Years ago, Mark Allen used to say,
"The Germans are all peaking to hammer each other into the ground at Roth, they have their periodization wrong. You can't peak mid summer and do a fast Ironman and regroup 12 weeks later to go fast at Kona".
I believe Sebastien Kienle was the first one to break out of that, but he did not have to run a low 2:4x to win Kona. It was more like 2:50 in 2014 off the strength of his bike. Since then Jan Frodeno has won 3 more times off blazingly fast mid summer races, but he's never run as fast in Kona. This year he did a personal best 2:42 run in Kona. He did not need to run that fast either. He could have jogged in a 2;49 and still won given his buffer at T2. Jan kept the powder dry on the bike until the way back at scenic point and then put the hammer down on his domestiques Brownlee and O'Donnel (nothing like having a 2 time olympic gold medalist as a domestique haha).
I think it is the first time that someone ran 2:42 (the winning magic run split that guys like Mark Allen, Crowie and Macca) after doing that run split in the summer. Mark, Crowie, Macca, Pete Jacobs (the guys who ran that split) never ran that split mid summer and repeated it in Kona
In 2016 Lionel Sanders went 7:44 at Ironman Arizona after he walked a lot in Kona 7 weeks before. He hardly pounded his legs and was ready for Arizona. Then during the summer of 2017 he did zero Ironman racing. Almost like the Mark and Dave routine (sometimes they would go jog Ironman Japan). He had his best race in Kona and finished second. Every time he does Ironman Tremblant in the third week of August he sucks in Kona. There is not much room to manouevre at the pro level.
The previous wisdom was a fast race in July = Bad Race in Kona. First Sebi and now Jan have disproved that. But Tremblant seems too close.
Jan is a bit of a superman in terms of what he is pulling off. Elite marathoners don't do two fast races so close to one anothe. Maybe one in the spring and one in the fall....but triathlon running at 2:4x is not the same as marathon running at 2:0x, the latter being almost a minute faster per kilometer, so its probably possible as Jan is proving to do two fast Ironman marathons 12 weeks apart..
I think Lionel's biggest problem is not his coach, its just his stupid schedule and desire to race Ironman Mont Tremblant. Him and Cody should stop doing that race (as much as I love our local Mdot 140.6....its just too close to do well in Kona).
With some further research, Macca was the first to win mid summer and Kona. Roth run split was 2:45, Kona 2:42 in 2007. When Jan did the Roth plus Kona double in 2016 marathon splits were 2:39 in roth and 2:45. This year he did 2:43 in the crazy heat of Frankfurt and then went faster with a 2:42 in Kona. Kind of like Macca 2007 just faster in his summer race. In any case, only a few guys have pulled off the fast mid summer race and the Kona win. When Peter Reid went really fast at Ironman Austria in the summer he got beaten by Tim DeBoom in Kona 1999. Marino Vanhounacher and Andreas Ralaert are also two others who were always world record fast mid summer and the big prize escaped in Kona.
"The Germans are all peaking to hammer each other into the ground at Roth, they have their periodization wrong. You can't peak mid summer and do a fast Ironman and regroup 12 weeks later to go fast at Kona".
I believe Sebastien Kienle was the first one to break out of that, but he did not have to run a low 2:4x to win Kona. It was more like 2:50 in 2014 off the strength of his bike. Since then Jan Frodeno has won 3 more times off blazingly fast mid summer races, but he's never run as fast in Kona. This year he did a personal best 2:42 run in Kona. He did not need to run that fast either. He could have jogged in a 2;49 and still won given his buffer at T2. Jan kept the powder dry on the bike until the way back at scenic point and then put the hammer down on his domestiques Brownlee and O'Donnel (nothing like having a 2 time olympic gold medalist as a domestique haha).
I think it is the first time that someone ran 2:42 (the winning magic run split that guys like Mark Allen, Crowie and Macca) after doing that run split in the summer. Mark, Crowie, Macca, Pete Jacobs (the guys who ran that split) never ran that split mid summer and repeated it in Kona
In 2016 Lionel Sanders went 7:44 at Ironman Arizona after he walked a lot in Kona 7 weeks before. He hardly pounded his legs and was ready for Arizona. Then during the summer of 2017 he did zero Ironman racing. Almost like the Mark and Dave routine (sometimes they would go jog Ironman Japan). He had his best race in Kona and finished second. Every time he does Ironman Tremblant in the third week of August he sucks in Kona. There is not much room to manouevre at the pro level.
The previous wisdom was a fast race in July = Bad Race in Kona. First Sebi and now Jan have disproved that. But Tremblant seems too close.
Jan is a bit of a superman in terms of what he is pulling off. Elite marathoners don't do two fast races so close to one anothe. Maybe one in the spring and one in the fall....but triathlon running at 2:4x is not the same as marathon running at 2:0x, the latter being almost a minute faster per kilometer, so its probably possible as Jan is proving to do two fast Ironman marathons 12 weeks apart..
I think Lionel's biggest problem is not his coach, its just his stupid schedule and desire to race Ironman Mont Tremblant. Him and Cody should stop doing that race (as much as I love our local Mdot 140.6....its just too close to do well in Kona).
With some further research, Macca was the first to win mid summer and Kona. Roth run split was 2:45, Kona 2:42 in 2007. When Jan did the Roth plus Kona double in 2016 marathon splits were 2:39 in roth and 2:45. This year he did 2:43 in the crazy heat of Frankfurt and then went faster with a 2:42 in Kona. Kind of like Macca 2007 just faster in his summer race. In any case, only a few guys have pulled off the fast mid summer race and the Kona win. When Peter Reid went really fast at Ironman Austria in the summer he got beaten by Tim DeBoom in Kona 1999. Marino Vanhounacher and Andreas Ralaert are also two others who were always world record fast mid summer and the big prize escaped in Kona.