When Lance came back to triathlon after focusing on cycling for two decades, he came back to do running and swimming and after a year or so of focused tri training, was winning 1/2 IM events against pure triathletes that had been swimming and running every day for the last 10-20 years in a row.
How does this happen?
Reason I’m asking is because I want to switch to pure road cycling instead of triathlon for the next few years.
After taking several years off swimming and running, is it relatively easy to get it back fairly quickly if you want to?
When Lance came back to triathlon after focusing on cycling for two decades, he came back to do running and swimming and after a year or so of focused tri training, was winning 1/2 IM events against pure triathletes that had been swimming and running every day for the last 10-20 years in a row.
How does this happen?
Reason I’m asking is because I want to switch to pure road cycling instead of triathlon for the next few years.
After taking several years off swimming and running, is it relatively easy to get it back fairly quickly if you want to?
Drugs. And he knows how to train. And he knows how to train to get the maximum from those drugs.
Or he was clean and knows how to train, was already very fit for the bike, so only had to train the specific running and swimming muscles.
He would also be so strong on the bike he would be able to save more than anyone else for the run.
Didnt he do marathon training when he retired from cycling?
Lance started out as a triathlete when he was 16 years old. I’m sure he also did some sort of cross training while he was cycling as well, particularly in the offseason.
When Lance came back to triathlon after focusing on cycling for two decades, he came back to do running and swimming and after a year or so of focused tri training, was winning 1/2 IM events against pure triathletes that had been swimming and running every day for the last 10-20 years in a row.
How does this happen?
Reason I’m asking is because I want to switch to pure road cycling instead of triathlon for the next few years.
After taking several years off swimming and running, is it relatively easy to get it back fairly quickly if you want to?
Because he is, drugs or not, one of the guys walking on this earth with the best aerobic potential. I bet that 15 years of doped training has pushed him to unbelievable levels. I bet his return to tri was nothing like “effortless”, he probably trained as much as in his cycling prime. Whats impressing is that he could become such a good runner so fast without injury. I know that is what Bäckstedt is struggling with, knee pain.
Or he was clean and knows how to train, was already very fit for the bike, so only had to train the specific running and swimming muscles.
He would also be so strong on the bike he would be able to save more than anyone else for the run.
Didnt he do marathon training when he retired from cycling?
I’m still a believer that he competed in Tri clean, and I think you’ve hit the nail on the head.
Massive aerobic capacity (legally gained or not), knowledge of your own body’s responses to training, and experience as a youth is a pretty big starting point. The fact that you’ve been arguably the best in the world in the tri discipline that will gain you the most time is also a plus.
Regardless of what is said about Lance and his ethics, character, integrity, etc., he is one of the most physically gifted endurance athletes the world has ever seen. Throw in some special cocktails and there’s no limits, except his own hubris.
Don’t forget he was a good (all-state?) swimmer and a decent XC runner in high school, before being a professional triathlete as a teenager. Plenty of time to knock off the rust after cycling was done.
Or he was clean and knows how to train, was already very fit for the bike, so only had to train the specific running and swimming muscles.
He would also be so strong on the bike he would be able to save more than anyone else for the run.
Didnt he do marathon training when he retired from cycling?
I’m still a believer that he competed in Tri clean, and I think you’ve hit the nail on the head.
Massive aerobic capacity (legally gained or not), knowledge of your own body’s responses to training, and experience as a youth is a pretty big starting point. The fact that you’ve been arguably the best in the world in the tri discipline that will gain you the most time is also a plus.
So, he would take drugs everyday when he was beeing controlled and audited every day, and no drugs when he was no more…
Or he was clean and knows how to train, was already very fit for the bike, so only had to train the specific running and swimming muscles.
He would also be so strong on the bike he would be able to save more than anyone else for the run.
Didnt he do marathon training when he retired from cycling?
I’m still a believer that he competed in Tri clean, and I think you’ve hit the nail on the head.
Massive aerobic capacity (legally gained or not), knowledge of your own body’s responses to training, and experience as a youth is a pretty big starting point. The fact that you’ve been arguably the best in the world in the tri discipline that will gain you the most time is also a plus.
So, he would take drugs everyday when he was beeing controlled and audited every day, and no drugs when he was no more…
fuck logic.
