Apologies if this was covered in the mellee after IMNZ, it was hard to keep up with all the words.
We often here about how in an IM, it is your bike strenth that will determine how well you run on the big day. Considering barons new record marathon time, does this mean he is a stronger biker than Bjorn, even though bjorn posted the much faster bike split?
Sure, I know I’m extrapolating a little too much, but I am interested in others opinions here. It seems like once you get your bike strength to a particular level, you need to ensure that you can run “quick” (in an IM sense) if you wanna do well in your categaory.
Of course, a minute here, a minute there makes all the difference to the pros, I just wonder how IMNZ would have panned out if Baron had biked somewhat harder. Maybe 1st place? Even with that slow swim he is such a force to be reckoned with…him and the bjorn have sure spiced things up!
I don’t think it’s realistic any longer to think of “strong bike” versus “strong run”.
It would be like classifying marathoners as “strong 20-miler” versus “strong 6.2 miler”. No one cares who’s the strongest at those two distances – the race is 26.2. Any top-100 runner can be a minute ahead of the main group at 20 miles. Any top-100 guy can outrun the main field over 6.2 miles. But, those are meaningless things.
An Ironman is about bike plus run. Pacing is such a huge part of it that I don’t think they can be separated anymore. We do ourselves disservice as sports fans and participants to think about it like that. The beauty of triathlon is the two combined, and the tactical pacing decisions that go with them.
I think I’d rather SWIM 42.2 km than RUN 42.2km!!!
I think there might be a place in triathlon where the approximate overall time of the winner in each discipline would be approximately equal. Say 1 hour swim, 1 hour bike and 1 hour run.
There could be 15 minute (x3) races for beginners and fast twitch weirdos, 1/2 hour (x3) races, all the way up to 4 hour (x3) races for us slow twitchers. Then there could be 1 DAY for each event for Gordo and the rest of the “unbalanced” among us
It might even things up a bit so 1 sport specialists don’t think they have an advantage. Steve Larsen managed to win an IM simply by be so much better at cycling than any of the swimmers. Even with about a 15 minute deficit coming out of the water (meaning he was waaaaaay out the back, he knew he had gobs o’ time onthe bike to catch any awesome swimmer ahead of him. While not an excellent runner by IM standards, he ran well enough that he could hang on to his lead off the bike and be there or there abouts at the finish of the run.
I know IM has the specific distances for historical reasons (and I like that fact), but evening up the times between each sport would possibly provide a better test of the better overall athlete on the day. (Isn’t that the whole purpose of tris to begin with?)
Steve Larsen managed to win an IM simply by be so much better at cycling than any of the swimmers. Even with about a 15 minute deficit coming out of the water
Larsen swam 57:09, which was only 9.5 minutes behind the first group out of the water. He also had the 3rd fastest run split in the race. He put in a very well-paced bike+run, giving back only 1 minute of Bolton’s 9.5-minute lead from the swim.
If you think the swim needs to be longer to even the playing field consider this:
Taking IMH 2003 as an example because it is a non-wetsuit swim that favors the strong swimmer - Jan Sibbersen was first out of the water swimming 46:50 and finished in 9:37:35. Peter Reid swam 50:36 and finished in 8:22:35. Extrapolating from these numbers, the swim would have to be increased to 47.8 miles to give Jan enough of a lead to finish with Peter at the end of the race.
Maybe the swimmers that need to learn how to ride and run.
47.8 miles! I love it! I think I recall sibbersen has actually learnt to bike run and is now sub 9 which is great.
Previously I think I have read on Slowtwch some ramblings by Skid about an “even distance” race in which he spent 2 hours in the water and did not enjoy it. I don’t think we are gonna see the day when equal-leg tri’s are a common thing. But back to my OP:-)…
I wonder what Bjorns standalone Marathon time is, compared to Barons which I think I read was 2.35 ish.
Interesting in the back of my head too is the vague memory that I have read somewhere that strongbikers actually do themself a disservice on the bike because it is so difficult (impossible) to fuel yourself sufficiently for the bike leg at that pace,(sub 4.25ish) and then come in with enough juice (calories) to run a strong (sub 3) marathon. The implication of this to me is that there is a fairly finite point of speed on the bike at which any elite should try to reach , because they may be sabotaging their run split, not because their legs are thrashed, but because their liver/ability to ingest and utilise sugar is totally maxed out. Could this explain why the great uber bike dominance has never arrived?
“He started dabbling a bit with triathlon and did a few local races in 1999 and 2000 but his swim was holding him back. He contiued to rack up 31 min 10k´s on limited training. In 2001 he showed up at the Swedish LD Champs. He swam 20 minutes slower than me and Björn but biked well and finished of the 30 k run in a 1.55 and 3rd place overall. He was chosen to go to ITU LD Champs in Denmark and that was on the IM-distance. There, he surprised everyone by holding on well for a 9.04 finish and a 2.56-run. His biggest concern was riding that far in aerobars and he cracked me up after the race showing of his 5 cm gelcover for the saddle! Clas went on to run quite a bit of races that fall and even had a stab at a regular marathon when he raced the Swedish Wintermarathon in freezing weather and went as fast as 2.29 which gave him the “Rookie of the Year” award by the Swedish Marathon Associaton.”
