Yup, instant classic!

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Let food be thy medicine...

Thanks for the link.

I think there is an underappreciation of how much he has done for children in sport with the Brownlee foundation. It's good that Bob asked him about it. Rather than use his name for himself, he's used it for the good of others. Good for him.

In terms of fitness, he says he's not there with running, but wants to race and wants to support the PTO by racing. That's also a nice thing to hear.

He seems to get a lot of stick on here, but came across really nicely in this interview.

And in few years he needs to be the commentator, partnered with Kienle (who is also excellent).

After all his success, it must be immensely frustrating to keep getting hampered/DNS by sickness or injury eg Oceanside, St George and Sub7.
I thought his commentary contributions on Sub7/Sub8, for example, were excellent and insightful.
By the way he is also on the start list for the 70.3 in Swansea (Wales) in a fortnight which is effectively the UK half distance 'championships' with strong domestic MPRO and WPRO start lists.

On the start list with his run not where he wants it is prety much where he's been for years.

Interesting to hear him say he's never got sick since I'm guessing he got vaccinated, I can relate!

I actually think he was looking a lot better at SC when trying to qualify for Tokyo than he has at most of his LC races, still waiting to hear what happened.

Well, whatever happened to Ali it was cringeworthy. As soon as he started to run he did not look good at all and he looked like he was struggling big time. I have said it before, I think he should consider retiring as a pro and doing us fans a favor and move to commentating on races. He is great behind the microphone and more races should have him on their broadcasts.

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http://dontletitdefeatyou.blogspot.com

He really is an enjoyable commentator.

It would be so hard when you still swim and ride at that level, and you have been a top runner, to give it up. Especially with unfinished LC business. I don’t fault him for continuing to chase it.

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

I'm sure he's considered retiring, but if he thinks he can get his run back one day he's the best person to judge.

Agreed.

I wouldn't write him off just yet. Will he dominate long course racing? No. Will he be able to pull the odd quality race out of the bag? Yes.

Personally, once he gets some run form back, I'd like to see him continue to swim the way he does but then just sit in the bike 'pack' and see how that impacts on his run performance. I don't think you can hammer all 3 disciplines in long course (unless you are Norwegian).

Or Jan Frodeno...

Or a fit Alistair Brownlee!

Why is it when he loses he “isn’t run fit” and when he wins he “only has a few weeks of running”? It comes off a bit sour in that if he just wasn’t injured he would win everything.

He had two amazing Olympic cycles but it seems that style of training was the price of admission for back to back golds but has limited his total career.

Scott

It's prety much his whole career after 2009 maybe (when he went unbeaten the whole season)

Maybe someone will correct me, but every year he's had a bad injury since.

Since Rio he must have had about 3 operations.

I see where you are coming from, but from 2010 onwards, what you wrote was pretty much true! Constant injuries, last minute run prep and win. What he managed to do well was recover from a bad injury just in time for London 2012 (which for me is the best tri performance I have ever seen), and for Rio it was similar, although not quite as drastic as for London.


On the rare occasion he didn't win, it was due to clear injury issues (or the odd mad bonk sending himself unconscious).

Then the LC move comes, and it seems it's been a never-ending cycle of injury.

The two World 70.3 silvers were a similar story, Kona 2019 he exploded, as have many, and a few weeks later he then went 7:45 in Australia smashing the course record.

So it's not all bad. Two world silver plus an IM course record in 7:45.

For the PTO, he made it clear in his interview with Bob Babbit that he wasn't in good shape.

What really confuses me is why he turns up to race when he's not fit. He must have a big racing ego, so it must hurt him to lose like this.

I really wish we had more insight into these episodes, but he divulges very little. I would love to know why he took part, and what he really thought would happen.

Said he had really bad stomp cramps, he's racing Ironman 70.3 Swansea next week.

That is very interested indeed. But as he quickly said, he is not a "conspiracy theorist"...

I'm glad it had nothing to do with injuries! Anyone know if any decent pros in the men's race for Swansea?

He is a PTO board member and has a vested interest in making the PTO work. He was intrumantal in getting the Helvellyn Triathlon sponsored by the PTO back in 2020 between the two covid lockdowns we had here in the UK. He raced ITU Hamburg on the Saturday then flew straight back to the UK and got to the start of the Helvellyn triathlon for 8 o'clock on the Sunday. That is how important the PTO is to Alistair. He got top 10 at Hamburg and won Helvellyn - he looked like shit on the start line on Sunday as well.

I believe he has also been voted to represent on the IOC board as well. I get the feeling that could spell the end of his racing career and the start of his IOC career - but I could be completely wrong about that its just me blowing steam off on Slowtwitch!

Whatever it is that makes somebody diven - that guy got it.

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He who understands the WHY, will understand the HOW.

Too bad, I've never seen him doing great in any Ironman or PTO races recently. It's always something, so he ends up doing subpar job or pulls out from the race. Just like the title says, I highly doubt he will do well in any races in the future. New comers are just too fast and strong.

Yes - Royle, Davis, Clavel, Bishop; and in WPRO: Matthews, Bartlett, Dant and Astle.
https://files.constantcontact.com/...b19272c.pdf?rdr=true

Confirmed yesterday - he has been appointed to the IOC athletes commission. Along with the Brownlee foundation he (and his borther) really has put a lot of time and effort into helping young people into sport. He has been very visible and vocal locally here in the UK. If his athletic career is coming to an end he has set the base for an amazing onward career helping people in sport and supporting the athletes through the IOC commission. Chapeau.

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He who understands the WHY, will understand the HOW.

Wonder if this means he is targeting 70.3 worlds instead of Kona, or if Swansea is a shakedown for a 140.6 to qualify for Kona.

I saw that as well. Do we believe him? I guess we’ll see what he does at Swansea.

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

Suffering bad stomach cramp is consistent with what we saw on the coverage, from T2 onwards to the seriously pained expressions etc so I see not reason not to "believe him". If you are querying whether he'll race Swansea, who knows, but Astle is racing and the race is effectively the top UK 70.3 in 2022, with several other top Brits and Clavel. Matthews and Bartlett in WPRO (if latter recovered from C-19 'cold symptoms'). 2 x MPRO and 2 x WPRO start slots for WC St George in October. Think the chances of him starting an IM anytime soon are negligible.