agggh I live next to this course wish it was in summer, not feb. Today I ran outside it was 39* with the water about 57*

Was she a swimmer as a kid? With her leg speed and prolly a quick study on the bike, if she was a decent age grouper she should have no trouble doing well fairly quickly.

Although I dont expect a world beater, itll be interesting to see her progress and it could draw some new fans into the sport because she's got a big following.


Quigley has mentioned that she still has eyes on running, the steeplechase and Paris 2024 for that. So I'm not sure if she is as all-in on triathlon as some are thinking here.

However, she may want to consider it. She's one of those high level runners who has been plagued by injury after injury. Had GREAT success early on - Multiple NCAA Championships, then post College made her first Olympic Team in 2016 and made the S/C Final in Rio and finished 8th. No small feat in a deep and challenging event! I think it was the following year that, at the World Championships she took one step over the line by accident on the short section of track where in the S/C they veer off the main track, in her semi-final race, and was DQ'd after a strong run to qualify for her 2nd World Final in a row. However since then, it's been as noted injury after injury.

She's become in some regards the "Lionel Sanders" of the track and field and running scene - blowing up her Social Media and living out there with big contracts with some notable brands including Lululemon.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

left BTC around the same time Houlihan tested positive and Schumacher and some other athletes in the group doubled down on defending a doper.

an 8:28 3K runner who can swim and bike would be handy to have on a mixed team relay.

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And the question remains. where were you.

The Lionel Sanders of track and field?! No such thing exists. Quigley is selling something on every other post and made the switch to influencer several years ago.
She was injury prone in university as well. Won over weak steeple fields and then chose to go to a rigid high volume pro team. Granted, there were less options back then but it was not the right choice. She’ll keep saying she’s training for 2024 and dabbling in triathlon as a way to stay relevant and please her major sponsor. She may earn her card against age groupers and collegiates but will she travel to the far flung continental cup locales? Can she mix it up with that level to earn points to make it? Nope.

Colleen has run a 4:22 (mile), 8:28 (3k), and a 15:10 (5k). I wouldn't just condense her PBs like this. She likely has the fastest running PBs of anyone to ever try triathlon. Injuries have been an issue throughout her running career. Maybe 30-40mpw & a ton of swimming/biking is the answer. Idk if short course is gonna happen with the swim ability & learning curve on the bike. She's gonna run faster than everyone. Maybe long course stuff like 70.3 & PTO ends up being a good distance for her where swimming matters less. Yes, she's an influencer but she has a ton of talent/potential. Not gonna knock someone for trying to make a living in a sport where winning races isn't enough. Rooting for her and intrigued to see how this goes.

She likely has the fastest running PBs of anyone to ever try triathlon. //

For the mile and 3k perhaps, but need to pencil in some of Gwens times from the 5k(15;08) upwards to see faster PB's for a "real" triathlete. Hope she has some fun, but with her swimming and thus biking, she will have a very hard time at any ITU style racing. Perhaps she could be a Chealse Sodaro type long distance athlete, but many of the same barriers are in her way there too. Just in long distance one has a chance to showcase a superior run without being in lead T2 group, not so in ITU..

See Beth Potter....
Two Sports, a Fast Time and Some Questions - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

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#swimmingmatters
Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.
The Doctor (#12)

Or Alan Webb.

I said in the GJ thread this move feels very Webb ish. He was just in at a very accelerated make it or else funding opportunity.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

She's going to be WAY better at triathlon than Alan.

Agreed. I would argue Webb was much more of a pure miler. For ITU racing, speed matters. Quigley would have the most potential (on the run) of anyone to ever make the move to short course racing. Quigley focused on the 3k steeple which is a strength/speed event. Years with BTC has her in a good position to eventually step up to long course racing. BTC's base building is geared towards the longer stuff. Potter made the transition after being more of a 10k runner. I agree that it will take years for Quigley to work on her swim/bike. But I'm not sure this is all about sponsors or whatever. You get knocked for trying to make a living. Fine. Quigley is a top-level elite athlete. She has the drive to train/compete at a high level. Running was getting her injured/frustrated/burned out. Maybe 30-40 miles/week with a ton of swimming/biking is the trick. She races for the first time next week so I guess we'll see how it goes.

The only reason Webb wasn’t more successful is because of his time table. LC tri was never going to be an option for him. He was fast tracked into Wtcs racing which no way she will, especially if she’s still going to do TF through ‘24.

