Potentially an injury or just a lot of crosstraining miles before ramping back up for the spring season? She had been having achilles problems before Chicago.

I would be very surprised if she comes back to tri, but I do think she might have more success at 5 or 10K.

No.

She was very adamant about not enjoying the world travel portion that triathlon and the ITU created and has been vocal about having zero desire for Ironman.

Running gives her a new challenge while also limiting travel heavily. She is a mother now and wants her sport/event to allow her to be at home as much as possible.

Athletes do occasionally change their minds. :)

Yep, Lionel is a great example of this ;)

I agree never say never but Gwen isn't as much athlete as she is mother, she doesn't have that selfish drive others do that pull them into changing their minds.

But Gwen never really enjoyed triathlon, definitely not enough to bring her back.

Plus what is the incentive to come back?

Win gold, done that

Win new races, won everything in ITU

Do Ironman, doesn't enjoy S/B/R enough

Earn more prize money? Not enough and probably earning enough in sponsorship.

I called her triathlon retirement in 2016 and said she would take the olympic running route after.

This time around I bet she does the full competing athlete retirement in 2020 and goes the running camps and coaching route (Something like an online platform like Crowie and Macca do) but stay locally in the US. Gives her everything she needs and wants. It fits her and her husbands life perfectly and they live in an area ripe for it to happen.

Huh? Mothers who change their minds are selfish??? I'm not sure I follow. People "change their minds" about things throughout the course of their lives all the time. Its called growing. I think I could make a stronger argument that someone who never changes their mind is more selfish than the person who does. Was she selfish when she changed her mind to go from triathlon to being a runner?

Only part of this I would argue is that winning an Oly gold is a “been there, done that” kind of life experience. There should be motivation to defending the gold.

more likely to keep Specialized happy and to promote the new tarmac....i wouldnt look too much into it. Although it would be great to see her race IM and shake the order up a little

She already has the A standard. She's probably just doing a long buildup to the trials marathon. No reason to run another marathon before then.

But she'd have zero shot of making the team in the 5 or 10k. If she wanted another gold medal she wouldn't have left tri in the first place. But she looks to be a long way from making any olympic team atm. Rooting for her but doubtful.

I don't think selfish was intended in a negative context here. Rather they were trying to say that gwen returning to triathlon would require her to prioritize herself first with the required travel, training, and racing schedule, and she's made it quite clear that she wants to prioritize her family instead

if she were making a comeback she'd be in the pool 9 session per week

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

Yeah right. You had no posts on here in 2016 so that is a very dubious boast.

Injury and cross training did cross my mind. But for someone who's goal is to win Gold in a sport that doesn't involve biking, isn't biking outside (and I mean legit cycling..... not on an e-bike) a bit high risk? You can try to control all the variables you can but there will always be variables you can't control when biking outside. I don't think you are going to find any of the top 10 or 20 marathoners in the world in full cycling gear on the road. But then again.... none of them were an Olympic champion in triathlon......(shrug).

I just have found this very interesting. Very curious to see how this plays out. Rooting for her regardless...

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blog

Her 5K and 10K times are far more competitive than her marathon and half efforts. Much weaker fields in those events in the US also. Good luck beating Huddle, Shalane, Hasay, Cragg, Linden, Hall, Kieffer, Kellyn Taylor etc.

Ironman is a different game. Nowhere near as much travel if you don't want to. Training is about the same as a part-time job if you have things in order and know what you're doing. Needing extra naps is the only major conflict. Nap with your baby... problem solved.

she is on record as having ZERO interest in doing an Ironman

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

I think everyone just needs to relax... it's just a sponsored athlete being sponsored is all. Nothing to see

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

Not sure how Gwen would shake up IM when her bike is her weakest leg..

The “shake up” comment was just in general, no reference to the bike leg..

:)

i would not at all be surprised if she came back to tri. however, i agree with you. she's a marathoner because she wants to be a marathoner, and that's a very good reason to be a marathoner. but every bit of evidence says she's a better 5k and 10k runner. maybe up to half-marathon.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

seriously?

No not a cold chance in hell. I wish. I have begged. Trust me she aint ever coming back.

Gwen cannot be compared to lionel, even in jest. Gwen is smart, successful, open to help, and well liked by those close to her.

Lionel isn't well liked by those close to him?!?! Quick, someone start a new thread!