You wouldn't be the only one to believe that Pre actually said your tagline. Actually apocryphal. Lots of legit ones here though.

40k to 55k a week is the average for a high school swimmer in a club team or a nationally elite program.

Wow that's insane, I didn't know that. I don't even run that much some weeks.

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I often wondered about Lance and his swim. Or why was it that easy for to get back into OK swim shape. I came to the conclusion that it was a matter of time. And that Lance was probably swimming 25k+/wk. An amount that might force some sacrificed in the Bike/Run department for most AG triathletes.
But Webb's difficulties do not end with the swim.

Another question is this: Webb is "burnt out" on running, and he did not "like high mileage."
Will 7 hrs/wk of swimming, 9 hrs of cycling, and probably another 6 of running be that much of a break?
He probably did not do that many hours when he was at his best for running.
Also time is at play here.
If he was 20, I would like his chances better for 2020 olymics. Mastering the bike and swim may not be an instant achievement. 37 is a little oldish for ITU.

The fastest cyclist in triathlon these days is a former pro cyclist Antonio Colom

Fastest bike split in Mallorca 70.3 beat Starky http://www.ironman.com/...s.aspx#axzz2rA61eHVe

Ironman France http://triathlete-europe.competitor.com/...le-at-ironman-nice-2

70.3 World Championship. Beat Kienle with 3 minutes http://www.resultri.com/...-70.3-2013?sort_by=3

So an AG and former pro cyclist is faster...........:-)

PS: he was also banned for EPO for two years,

In his interview with David Letterman after breaking Jim Ryun's HS mile record, he says that he swam seriously up until HS when he went out for cross country his frosh year. It sounds like he stopped swimming after 8th or 9th grade, e.g. age 14-ish or around 1997. As you said, 4:50 pretty quick at 14. The current national AG record for 13/14 yr old boys is 4:26.7, and was set in 2011. I'd guess the 13/14 AG record back in 1997 was 4:30-ish so he was only around 20-ish sec off the best swimmers his age.

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

Yup. 2-1/2 hour practices after school, plus morning practice at least 3 days a week and 3 hour saturday practice. They usually gave you Sunday off. We'd even have a 1 hour practice the day of a swim meet and warm-up at a meet could be the better part of 30 minutes.

When track & field came around in March after swim season, it was like the off season by comparison. We were also insanely more fit that the guys comming from wrestling, cross country, football or basketball.


Swimmers are you fittest athletes in terms of cardio among all you other high school or college sports programs.... at least until triathlon came along.

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TrainingBible Coaching
http://www.trainingbible.com

At least it's not just on Slowtwitch where most people have no clue what it takes to compete in the ITU.

Interesting development and very interesting thread. Even though Webb is a stellar mid-distance guy still (running sub 4, 13:30s last year, and actually had a shot at top 20 at XC championships last month if headn't taken the lead on the first two laps of a hilly altitude course; he finished spent in 32nd place), and his range beyond 10K is not known (outside of his coaches and inner circle; has he ever posted a 10 miler or half marathon?). So even though he has a great engine, and showed good swimming ability (as a high school freshman to the doubters) early on, how will he do in events that take 1:45 to several hours is a question. Webb has always run impatiently and with emotion--he seems tightly wired--and that might not be conducive to an aerobic endurance event.

Overall I think triathletes are an uppity if not arrogant bunch (just read these pages) and would like to see runners or other athletes take some of them down a notch, so I'll root for Webb!

Webb was born on 1/13/83 so he just turned 31:)

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

I saw that and was wondering, too. I've seen the USAT Elite Development program at a Scottsdale city pool (at least, I think it was them). Have heard rumors of another group, which may be the one he is connected to.

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speedySTATES

Would love to see him training daily with Lukas...

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wovebike.com | Wove on instagram

 I trained with a girl that swam 800 M in 8:36 at age 13 in 1983. That is much much faster than Webb's 4:50 for 500 yds. Of course she was in the Olympics. My guess is that Gomez, Frodeno, Potts were all swimming much faster than 4:50 by 14.
20 seconds for a 500 is a lot.
I mean, come on, let's try that with running. "He was only 20 seconds slower thant the fastest milers of his era." There is a big difference between winning foot locker and coming in 4th in division 3A at state.

Still I think this means Webb could swim fast enough for ITU if the stars align.

Webb swam thru the summer after 9th grade.

At least it's not just on Slowtwitch where most people have no clue what it takes to compete in the ITU.

No but it's here where as soon as you mention drafting they immediately think about two things:

1) There will be crashes all over the place

2) Drafting is a total laugher, like you just get in there at 40km/h and it's all fun & games . . . anyone can do that!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

on a tangent...shalane flanagan swam in HS as well. any ideas how fast she was? she seems like a tri candidate as well. tough as acrylic nails.

Whenever an elite athlete in one sport decides to participate in another, the followers of the first sport that believe that it will be easy for the elite athlete to conquer the second. This is normal. It is no arrogance on behalf of the followers of the second sport, however, to point out the difficulties of excelling in the second.
This is especially the case with triathlon.
How many of use reached a certain level of proficiency in one sport, and then assumed it would be easy to exceed that level in triathlon?
I thought that way myself. "I was swimming 4:40 500s by the age of 14.
How hard can running or triathlon be? I mean my loser little brother ran 4:20 for the mile in higjschool and he hardly trained."
Now that is true arrogance. But sometimes the person is right. And the second sport is not that hard to conquer.
That is not a common outcome. I am sure their is a huge pool of slowtwitchers who can testify to that.

I just spoke to the HS coach of German Fernandez. He says he is also doing triathlons in 2015.

milesthedog wrote:

Would love to see him training daily with Lukas...

Read the bottom of this article. He's been training with LV for the last couple of months:

http://www.flotrack.org/coverage/251077-News-from-the-Track-and-Field-World/article/24455-Webb-to-retire-at-Millrose

Julia (Alan's wife) has started updating the blog, and has a photo of Alan open-water swimming now:

http://runteamwebb.wordpress.com/

I'm fully aware that going from 4:50 to 4:30 in a 500 is a huge jump, but was just making the point that he did stop swimming at 15-ish, after the summer after 9th grade per DavidC. And of course we know girls tend to mature at a younger age than boys, and obv the 13 yr old girl who went 8:36 was a phenom. Was your teammate Tiffany Cohen, Michele Richardson, Janet Evans, Tami Bruce, Erika Hansen, or Brooke Bennett??? Those were the U.S. female 800 m swimmers from 1984 to '96, which were the Games around your time IIRC:)

Also, JOOC, what was your best 500???

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

Thanks for that info. Did you swim with him, or have some contact with someone who did???

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

"I just spoke to the HS coach of German Fernandez. He says he is also doing triathlons in 2015."

where did german learn to swim? german can't swim. or did you mean german's COACH is doing triathlons in 2015?

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Anna McVann was her name. I lived in South Australia. She swam in LA Olympics. She got tendonitis and was done with swimming by 15. Not everyone thrives on 100k/week.

Sorry, I'm not american (of course you already know that). Who is this German Fernandez guy? Is this a young amercian high-school runner?