If she doesn’t pro card Q next weekend, that will be a bad sign although in Clermont the 5k run is notoriously “long” to help usat id’d runners so she’ll get it there worse case.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

I think it's cool to see single-sport athletes jump into tri. She's obviously a fantastic runner. That being said, looking at her strava, I don't see anything in her rides or swims that indicate she will finish top 3. I would be shocked if she got her pro license at this race (especially since it's draft legal). But who knows, maybe it'll be a really weak field and the front pack won't be too far ahead of her once they hit T2.

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Matt

There's always a few pro's who show up and race TM, a few years back PS's tri squad boys showed up, made for a fun story to tell for some of those edr athletes.

Take out the elites (who will get scrubbed from pro card candidates) and she'll very likely be able to hold her own. Look at last years results, only 1 girl broke 19 for the run (18:54), so unless USAT is sneaking in another single sport turned tri athlete into this race, she'll have a great shot at it. I've coached enough single sport athletes turned triathletes to elite card pros that an athlete of this caliber has a shot.

Looking at her strava, she's def a "poor" swimmer, it's looking like her best swim set atleast on strava for over 200 was holding 1:21 pace. Which will be slow OWS stroke, but I think her "athletic ability" (toughness) will also kick in and she'll be ok. She's currently *not* registered in Clermont so this is kinda it for her, for a while very likely (Clermont still has "wait list" spots...IE you'll almost assuredely "roll on")

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

He was just in at a very accelerated make it or else funding opportunity.


Money is doubtfully a concern for Quigley (Don't know what the situation was for Webb - did he still have a Nike contract when he made a go of it?). From appearances, she probably has contracts with sponsors that may in total I'm guessing be in the 6 figure area.

In some respects that's why you need to respect athletes like this having a go at it - they are not motivated by the money to give it a go!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I don’t know Webb’s specific personal sponsors were when he came to tri. I “guest” coached workouts for his coach (OB) a few times so I was able to get some “inside” scoops.

Webb only came into itu because he was essentially a “for hire” elite athlete. He got paid by usat to see if his run could win a medal. He raced wts within 1 year of the sport. Funny thing was his swim in the pool was as good as top 20 swimmers in the sport (Eli hemming). He couldn’t put it together at the big boy events.

If he would have stayed longer he’d easily have finished 20th-30th every wts race imo. But he was being paid as a ringer and ringers don’t keep getting funding w no podium results. Thus as quick as Webb was in the sport he was gone (2 year window).

But everyone knew the score- his funding was 100% on podium or bust type of potential

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Am able to watch the race live view IG live feed, Quigley had a pretty "poor" swim, ok bike, but as expected is running through the field to gain her pro card atm. Already in the lead by a lot with 1mi to go.

(girls at this level don't bike strong nor run strong)

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Won the race (elite card qualified now), and the more I think she could turn into one hell of a MTR style type of weapon in a few years.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Could you tell how far back she was after the swim and then the bike? Is this a sprint or Olympic distance race?

Sprint DL, she looked atleast over a min back of the swim. Bike I didnt get to see her on the T2. She was in lead of race by half way.

She may have very likely beaten the top male for the 5k run split, I dont know if he broke 17:30 (young pro from US who races on podium project).

The splits probaly wont come out til tomorrow. 1st step accomplished. Now she can race any event she wants to (basically).

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

sad how USA athletes look toward MTR odd ball competition cause they cant compete with the original deal...


sprint

Chess not checkers.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

S 11:33 which was was 1:15 behind the leader (Faith Dasso who's an 1st year pro). Ran 19:02 to win by 48s
B 34:04 so she never caught the front pack (front pack rode ~34:30).

As I said this was going to be an soft field (no other woman broke 20 for 5km).

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Thanks for the splits. What are your thoughts on the 19:02 run split? Do you think the course was long, did she wear herself out on the bike or did she let up after she knew she had the win?

run course may have been long, i know there has been construction that has changed routes of other recent races.

I don’t take much stock in her run. I take way more in what she swam and biked w girls i know and see how that played out. 75s in rear of swim is a long way to go. As I said she’ll beast mode CC level racing (have a bad swim, meh bike and then run through the field) it’s WC and above that will make her pay for that type of poor swim and bike. She could probably sneak a top 10 at a lower out of way WC if she chose too (even the WC competition level can vary depending on location).

