Hutch wrote:
Schnellinger wrote:
The most talented 70.3 athlete should have been in pink right?
Frodo, A Brownlee, Gomez, Blummenfelt, Iden, Stornes, Kanute, Von Berg and probably even Cam Wurf at this point would beat Lionel 8/10 times in a 70.3. Dude can't swim.
Agreed. All are great athletes. My point is that Lionel often out bikes and/or out runs many of them on most days, especially if it is a non-draft-fest type of course (maybe Frodo at his best is close to unbeatable?). Heck, go back and look where LS was at 2014 70.3 Worlds. He barely had 3 years of decent training, he took much of the winter off from the bike in previous years while he was running x-country in University and accomplished 4th at Worlds and he started with a last place swim. Since then he has made minimal to no progress (he bikes the same power or less and runs the same pace or less - for both racing and training). The point I am trying to make is that I assume all those great athletes are close to maximizing much of their god given talents but Lionel is far from it. Lionel gets 2nd in Kona 2017 and his training progression was 7.5/10 (that's my opinion after reviewing every single workout he did) leading up to it. He made several training errors and still lead for most of the race right up to something like 23 miles of the run.
I assume that other athletes make better overall training decisions and that Lionel's decision making process is why he isn't where he should be. I have been using the initials FWC, (Future World Champion) for as long as I can remember to describe him. That is definitely his potential, imo, but you can't reach your potential if you make poor decisions, and I just couldn't figure out how to stop him from making poor decisions. Miracles and surprises don't happen at 4 or 8 hour World Championship endurance events.
Example:
Problem : He got 2nd place at Kona and just needed to hold his run together for a bit longer. He needed to improve by about ??... 1%.
LS Solution : Instead of changing 1% and making small tweaks to his diet, bike, run, training, etc., he went and changed 99% of it. He completely changed his diet. He completely changed his bike set up. His training was a complete reversal in 2018 vs. 2017. How do you explain that?
Problem : Slowest swim among the top tier professional long distance triathletes
LS Solution : Hire perhaps the best open water swim coach and then never, ever go and train with him. Use only online training plans. Instead, train in a pool by yourself with no coach on the deck & train in an endless pool in your basement in Windsor. That is not World Champion decision making skills, imo? Remember, he has unlimited time and unlimited money, he just has solve problems (ie. a slow swim).
Don't get me wrong, he has obviously had a ton of success and he is an incredible natural athlete. One analogy that I use is someone who has won a lottery but then through a serious of poor decisions, blows all their money. Lionel hasn't blown all his 'money' (time in this case), but I couldn't figure out how to stop him from blowing the rest. Maybe somebody else can figure him out but I am 95% confident he can not figure it out on his own. The mentality that he had in the month or two after Kona 2018 can put him on the right track but that needs to last 2-3 years, not 2-3 months.
Its clear he can't figure it out on his own. Almost all (probably all?) world class athletes thrive through coaches and a team.
Doubly so with addicts. They need support networks. They need to rely on others. You can't will your way through that type of thing and if you look at what he is doing it looks just like another addiction.