I agree people are underating Gomez's bike, im sure once he adjusts to the longer distance it'll be fine and he won't need uber bike spilts as his swim and run is on another level.

I disagree about Rio 2nd would have been between Jonny and Gomez.

Look at Chris Solinsky and compare his form with someone like Asbel Kiprop. One is muscular and is powering his legs around the track while the other one looks smooth and nearly effortless. Both are fast.

Of course, Triathletes tend to be more on the side of "strength runners" as they also need to be able to ride their bike. Someone like Kiprop wouldn't have the legs to ride a fast TT. Yet his run is blazing fast as it is all about finesse. In Triathlon usually the good bike-runners run very strenth oriented. And from the way gomez runs he looks as though he could handle a strong marathon after a hard 4 hour plus ride. On this continuum Alistair is more like a Gazelle (altough in Track he would still be a "strength guy".
The most typical "finesse runner" I can think of in the world of Triathlon was Gwen Jorgensen. And I think that is the reason why she would always be better off in Olympic Triathlon (or Marathon) rather than Ironman.

You are a swimmer. I am not, but I guess there is a difference between an ideal stroke in the pool and in open water. In running it is the same. The body type suited to run a fast 1000m on the track is not always the same as to run a 10k after swimming and riding and certainly not the same as running a marathon after a 180k TT.

This is just my impression from watching Track, ITU and Ironman. I hope it is not all rubbish what I wrote.

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

On the bike and on the run. On the bike I've got a bottle with gel-solution (just as thin as that I can "drink" it) but I carry also water to drink with it. On the run I have a belt with flasks with the gel-solution which I take at aidstations such that I can drink water to it.

Pretty good description. Gomez is a Diesel engine, he’s the jan ulrich of running within itu. He’s a guy who has to break you 3k out from finish, not with sprint 200m finish like a pure “speed” runner like Mola or JB (although I think it was London sprint Gomez won heads up against JB in 2013ish?). It’s not even an huge pace change, more or less the type that fries your legs of any sprint at the end yet you don’t even realize it is happening.

Gomez is also slightly more stocky/thick body type vs a Brownlee/Mola who are the protypical body type. It’s also why I think Gomez can come in and stay much more healthier and perform better.

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

Too Busy,

Thanks, your description is pretty much what i was thinking also. Regarding your analogy to swimming, i think we can make exact same analogy. The "strength swimmers" tend to be bigger, stronger, take fewer strokes per length (spl), and have a lower cadence in strokes per minute (spm). Your "finesse swimmers" are the reverse with less muscle, higher spl/spm, and possibly a stronger aerobic system, but the aerobic part is just conjecture on my part. While many open water (OW) swimmers have the high turnover finesse style, several OW guys have done very well with low turnover rate styles, e.g. Ous Mellouli and Ferry Weertmann. Sometimes you will see a tall, thin guy/girl who has the slow turnover style but i think that is b/c they are like 6'6" or taller, e.g. Sun Yang.

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

I always believed that Alistair was also quite an explosive guy. Not as much as his brother, who is clearly more powerfull, but I guessed that as the best short course guy and from the way he attacks the bike etc. that he is one of those guys that is blessed with a fair amount of fasttwitch fibres. But then I saw a presentation by Malcolm Brown where he states how bad Alis 100m times are.

That gave me kind of hope that you can run 10k very fast even without blazing speed. I guess you lose kind of real world relation when you watch the Diamond League and even the "endurance guys" close a 5000m with a 25s 200m. I am a pure slowtwitch guy so it can be frustrating.

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

Ali’s 100m was terrible, but even Mo Farah barely broke 13 for his 100. With a running start however, there’s a big difference which is why mo closes in low 50’s.
IIRC Yuki Kawauchi claims he can only run 13,9 yet can run a 2:08 marathon.
Not sure I would agree on Jonny being more explosive though.

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Terrible Tuesday’s Triathlon

I'd like to know how he came to the Jonny is more explosive theory, not arguing the point just curious.

It just comes from an Interview Ali did. He said that he was more suited for steady state stuff and his brother was more powerful. That was also why Jonny would be better off in sprint races.
For me it makes sense as Jonny looks a bit more powerfull and strong. But it mainly just comes from that Alistair statement.

