I honestly thought we would never see him win again. It’s awesome to see him win in Oceanside, since he has explained why it’s special for him.

I hope he sticks to the current plan, and that we get some good battles this year.

My feeling was (and is) that Lionel can win, but it's in his head. He is only 2 years from coming second to Blu in the Ironman worlds 2022 in a killer performance. I was speaking to Lionel at the pool before Lahti when he was barely 15 months from that second place and he was talking about how fast all the other guys are, and I said, "shut up, you beat everyone but Blu a year ago, you can do this, stop convincing yourself about anything else". For context Taylor Knibb was leading his lane and he said, "I can't even keep the pace here".

I think he attaches too much weight to the current workout or how he is feeling right now, or who beat him at "this race". But that's not how endurance works. He has a 1.5 decades of endurance base now

I feel like we need to dial the lessons learned from Lionel's victory:

- Focused schedule without to much racing or travel (duh)
- massive swim block (Lucy pre kona was the same)
- No super shoes in training
- Multiple rounds of aero testing
- Ignore social media and have someone post for you
- Immigrate to the USA (maga makes everyone better baby)
- maple syrup still a thing?
- Hot wife and beautiful child

I watched the race on l'Equipe TV which is free, Leon Chevalier said that Lionel was said to race IM Austria which is on June 16th
I found that quite amazing for many reason and it does not make sense to me
The race is on the same day as IM Cairns, Cairns is part of the IM Pro Series, Austria is not.
2 slots vs 3, 2 is not al ot and does not leave much space for a mishap, and it is so much harder to have to race another full. Races in Europe are tougher and you could always find an unknown ( like Georgo Badar from Hungary who was ranked 25th by Trirating in 2023 who finished 4th)
50 K $ money purse vs 125
Australia is English speaking and racing in a foreign language is always a bit trickier, most people speak English but you will find it harder to find exactly the same food for example and it can create some unneeded tension for a race

I do not know Cairns but the Klagenfurt course is very nice, hilly without being very technical.

i understand that Lionel may want to focus on Kona and not the series, but still, amazing.

Maybe he meant to say Australia not Austria? Wouldn't be the first one?

you' re right i will listen to it again as the replay is available !

rrheisler what are the odds of a AMA from Lionel……even with talbotcox as the intermediary

---

Let food be thy medicine...

Maturity is a hell of an important step in athlete's development. I think for a guy like LS, I think it's less about "winning Kona" and more about doing the day to day things to make "winning Kona" possible. Obviously this is just from videos, but I saw a calmness about him prior to OS that I dont know if I've ever really seen before. Add that the "process" created a great day for him, and that likely gives him more buy in to the process. I also think at the end of the day, the later you get in your career, the more "accepting" you are of the results. Every athlete in the Top 20 of the sport wants to win a gold medal or wants to win Kona. Everyone has the drive and desire, but at the end of the day, only a few athletes get to accomplish that. So if you put yourself in the best position possible and let the chips fall where they fall....that's really all you can do. Doesn't mean he wants to lose or isn't trying any harder now than previous, it's just that at some point it's just a race. The result will be what it'll be. Put yourself in the best chance and then if you lose, you know you did all you can. In that aspect I think LS is on the right pathway- he's putting himself in the best chance at success with his decision making process.

This win and his new approach still doesn't really change much the likely outcome in Kona. He is at best an wildcard to podium/win much more than a favorite.bbWith just how the tactics and fire power has come into the sport, even with a better swim he's going to have to deal with FOP athletes who are stronger bikers and runners than him coming out of the water ahead of him. I think the biggest thing that changes is we can sorta stfu with this "pro youtuber" that we like to claim on him.

---

Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

I heard Lionel say he is racing Lake Placid in July when he was interviewed after the race on Saturday.

---

14X Ironman. Still slow but working on it.

If you noticed with his youtube, he's sharing less of his training details these days. More smoke and mirrors actually. Which I think is good. Make everyone think you are doing the same thing as years past but in reality you have a solid plan and process setup that you are working day by day.

---

blog

LOL, and a female pro told me Tablot said he was doing an IM in Spain.

It's all part of his plan to win the series by doing 3 IMs in June and July. Brilliant !!!!

Can someone remind me which full Ironmans are included in the series?? Thanks

As I said from the day it was announced, they guy that wins overall will have to do 3 fulls with decent scores in them all, so expect Lionel if he has a mind to, will be pointing for those races. But who knows, maybe he is blowing off the series and just doing his own thing, but that is a lot of money to leave on the table towards the end of your career, especially when you are now in the drivers seat..

Here's the question. Can you aim to win both the IM Series and Kona? Or does going all in on Kona mean you only do 2 IM's and thus you'll miss out on a "max" score ledger. But if you do a max Series score, have you sorta by default put yourself in a whole going into Kona?

I mean I think you can aim for the Series and max out your 3 IM's, I just don't know what that does to your actual Kona performance. Can you "peak" that many times in a year?

So if your any pro doing Kona, you by default will have 2 IM scores (KQ IM + Kona) on your ledger. It's really that 3rd one that imo will be the real decision maker for the ones who truly want to win Kona.