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

At 32 once she's done with T&F she should look to a long course career if she really thinks she can pivot. Trying to be a short course triathlete two years from now just slows down the conversion timeline required. It just makes no sense, like the next thing for her was to move to the 10k of half marathon as a runner.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

Results here

https://resultscui.active.com/...onmandraftlegalwomen


and men's here https://resultscui.active.com/...tonmandraftlegalmens

Sure appears that way. 1:05 to win a draft legal 750m/21k/5k. Granted it looks like per strava the amount in was 0.3 miles long

Though perhaps my view is skewed having seen some fast women (L Corbin, E Ackerland, some lower tier pros) race fast non-draft “local” sprints over the years

It will be interesting to see how she does after 2024 when she switches over and fully commits. I’m bearish in thinking that she makes any big waves in the sport as it’s not like there is a dearth of good young talent for the US. But who knows, only time will tell

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Matt

Being around the sport and the athletes since 2010 juniors, you “know” when you see talent. You could watch Knibb at 17 years old and just know she had the goods. Her ability, her calmness (she won itu jr worlds after coming out of swim 50Th place), her killer instinct.

Post ‘24 Paris is going to be a very interesting time for the US. Now as I said earlier if I had to put money on CQ making it or not, I’d put it on making her an MTR specialist because I don’t think you can get her into world class swim shape at the sprint or Olympic distance fast enough. And the 2 different races have such hugely different training demands and racing demands. It’s almost a shame that an 20 min race is aligned at the hip with an 1hr45min race. It actually makes no sense, the 2 events are worlds apart in terms of demands of competition, but because they are aligned the individual race still takes precedent over the mtr pathway:

But I could easily make the case for a Webb or CQ or a real world example- Seth Rider to turn into an “mtr specialist” and they would 100% meet the needs of the MTR. But again because of the individual race, they then go into that arena and suffer at times. But Seth Rider at 20 mins has shown he can be a top 3-5 split against a fully stacked field.

So if I’m in her camp- I’m pushing that pathway. She’s not going to be good enough at the Olympic distance swim to get top results.


ETA: And yes ultimately she'll have LC success easily if she wants to and stays in the sport long term.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

The woman in 2nd has some 108 score ratings from previous events. She put almost a minute on her in a sprint with less than a year of swimming/biking.

1:15ish back on the swim, held serve on the bike, ran the field down. That's a pretty good debut. She put 1:30-2:00+ on everyone on the run. It was definitely long. I'll say it again -- no woman has gone to draft legal racing with better speed/running PBs (4:22 mile/8:28 3k/9:10 3k steeple) + global results (8th Olympics, ). Now we know she can run off the bike.

I don't get the point of calling it a "poor" swim & saying "girls at this level don't bike strong nor run strong." This is a good result on limited training. Colleen looked genuinely happy out there after burning out a bit with pro running. I'm excited for her.

Because you and I are looking into the context of this from very different angles (again which is why I said her run was irrelevant, I wanted to know what her real world splits in the S and B would be....that's waaaay more telling in how this turns out than her run ability would be....we knew she'd run through the field). She 100% did exactly what she needed to do (and I said she would do it). Get the pro card so she can now essentially race any event she wants and go "all in" on now dialing in exactly what she needs to improve- IE her "poor" swim. And we can celebrate that, and be excited for her. None of my comments are taking away from that. And none of my comments are knocking her attempt. But let's not kid ourselves and think this was this just some "let's just have fun" (as if this is the Malibu celeb triathlon type of race) with a tri and go back to TF, there is certainly an "high performance" element going on here as well. Thus I'm looking at it from that angle of, where is she currently and how much "work" does she have to do to be successful in this sport at the high level. You don't race the EDR DL pathway if you are just out here for "fun" or a change of pace.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Todays non draft legal race the swim was short, about 500m, run course also short 2.86 miles. Although I heard a water main blew on the bike course

Yeah, swim and run were both short today...my Garmin said 640 yds for the swim, and 3.01 miles for the run. The water main break was right after the split of the short loop / long loop (by the kids camp), so we had to slow down and go single file through that section.

I was there cheering. It was really fun to see all the college kids racing.

Yeah, it was a cool environment with the team aspect that you don't normally have at a run-of-the-mill tri. And I was impressed with variety of teams that travelled to do the race, and how many college racers there were.

Yeah, Stanford had a really big group, and yeah it was awesome to see the teams cheer for their team members.

so FOMO... wish it was held during the warmer weather days!

Competing as part of a relay tomorrow in Indian Wells 70.3. Doing the swim and bike legs.