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

On the run thats probably true i'd be surprised if it was on the bike though.

i re-watched the london olympic tri the other day, and was struck by the thought that johnny actually looked like a slightly smoother runner than ali. but man, ali can suffer like nobody else in the sport.

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

That was on the Superstars TV show in 2012 which was a bit of a sham. Salazar has said that Rupp and Farah can both go sub 11 from a rolling start, so 11.7-12.0 at worst from blocks. Farah has ran 50.89 at the end of a very slow 5000m in the past (European Team Champs 2013). He has gone on record in saying he regularly goes sub 49 in training.

So I think he's alot quicker than you suggest. And so is AB.

Sure, they are prob faster than on the Superstars show, and they prob had little to no practice off the blocks but I'm hard pressed to believe they are running sub 11 even with a running start. Prob hand timed.
Either way, you are correct in the point that the slow distance runner mostly is a myth, though you can be reasonably fast even without sub 12 speed.

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Terrible Tuesday’s Triathlon

Agreed. Speaking of which I 'raced' JB yesterday. 29:54 for him on an accurate course for 2nd.

Yeah I saw that, very good result considering it was off season!
AB won Auld Lang Syne as well.

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Terrible Tuesday’s Triathlon

I'll never get bored of watching Ali come out of T2 and set that brutel pace, im not sure anyone's came out of T2 and set a pace that fast?

I noticed that too, the run at London '12 was insanely quick, all through the top ten but in particular the top 3. No one in ITU seems to run that fast anymore, do you think they all tailor their training towards the next olympic course ie. before London they train with a huge weighting on the run in anticipation of the flat bike/flat run.......... then Rio with its more challenging profile I expect they put more emphasis on bike power and in turn don't run quite as fast. However they do it I'm sure they don't run as fast as 2012.

I think this is partly due to injuries as well. The Brownlees are not the dominant runners that they were, although still in the top 3 as pure runners on their day. They win a higher proportion of races on the Swim/Bike these days compared to 4/5 years ago. For this reason I thought Gomez would have been good value for Rio - that crash still annoys me!

I also think London may have been short, despite the multiple claims to the contrary.

At least it’s not as bad as it used to be like when they were claiming the San Diego swim was legit. It used to be really bad. At least the times are believable now.

Thank you for posting. Does this mean that we will see a Brownlee 1-2 again in Tokyo?

I think the pace Ali set was probably to do with Jonny's time penalty he had to serve, he had to write off everyone chances of medaling (minus Gomez of course) he'd pretty much acchieved that 1km in.

Anyone else out there taking only two gels in a 70.3??? ;-)

Regarding Gomez' bike: He certainly is an excellent biker, but he probably never rode more than 100km in his life before, or at least not regularly. So, that is completely new territory for him and might be a surprise if he does not get nutrition dialed-in perfectly.

Anyway, we will see. And it would be fantastic to see that already happen in Frankfurt, together with Lange and Frodo (and me ;-))...

He has consistently trained with a continental division professional cycling team for periods of time, so highly unlikely he's never gone over 100k.

Ah, ok. Didn't know. Which cycling team is that?

What just pops to my mind: Regarding nutrition, I saw Gomez once while being in a training camp on Fuerteventura. And guess what his breakfast looked like before he goes on a bike ride - just plain bread with olive oil. Maybe this explains how he can race a 70.3 on just two gels ... and will let him easily ride 112 miles of he takes three ;-)

Gomez heads to Cannes on the road to Kona…
In a year is which he has publicly confirmed his intentions to make his debut at the IRONMAN World Championship in Hawaii, 5-time ITU Triathlon World Champion and reigning IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion, Javier Gomez, will have another new race on his schedule for 2018. The Spanish legend will line up at the fifth anniversary edition of the Polar Cannes International Triathlon in the South of France.

The event in Cannes comprises of an opening 2km swim, a challenging 107km bike course (with 1,700m of climbing), and then finishing with a flat, 16km run. The 2017 edition of the event was dominated by another two-time IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion, Sebastian Kienle. That would be a great match up, should Kienle return once again this season to an event he also finished third at in 2015.

Javier began his long(er) distance career in 2013 with victory at the ETU Middle Distance Triathlon European Championships at Challenge Barcelona (now IRONMAN 70.3 Barcelona), another challenging bike course with around 1200m of ascent, so I would suspect that the challenges in Cannes will suit his skills well.

https://www.tri247.com/...s-international-2018