ha! No worries! If I can be so bold as to speak on behalf of slowtwitch (that's too bold), I'd like to say that I think your plea should be enthusiastically accepted. Without speculation about the pointy end of the field, this wouldn't have turned into such an interesting discussion. We should totally be thanking you.

When you can't go fast or don't have the guts to train hard enough to go fast, then you just go slow for a very long extended period of time and make it slightly uncomfortable to feel like you are pushing yourself ;).

Nah, no WRs allow drafting, except perhaps in running where drafting is relatively inconsequential; but def not in swimming or cycling. So, if we are to envision this as WR-worthy event, i believe the runs should be done on the 400 m track to ensure acc measurement, and the swim in the 50 m Oly pool. Further, I would exclude transition times also, since that would make the WR too shaky; allow say 5 min between each segment. Sooooo, under those conditions, maybe 6:30 + 5:30 + 6:30 = 18:30 for the WR.

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

Update: top time was 25:51 - sheesh, but not in top 40

ok too much potential talk... no doing. the challenge is set folks. we all have strava and can share. Post up your 2.4k R - 500m S - 2.4k R times. You have till end of this month

Bet: do not get under 28:45 you have to put in your signature "crossfitter's swim and run faster than me" for the rest of the year

I won my most recent 5k race in 17:26..Soooo yes, I can. I also recently set a HM PR of 1:24:54. Soooo yes, I can.


Now, can I bench my body weight? I have no idea...maybe not. Can I do 20 pull-ups in a row? Not a chance.

Given they are already elite in something, not a big surprise to me.

But......I'd be really curious what the pace (swim/run) and power duration curve (bike) looks like beyond these shorter bursts. The shorter end of the duration curve certainly should lend itself better to these folks than the longer end.

I don't think the picking fun of crossfitters is as relevant to the elite end (they're elite), but the more average joe "bro" end of the spectrum. The guy or gal kipping pullups at the gym and doing a "circuit" taking up 90% of the equipment so nobody else can do work.

Toss the average joe crossfitter against those events, and I think the results won't be nearly as impressive as it was for the elite bunch.

I doubt that a 17:26 5K converts into being able to run a sub-7:30 2.5K.

Math fail...

...face palm. I thought he was saying min per mile pace.

For reference, the Aquathlon nationals last year was a run-swim-run course.. It's a regular venue for a monthly splash n dash (which is just swim-run) here in Austin.

The course was essentially 3+ 1k loops running, then 1000m swim, then just under 3 more 1k loops running (gravel path).

My garmin had 2.04mi as the first run split, and 1.74mi as the second.

The very fastest paces were about 5:30/mi on the first run, 1:14/100m on the swim, then 5:50/mi on the second run, with ~30s transitions. Top overall time was 36:45, with 13 guys 40min flat or better (age range of that group was 14-52!!). Those top paces translate roughly to to ~24:20 on the crossfit distances without any speeding up due to the shorter distances.

I think anyone in that sub-40 group could easily beat the 28min crossfit time, and this wasn't a particularly deep field (I know most of the top local long-course triathletes didn't compete, and really not a huge travel incentive just for aquathlon), and I know that a bunch of us racing weren't in peak shape, we just did the race since it was local.

So, decent triathletes would embarrass the crossfitters at this event, but then how many of them complete the other events? Here's what I found for the 2017 event list: https://games.crossfit.com/workouts/games/2017
As a former swimmer I still have solid upper body strength, but I sure as shit can't do any 100lb-dumbbell presses, let alone 20 (even though this move is the standing, leg-assist boost type of overhead press).

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The youtube channel has been building up to the games for a while, with a bunch of small segments covering each age group.

I'd like to see something like that for Kona.

Adrian - Interesting, thanks for this reference info. The 14-yr old in that group sounds like budding tri guy!!! When you swam in HS and/or college, did any of your coaches have the whole team do 1650 yd swim followed by a 5K run??? They started doing this every fall at my school after i graduated. The 1650yd/1500 m swim and the 5000 m run would *seem* to be the ideal swim-run event, since the fastest times in each would be pretty close, espec with the run 2nd. Of course, most "Multi-Sport" athletes would scream that the swim was way too long. :)

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

Yeah, that kid is now 15 and rapidly improving. He can beat me out of the water in the regular splash n dash series. It's motivating me to get in better shape, but I doubt I can keep up with his growth curve. He is part of a multisport team, so he could end up a really good triathlete.

We never did any specific swim-run training for swim practice. During the first month of each season, like Sept, we would run ~2x per week as part of dryland training. I can't remember the distances, but I would doubt it was ever more than a 5k, and that would have been at the start of practice, followed by 1.5-2 hrs of swimming.

I agree that the 1500/5k would be the best event as it evens out the time spent doing each sport (17-18 min for most folks close to the top end), unfortunately it seems all races are geared against swimming in order to attract the biggest fields. The Aquathlon nationals this year is only 1000m swim followed by a 5k. Plus according the race site, it should be wetsuit-legal at 73*F (which is surprising for Miami even in November).

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you'll run 5 minute miles and go under 5 minutes for a 500m lake swim? that's a pretty good effort.

I don't recall how much running my team did either but it was not very much; the biggest thing i remember is that, in the "swimming alumni newsletter", the coach would often give the names of the guy and girl who were fastest in the fall swim-run event, and would sometimes give their times. I would imagine they thought it was kind of cool to get their names in the alum news. :)

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

Problem IMO is Kona just isn't exciting to gain new viewers. Its just swim, bike, run for extended periods of time.

Maybe Super League would be more suitable. There you have dives into water, extremely fast transitions, different formats, lots of turns an action within the races. Kona is just an hour long swim race, 4 hour bike race, and a 3 hour steady run. Few lead changes, TONS of dead time.

Production and telling a story is hard these days, you need to get people invested immediately and then keep them interested. The Kona setup is just not viable.

Don't get me wrong, NBC produces a very dramatic 1.5 hours show. But the setup and scenes are the exact same each year.

That all said, showing training for these events again is just very bland. At least with the short course races its much faster paced with a lot more action and changes.

So short distances are a joke?
I think your argument is a joke!

Most people modify their pace to suit the distance. This is a fairly fundamental part of all racing. Can you beat Usain Bolt over 100m? After all it's only 100m, a complete and utter joke right? Surely anyone can fake that???

I don't find their times particularly impressive, but I won't dismiss them simply because their event is not the same as mine.

So I watched last night and wondered if anyone else found it curious that the athletes were highly critical of "steroids." From my (obviously short) memory, the interviewed athletes were appalled by accusations of "steroid" use...even the guy who did use them. But, the question wasn't "PEDs," so I suppose a person could use HGH and other PEDs and be perfectly comfortable answering the question the way they did.

Aside: I'm not anti-CrossFit; I've liked a few workouts and watch the Games when on regular TV...but I read that some of those guys and gals have 6-8hr training days x 6 days/week. Maybe I'm a weakling, but I just don't see how that 's possible without PEDs....especially considering what CrossFit is: HEAVY weights, multiple movements involving stressed joints.