Obviously you have to KQ, which means you may have to race more than 1 IM to begin with, but outside of that, I just wonder if LS is actually Kona focused vs IM Pro Series focused.

And I actually don't think it's that much money he's going to leave off the table vs the work it'll actually take to win the series. The top 2 spots in the series are 6 figures, outside of that, 3rd-5th suddenly becomes $85k-$50k. So it's going to take a hell of a lot of work to actual win the series, does that mean your Kona prep is off by percentage points because of that? Of course you leave a bunch of money on the table if you go all in on Kona and get a flat tire 10mi into the bike or miss your taper and finsh 13th. That then of course will cause a ton of second guessing.

But I don't think you can win Kona and win the series 1st place.

---

Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Lionel has very clearly said Kona is the goal this year and has not mentioned the pro series once so take that for what it’s worth. I also don’t think $$$ is the driving force for him either.

But I don't think you can win Kona and win the series 1st place.//

Of course you can, history is littered with Kona winners that raced two other Ironmans during the year, some even more. But Kona is always a crapshoot to begin with, not knowing who is even going at this point. And even then, who is going to be on their game that day. The person who wins Kona may not win the series, but they will be receiving maximum bonus points for a single race in that series, so if they are anywhere near the top 5 going in, probably win..


But you are right in that it is probably more likely that someone leading in points going in who just needs a decent race in kona, will win the series. It will be a lot easier to predict the series winner the week before Kona than the actual winner on the day, that for sure..


But back to Lionel, like you say, he has to validate now, so why not in a series race? Kill two birds and all of that, get your Q and add some more points to your series. I hope he said Australia and not Austria in that interview, or perhaps he is just punking everyone and having some fun with the fanboys...

It'd be more likely we'd get Lionel on the podcast, and crowd source some questions.

---

----------------------------------
Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

Lake Placid makes sense. St. George, Tremblant, Lake Placid. All are driving distance from home location.

Lol, I know you *can*. I just dont think with how this new setup is, that your necessarily going to see that type of "dominance". I think it's going to turn into some "place holding" type of efforts like we have seen in the past with ITU when they went to a series champion. Gomez would be content to let AB win while he gets 3rd and wins the bigger overall prize. I just don't know that with how important the IM events will be that you can necessarily peak all that many times and win all of them. I think your likely to see scenarios where Kona is a few key players who are "peaking" for Kona and a few key players who are going for top billing in the series. I don't necessarily think those will all be the same players.

---

Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Apart from the Norwegians, just to understand: who is a stronger bike-runner than him? Ditlev potentially but Lionel in early 2022 could hang on for dear life during the bike and are we sure Ditlev is a better runner, that feels wrong? Laidlow literally only has the capacity to run fast during world champs , it feels again bit weird to claim that he’s a better bike-runner

Is it possible to do one ironman prior to Kona, then race kona and do another ironman AFTER Kona that still quailfies for the points for this year?

I like it at it like LS has bigger hurdles to overcome to be considered a favorite vs guys who by default with their strengths already are in a better position. LS to me is an athlete that needs more to go his way than others. That’s not an insult, that to me is just looking at it from an 30k pov, I’d easily put Laidlow as a favorite over LS every day of the week in 2024 LC world champs. Again by default Laidlow will be at the front of the field, will LS get there? I certainly don’t see him running through a field to win.

And again when you are talking about “favorites” you can’t have half a dozen favorites. That’s basically 2-3 people max.

---

Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Nice/Kona are the last full IMs of the year for the series

No: read the calendar (not very far) upthread. Nice and Kona are the last two 140.6s.
With regard to win Kona and the IM Pro Series, for the men the 'short' answer is 'no chance' however well prepared an athlete is. At Kona there will be Blummenfelt, Laidlow, Iden, Ditlev to beat (none of those will do enough series events to win that). There is a long (lange) answer. For the women, the long shot possibility is that Matthews could, but her Miami injury makes that very hard as she need to race Texas (in 20 days) to stay on track. She is already qualified for Taupo and can fit a second IM and a 70.3 race in, in between T100s (eg Hamburg or a later one, and Tallinn). All the other contenders for Nice are (sensibly) not doing enough IM Series races (partly because they have the T100s to 'fit in'). You (well @Brooks) could argue that her trying to do that extra IM in the early summer will reduce her chances at Nice.

Sanders can race two IMs (KQ in either) this summer, race Kona in October and Taupo in December: entirely doable. After Oceanside I'd be amazed if he doesn't.
Listen to his pre-race commentary here: https://www.instagram.com/p/C5azwgZxLfC/
He is in the box seat (with Lange) to win the IM Series. I've listed above all those who will not do the series and there are a shed load more in the T100 crowd. Who would be his main contenders? Skipper? Hanson? Iden could be if he and Olav wanted.

Having a hard time seeing Lange as a favorite after watching him suffer on the bike at Oceanside and doing a bike split slower than Taylor Knibb, but on the other hand, the guy has managed to peak in October and win the race twice so who knows.