He kind of addressed this on his interview with TRS. Basically after he posted his complaint about the "drafting" going on at 70.3 Worlds, he was overwhelmed with the negative response, and admitted to not having thick enough skin, and that some of the comments (or the accumulation of them) may have brought him to tears. He said that for a second he was going to stop posting ANYTHING on social media, but decided against that. He no longer interacts himself with the Internet world, everything now is filtered by Erin (is that her name?). At the same time, he also admitted he doesn't want to be delusional and only read the positive comments, so I guess she will just give him the jist of things.

Too bad, he is a really cool guy after all. I messaged him a few times on FB and he replied and I thought that was awesome and considerate of him. Now that's gone.

But after reading a lot of the comments some people post around, I kind'a understand why he feels that way; some people are just looking to be assholes and get some laughs from their buddies, and don't realize there an actual human being on the other side. Constructive criticism is a necessity I believe, and it is always important to read dissenting opinions, but some users here are just looking to be snarky aholes, and the a portion of the community celebrates them. But this is common to any internet community, so no point in trying to fight it.

/rant

I think this is one place I would like to see Dan employ a little censorship.

Unlike other sports where there are thousands of web pages and forums to post rants and criticism of athletes, Slowtwitch is sort of an island where 90% or more of multi-sport folks come to post. So all of this negativity tends to aggregate here. The athletes then see both constructive criticism, praise, and a-hole posts by some 300 lb has-been about how crappy their training is or w/e. The community for the most part is great but the few that are pricks can ruin it for everyone. It is awesome how we can interact with some of the pros in our sport on here, but I fear this is going to lessen if we don't reign in the BS.


In other news: I'm surprised how no one is talking about him being part of the Island House this year.

The first day is a 3 stage TT ........should be interesting even with the ITU guys. Obviously the next two days he won't have much of a chance but I feel the TT may suit his style.

It will be really interesting to watch. The second two days are supposedly "non drafting" this year as well so that will make it interesting as well.
It would be incredibly revealing to see Kona done as a true absolute time trial for the swim, bike and run. I really think folks would be blown away be how different the results would be. The experts at catching the ultimate swim draft then bike draft might not look so stellar on their runs.

Hugh

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Genetics load the gun, lifestyle pulls the trigger.

Tim, there's no easy answer to the first questions. At times, I put heavy emphasis on the swim and absolutely backed off on bike and run. Sometimes quite a bit. Other times, I biked and run pretty much "as normal," and then would just try to use the group for a key session maybe 1x a week as opposed to 3-4x week when I was really working on the swim. I'm not sure it's accurate to say, "I tried everything!" but I also don't feel like that's all that far from the truth.

One huge factor, to me anyway, is that - like most club teams - morning practice was really early. Afternoon/evening practice was just not an option for me because I have a family. So when I wanted to swim mornings (except on Saturdays), I'd have to wake up at 4am. That definitely impacted my ability to take advantage of the group more often and, I think, how much I got out of the days when I did swim with them.

I was already doing a strength and conditioning program.

I've tried so, so many different approaches with swimming that if you want to go more in depth, would have to be sometime at a race.

I get a lot of shocked looks regularly when talking to swimmers or swim coaches. As a classic example, this is one I've had numerous times. "Triathletes don't know how to kick. Have you ever actually worked on your kick? I bet if you did, it would make a huge difference!"

To which I reply, "you mean doing sets like 30x100 kick on 1:40 (scy) holding 1:30 for all?"

"Oh... Well have you tried [insert any other skill/drill here]?"

And so it goes.

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"Non est ad astra mollis e terris via." - Seneca | rappstar.com | FB - Rappstar Racing | IG - @jordanrapp

Lionel is getting a coach for 2017.

On the Tower 21 podcast, they mentioned this thread with the gist that everyone is saying he needs a coach. Well apparently he is for 2017.

Aside from that, Lionel always sounds like a cool guy. Pro's you'd want to have a beer with? Lionel and Kienle are up there...