I hope that they all come.

I think that Lessing should get qualifying out of the way now so that he can do a single ironman season next year and not worry about having to do a last ditch qualifying effort in canada which is too soon before Kona.

Deboom and Stadler as past Ironman champions do not need to qualfy for next year. As far as I know that past champs are qualified for life.

Bently and or Zeiger may want to do the scenario I mentioned for Lessing or may just want to cash in on a payday.

It would be cool if they were all there.

Agree with the thoughts on Lessing---if he's serious about the Ironman, qualifying now and having the whole year to focus on Kona could exorcise some or all of whatever demons are haunting him to this point.

When is Bjorn gonna sign up for this race, already! I agree, there are always a few pros who sign up after Hawaii, but never such high profile names as these guys, right? DeBoom and Stadler? I'd have to stop in the middle of my run to ask for DeBoom's autograph....

Good to see Tony Delogne is in the pro field. Did they grant him his pro card after his domination in Lake Placid?

Mr. Lessing has had a solid year (remember his shorter races in the spring) and has entered 3 Ironmans over just 4 months.

If I am his coach I say, "Simon, kick up your legs, take a break, recharge. You'll come back stronger from a break. You have nothing to prove. Come Dec 1, we're heading to Durban to pile on some miles for Ironman South Africa and getting your qualifier done early. Then another break and some short course racing over the spring/summer. Before Kona we're packing our man bras and joining Faris for some mega heat training in the UAE next Sept :-)"

LOL...probably very true. Forgot that Lessing had another IM start this year before Canada, so makes sense that Florida wouldn't even be on his radar. And I'm sure Stadler and Deboom wouldn't even consider it either---time for their offseason and regroup for next year.

Maybe Zack? Christian Bustos? Some of the older "legends" (who are still younger than I) perhaps out there?

Skid? (Likely not...Florida is in the opposite direction from Hawaii to NZ)

Simon will most likely not be in Florida. After speaking to him Saturday evening on the pier, there are some pretty serious nutrition issues that he needs/wants to resolve before lining up for another full IM, this year or next.

---

Shawn
TORRE Consulting Services, LLC
http://www.TORREcs.com

...after all, ironman is the race about the guy who slows down the least while on the 140.6 mile buffet. One of the things that propelled Allen to the top was his ability to take in gobs of calories >400 per hour. That's >3000 cals in 8 hours.

Allen made a remark about caloric intake at some point on Saturday and I remember thinking "damn, that's a lot of calories" as the number he used was along the lines of that 400 or so per hour. I've finally got myself working pretty well on 300+ per hour, at least in training. We'll see how it pans out on 11/5.

I'm sure we'll see some Pros from IMH starting Florida. It depends partly on how much of the race they did and the reasons they dropped out. E.g. an injury issue is unlikely to come around in 3 weeks, whereas nutrition issues, or pacing mistakes can make Florida a second chance at put together a solid race. Personally I will have 1 athlete doing another IM this year after a tough DNF at IMH.

I'm also wondering if we'll see Reid at IMWA still - gotta be tough for a champ like him to do another IM after IMH.

Joel

---

>>>>
JoelFilliol.com - check out the Real Coaching Podcast