Colleen is really cool. I ran the 5th Ave mile in 2018 when she ran it and got 2nd. I keep up with her insta and she always responds, likes, and is very nice/professional. I’m a fan.

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https://www.strava.com/...tes/zachary_mckinney

Per her strava she swam a 31:59 and rode a 2:26:48

Not sure where that would slot her in among all females for each of those legs since Ironman makes it annoying to find results/splits if you don’t use their app.

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Matt

The overall female AG winner went 32 on the swim and rode 2:15, but ran a 1:25. So if Colleen was 10 minutes down after the bike she would have to run a 1:15 or better (depending on transitions etc), so maybe?? 2nd OA AG was + 5 minutes, so that is more likely, and 3rd was + 17 minutes, so that would have been “easy”

If Colleen runs a sub-1:20 off of those swim/bike splits, she could have been around 5th pro. I don't see why she couldn't routinely be doing that off of her open PBs (and going a good bit quicker). Shows how hard it is to come over to triathlon & try to get good at swimming. If she wants to commit to something, long course might be a little friendlier for her than short course. No reason she can't be similar to Jewett & podium @ North American 70.3s.

Also that overall AG winner finishes 4th in the pro field with a 32/2:15/1:25.

Also of note - she did the ride on a road bike. Would except her to be significantly faster if setup properly on a TT bike.

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___________________________________
MS: Exercise Science
Your speed matters a lot, sometimes you need to be very fast, where sometimes you need to breakdown your speed.

And for a complete picture Loevseth raced 4:08 (28 2:15 and 1:20 +T1&T2). The top amateur (Brittany Shappell with 4:20) would have come #5 in WPRO behind Smith (ack bike environment/slip-streaming different).
CQ recorded times: 31:47 swim, 6:01 T1, 2:26:58 Bike (from tracker: Team 4084)

She did it on a road bike! Impressive! Definitely would have won with tt bike https://www.instagram.com/...ding&img_index=4

A road bike without aerobars, that appears in the photo to be ill-fitted (too large), wearing a regular bike kit. Only one woman broke 2:20 from the pro category … not sure what to think of that bike split, are we sure it’s accurate? It seems implausible. It would likely imply she put out more power on the bike than any of the pro women except perhaps the winner.

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

She’s wearing a WYN republic Tri suit, custom made for the Lululemon team. It’s not a regular bike kit.

Did you see her video in the instagram post? Her legs are totally cramped up and unable to run. She obviously dropped the hammer as hard as she could to see what would happen.

and/or she was draftingggg

Next stop Oceanside then, in April, with a TT bike. I assume she's going to can the track stuff: is she currently a USA top 10 steeplechaser?.

I feel like we still might be a year away from her committing to triathlon. Would guess that she'll give the steeple another go in an Olympic year. The US isn't the deepest at the steeplechase. Coburn & Frerichs have both taken a step back in the last couple of years. The up & comers aren't at the level Coburn/Frerichs/Quigley had elevated the event to domestically. Quigley ran the US #11 time in June in her only steeple race of the year (only 3 races in total -- 2 1500/mile races). She couldn't make it healthy to the US Champs (went to Eugene to race but then was a DNS). I don't think she has said one way or the other what the 2024 plan is. She is talented enough to make the Olympic team in the steeple if she can stay healthy. Just depends on if that's important to her. It delays any triathlon career that she may want to have. You need to put in the time to get up to speed on the swim & bike.

There's no 2024 pathway for her in triathlon so it's either try your luck at the steeple or try your hand at long course racing. Quigley is the same age as Beth Potter (31). Potter went all in on triathlon after the 2016 Olympics in a way that Quigley hasn't. I don't think it's realistic for her to make LA as a short course athlete. But she can be very good at long course racing. Fair enough if her legs were smashed after the swim/bike at Indian Wells but if she went all-in on training, gets a TT bike, & dials in her position, then she can podium at NA 70.3 races. She really doesn't seem currently far off from Herring's time there & Herring is PTO #43. Quigley is only going to get better at swimming/biking. She has the potential to be one of the best runners in the sport. Definitely could get to 70.3 Worlds & do well there imo. I know it's not the Olympic dream but she's just gotta commit if she wants this as her 2nd pro athlete life. Could carve out a nice 10 years in the sport. She would do well with sponsors in a sport where you're allowed to have more than 1 main sponsor. She also probably would be one of the top social media presences in the sport & could help put some more eyes on it. I hope Ironman/PTO/Challenge can see that.