I guess his current season approach with Kona and then his validation IM shortly thereafter servers as a self protecting measurement. When I saw the Arizona splits I thought, he just cruised through for the win and backed off once that was in the bag. Now I learn that he wanted to push as hard as usual and just didn't have the sap. When there is the sound of the starting tun, this guy only knows one thing: push as if there was no tomorrow. So its a good thing he has a year now to gather all the energy for the next epic effort in Kona.

Its so interesting to read his insights and how he learns and his knowledge develops.

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10k - 30:48 / half - 1:06:40

but in typical age group fashion (stuff most of us would do), he still gives it a go and fades on the bike....gets on the run, knowing he is a bit more toast from Kona, but still gives it a go and "fades". Basically he did what every non Kona qualifying age grouper who has KQ fitness does...goes for "good day numbers" when his body is not on.

He won and went 754 sounds like he was having a great day and was not like a typical AG at all

Forget about his times and numbers and look at the trend graphs that he himself kind of jokes about... Those graph trends are exactly the trajectory that many see when they are not one but push through. Lionel just goes faster than most people when he is off.

In his blog post, LS seems to say that he feels he improved his swim in the 5 weeks between Kona and AZ. When you think about it though, Kona was non-wettie vs wettie in AZ so his perceived 2 min improvement could have easily been due to the wettie. Plus, you really can't compare swim times between diff events since they are often diff distances. I just don't think he really improved his swim from 53 to 51 in 5 weeks.

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

From his same blog post, I don't think he equates the 2 either. He's really looking at his time gap relative to the front pack, he's been doing this long enough that he knows that you can't really compare courses to that degree of accuracy, or even the same course on different days.

*edit for clarity

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

To put this in perspective his time gap to Brent McMahon at 70.3 World's 2016 ( which was pretty flat water salt water with wetsuit) was 3:30 or so. This weekend in Arizona over double the distance, the gap was down to ~2:30 minutes and that was not a salt water wetsuit swim (the ultimate "paddleboard conditions"...meaning least drag for your fixed pull). You can also compare deltas at 70.3 St. George or 70.3 Tremblant to get a fair comparison to other fresh water flat water wetsuit swims. Maybe no one really knows if he improved compared to Kona, but I think you can take away what Lionel himself said which was something along the lines of that gap would be a great day in a 70.3 for him even last year.

So LS has a good swim, but still not front pack, than a bad bike, a bad run and goes sub 8-hours and wins. I don't think there are many professional triathletes who could say they had a bad day and go sub-8. Tactically he might not be the best, but when it comes to make the sport entertaining, he does with his all-out attitude. Him and Cam Wurf.


Like Yvonne van Vlerken, who recently raced in Thailand without a bike computer and with a watch which doesn't have GPS.

Check his actual blog. Much easier to read. Don't judge him from someone copying and pasting his words...

Brent

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DFRU - Detta Family Racing Unit...the kids like it and we all get out and after it...gotta keep the fam involved!

Got it. The no return remark was a bad and snarky attempt at humor. Utmost respect for the man. ..

Don't judge him from someone copying and pasting his words...

Saying someone should "hit the paragraph return button every now and then" is being judgemental?