Matt,

I'm wondering what was your projected/goal time for the run? It was a tremendous bike split, but do you think you overbiked? Or did you run pretty close to what you thought you would?

Facts are last year he swam 26:25 this year 25:26, leading Sebi out of the water last he was a minute back!
Last year Sam Appleton swam 23:22 this 23:15... so he close the gap from 3:03 to 2:11... I see a nice improvement of 52 seconds that's huge for a swimmer such improvement of 3% and alone I mean not because he draft a pack.

Also, he was realistic in terms of closing more the gap saying it would require another 4 years. He might never swam on Frodeno, Amberger or Gomez feet but he has better chances of closing the gap than the group just mentioned extending their lead.

We have absolutely no idea, how hard was his effort during his swim today... We don't know where he is in term of periodization... might have not came fully fresh to this race... In his training cycle was the last block a swim focus or more turning ever stone on the bike since he was pretty unhappy with his bike in Oceanside.

Bottom line, he won today... different race then last year not having to chance Alistair instead he was in control, he didn't need to run any faster so probably save racing energy that he might require in October. Going too hard, too many in a season... will burn even the greatest.

I'm confident he will do the best preparation he think is going to be required to give him a chance to win Kona. It's going to be a different race this year with the Triple-J mafia in front (Josh, Javier and Jan)... Those 3 will make massive damage during the swim and bike... Last year, he caught quickly the front pack but I think it's going to take more time this year.

Daniela got her hands full with the fast swim-bike duo of Lauren and Lucy...

.. a broken clock...

Been a fan of Paula ever since her rather memorable olympics. She’s quite a talent. Happy to see her around.

Sorry, should have clarified there, I don’t mean flexible wrists, I mean an effortless sculling motion. Long term swimmers have this without thinking, constantly moving their wrists and engaging their forearms to the max, essentially maintaining traction in the water. It’s not as difficult for adult onset swimmers as flexible ankles, but I’ve never really seen anyone pick it up to the level of an ex swimmer.
Also I should point out (because the oh so typically slow twitch - read: combative - response of MTL suggests I’m somehow knocking Lionel's performance) that I’m not ragging on Lionel by saying this, hell i'm not even saying he needs to make the front pack on the swim. But regardless of his improvement up to now I’m saying I highly doubt he will ever make the top pack, in fact I’d suggest his improvement is likely to stall sometime soon.
I will be the first to admit he has done admirably in the pool, not denying that for one second. What I’m saying is that while he has done great to close the gap from 3 min to 2, closing from 2 to 1 is going to be a hell of a lot tougher. When it comes to Kona they won’t LET him get to the front pack, if he was there after 200m any of them could and most likely would drop him. At this point he’s just expending extra energy for little time gains.
Maybe I’m wrong, time will tell, but as impressive as his swim improvement has been, I think he’s approaching marginal gains.
Oh and those flexible ankles? Great for swimming, but I’ve always assumed they don’t help a run, as far as tri goes the run is more important anyway. So I’m really not saying he needs them!

Yeah, I saw he said he backed off 5%, but it was still a really fast bike split (which is good), and it's not like a 1:40 run on that course is bad, I just was curious what his expected run was.

I have literally been working to take sculling OUT of my stroke for a few months...and I have been going slower recently because of it...I didn't realize it was a good thing.

Absolutely, it’s often neglected, just like kick, but the truth is that these finer details make the biggest difference. I wish triathletes would start doing kick sets. Seriously, it’s so friggin useful, I always tell my swimmers it’s not about developing a kick that will propel you, I understand the need to save the legs for the bike. But someone with a great kick can just tap along with a nice 2 beat kick as opposed to those that have terrible kick, try to not use their legs and instead get dragged down by them for 3.8k!

Yes me too so delighted to see her fulfilling her potential. What a run...
70.3 world champs! Maybe full distance next year?

I always wondered what happened to her, she seemed to go through a very brief period of dominance in ITU then completey disappeared of the scene.

I honestly underbiked by quite a bit. Goal power was NP 310W, I hit NP 282W. Legs felt amazing coming off the bike and I never felt like I was overdoing it the whole ride.

I believe where I messed up was settling into my easy run rhythm and couldn’t snap out of it. I have always blown up on the run and I just kind of waited for that to happen yesterday because of the heat/hills/altitude compared to home. It never happened and I feel way too good today considering the race.

I think I can run a 1:30 on a flat course. I just don’t have the speed for downhill running to make up for the slow climbs yesterday. I’m signing up for 70.3 Muncie and I’m going to go smash that bike and run July 14th.

I’ve known a few triathletes try that (I think mostly for a faster arm speed/turnaround?) but yes, the sculling action is absolutely crucial. Best way to simplify it is to say that if your hand moved in a totally straight line you would start to slip water (if you ever see white water bubbles coming from someone’s hand under the water they are essentially slipping through it) whereas with a bit of a sculling action you keep traction on the water the whole way through. If you watch the top swimmers their hands will come out of the water at the same place they went in, the hand doesn’t move, the body does!

It’s not as simple as an S shape (especially as the best will add a 4th stage to flick the hand out of the water giving a final push before the recovery phase) everyone’s body shape is different so the path their hands need to take also varies.

I’d advise swimming sets of 3/6/9/12 lengths split into three sections. The first you’ll swim with tightly balled fists, having to really dig with your wrists to get traction. The next section you’ll open your hands and fingers as wide as possible, again, having to work the wrists but not as much. Then the final section the normal ‘fingers together’’ swimming to really build up the muscle memory and make the sculling action second nature. I always get my athletes doing this drill, it’s so simple yet so effective.