In his pursuit of two swimming medals at the Rio Olympics, Ryan Cochrane has chosen the training options guaranteed to hurt the most.
Pushing himself until he vomits isn't uncommon.
Owner of Olympic silver and bronze medals in the 1,500-metre freestyle, the 27-year-old from Victoria wants a third medal in the distance, preferably gold. But he also wants to stand on the podium in the 400 freestyle.
After winning bronze in both distances at last year's world championship in Kazan, Russia, the Canadian heads into his third Olympic Games confident the gruelling training has helped make him a contender in both distances.
"The pain train is always there multiple times a week," Cochrane said of his regimen. "There's always a little barfing in training. When you're pushing your lactate production that high, it's bound to happen."
Coach Ryan Mallette says Cochrane always takes the hardest route.
"When I coach Ryan, I never have to convince him of anything," said Mallette. "We both lean towards 'What's the hardest thing we could possibly do to get the most improvement?'"
Cochrane's late coach Randy Bennett, who died last year of cancer, had said it was Cochrane's capacity for going into the red that set the swimmer apart at a young age.
"Every time I go to a hard workout, I know I'm going to get through it," said Cochrane. "I got through it for 20 years. Those habits are so good to learn when you're young because you don't want to be questioning that at 27 years old."
Mallette was Bennett's assistant and took over the high-performance swim program at the Canadian Sport Institute Pacific in Victoria after Bennett's death in April 2015.
As emotional as the loss of Bennett was, the transition on the pool deck was easier because Mallette was already involved in Cochrane's training. There was a blueprint in place to advance the swimmer to Rio.
Speed and efficiency have been Cochrane's objectives since London in 2012 — the former for the 400 and the latter to enhance training for and racing the 1,500.
"Ryan has become a more efficient swimmer," Mallette said. "He's also become a little bit of a faster swimmer and you see those things benefit him in the 400 free, but also benefit him in the 1,500 free."
Canadians have earned several silver and bronze over the years in the pool, but other than backstroker Mark Tewksbury in 1992, no other Canadian swimmer has won gold at a non-boycotted Games in a century.
Cochrane believes gold in the 1,500 is attainable, if he can swim under 14 minutes 40 seconds again. He went 14:39.63 to take silver in London.
"If I'm doing exponentially more this year than I have any other year, then I'm on the right track," he said.
Cochrane was bumped from the 400-metre freestyle final in 2012 when defending champion Park Tae-hwan of South Korea had his disqualification for a false start in the heats overturned on appeal.
Park went onto take the silver medal behind China's Sun Yang.
Cochrane then finished second in the 1,500 to Yang, who dove off the start blocks while his competitors were still standing on them.
The possibility Yang could be disqualified created a buzz on the pool deck, but officials waved Sun back on the blocks and spectators were told to be quiet as the race re-started.
Cochrane's chief rivals continued to lead eventful lives after 2012.
Sun was a no-show for the 1,500 world championship final last year in Kazan. The middle lane was empty for the race. He later said heart problems caused him to drop out.
China's anti-doping agency said in 2014 that Sun had served a three-month ban earlier in the year for testing positive for a banned stimulant.
Park recently served out FINA's 18-month suspension for a positive steroid test prior to the 2014 Asian Games. Korean Olympic Committee sanctions for doping are more severe and Park faced another three-year ban.
Park took his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, who ruled in the swimmer's favour July 8 and opened the door for him to swim in Rio.
The drama doesn't impact Cochrane in his swimming lane, so he treats it like white noise.
"It's so out of my control I think I've been forced to just not deal with it," the Canadian said. "You can do everything you can to be a clean athlete, but you can't force other people to do that.
"I know I'm clean. If I can get to the top of the world being a clean athlete, fantastic. If you can better everyone else in the world no matter what they're doing, then that should be the focus every day."
Rio will "potentially" be Cochrane's final Games. Finishing his psychology degree has given him a little more time to spend with friends and family, but the grind of swimming is consuming.
Cochrane said he'd like to see more of his family and friends, including mom Donna, dad John and brothers Liam and Devon.
"We put so much on hold," Cochrane said. "I'd like to have a relationship or see my family and friends more. That kind of draws you out of sport sometimes because you do have to give up so much to be world-class.
"After London, I did not think I would swim another four years. It obviously gets harder every four years. I never imagined myself going to four Olympics at all, but you've got to re-evaluate after the Games. If everything goes really great, why give up a good thing?"
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