to a training camp.

12. What’s a normal training day look like for you?

I usually have an early swim and after I head upstairs at the gym do some stretching, core/ab exercises, some routine for injury prevention. Then I go home eat, recover a little bit and then head out for a bike ride. Then come home eat again, do some work on our company and emailing then go for a run and hit the gym for some lifting and more stretching but every day is different again depending on if I’m training for a race or not.

13. What’s your FTP and how much do you weigh?

My last FTP test was 1.5 year ago. Right now it’s probably around 290-300. Right now I weigh around 154.

14. Where did you get that sweet BMC TimeMachine tri bike?

My go to bike shop Swim Bike Run Chesterfield. I got pretty much everything triathlon related from there.

15. You have one of the new Felt AR Advanced road bikes, did you get that from SBR Chesterfield too?

Yes of course and I love it. Its light and fast so I can do my hill repeats on it at Babler. 

16. What’s your absolute favorite bike ride here in STL?

Hands down the 50 mile loop from SBR through Six Flags because it has hills and flat parts and we usually go with a big group so it’s a pretty decent ride.

17. You and your girlfriend are pretty cute together. Does she ride too?

Yes she got a nice gravel bike from SBR so once or twice a week we go on a bike ride together to get coffee or ice cream. 

18. Do you like IMO’s pizza?

We ate there once or twice. I love pizza and they have some good pizza. 

19. Do you like T-Ravs? 

To be honest I have never heard of them but I will do some research and I will try it out. 

20. Have you been up inside of the Arch?

Yes. One of my friends came out to visit and we went on a little city tour. In Hungary we don’t have tall buildings so it was pretty cool to overlook the city.

21. Are you in any of our STL Biking Facebook Groups?

Yeah I think im pretty much in all of them so I can look for tips and bike routes and being part of the biking community.

+1 Fun fact from Levi: I can solve a Rubix cube behind my back.

Learn more about Levi at his website www.levitriathlete.com or on his instagram www.instagram.com/levi_triathlete