Other side of logic…There were millions to be made in cycling. Not so much in IM.
To the OP, drugged or not, Lance obviously had the bike base. He also ran a sub-3 hour marathon and was coached by Salazar in doing so. Plus, he had all the free time in the world and a desire to crush everybody.
I think this comes down to training smart. The guy knows his body and how it works better than most of us know our professional jobs.
A guy I know was a pro mtbr for years. He took 2 years off (exercising probably 1x a week mildly) then decided to start running. Within a year, he was winning every race he entered from half marys to 50k. He even got on the podium in a HUGE city marathon. Henis gifted yes, but he knows precisely how to train regardless of the sport.
Running is injury prevention and a bit of muscle development. He probably barely trained on the bike, and swimming is more about technique than anything, so it was probably a pretty smooth transition for lance.
As others stated he was a stud triathlete growing up, some of his records still stand. He switched to cycling because of the money.
There have been a few pro riders that rarely if ever train for running and have done a sub 3 hour marathon. Similar muscles and all the riding gives you a big engine to play with.
Anyone who thinks Lance was clean for his triathlon comeback is living in fantasy land. He hadn’t completed clean in a minimum 15 years, so training and racing enhanced is all he knows. And, he’s in a sport with effectively no testing compared to pro cycling, so knows he is at zero risk. Not to mention that he has signed a contract with WTC, a company headed by Andrew Messick who knows full well that Lance was dirty during cycling (read the Floyd Landis and Andrew Messick emails from ToC 2010). So, if WTC knows he is dirty yet has signed him to exclusively compete in WTC events, and he is competing in a sport with next to no testing, don’t you think he would feel pretty invincible to keep up the only way he knows how to train and compete? And, if that won’t convince you, maybe the fact that he’s corresponding with Michelle Ferrari about what it takes to win Kona will?
He was a very elite triathlete before he took his 15 years “off.” Even more importantly, he was a very talented swimmer before he took up triathlon which is probably the hardest of the 3 disciplines to achieve elite status in. And he spend those 15 years, regardless of the doping, training and competing on the bike at the most elite level and became, among other things, arguably the worlds best time trialist. Sure, it was aided by doping but, he would have been in the mix on a level, no doping field in the elite ranks. He doped, but he has amazing physical gifts too. Add in the fact that back in triathlon, he had training and coaching resources well beyond what any professional triathlete has (e.g a private jet to fly on a whim to prime training rounds, a personal staff to attend to his every need, etc).
And with all that, all he really did in his “comeback” was perform in the general neighborhood of where he would have been if he had stuck with tri. He would have been a dominate force in triathlon if he had stuck with it. If he had done tri all along and was gearing up for a big push on the 2012 IM Championship, his run up would have looked pretty similar, assuming he was not forced to do other races for sponsorship reasons. During his comeback, he placed well and won some regional HIM races. Nothing really extraordinary given his background.
One of the most aerobically gifted people ever documented, supplemented by decades of the best fitness that medical science could provide (outside the rules), and the best training money could buy (inside the rules), combined with a megalomaniacal drive to be the number 1 badass at anything he did.
One of the most aerobically gifted people ever documented, supplemented by decades of the best fitness that medical science could provide (outside the rules), and the best training money could buy (inside the rules), combined with a megalomaniacal drive to be the number 1 badass at anything he did.
One of the most aerobically gifted people ever documented, supplemented by decades of the best fitness that medical science could provide (outside the rules), and the best training money could buy (inside the rules), combined with a megalomaniacal drive to be the number 1 badass at anything he did.
You are the second to refer to this. He was NOT one of the most aerobically gifted people ever.....clean. With out the dope he would not have been a winner of all those tdf's if others were clean also.
Edit: Though I do not care for Lance, I admit that he is probably one of the hardest working and smartest working athletes period. Transfer the aerobic engine enhanced by drugs and his work ethic and there you go
One of the most aerobically gifted people ever documented, supplemented by decades of the best fitness that medical science could provide (outside the rules), and the best training money could buy (inside the rules), combined with a megalomaniacal drive to be the number 1 badass at anything he did.
All I can picture is the scene in Captain America where scrawny Chris Evans gets into the machine and comes out ripped… only goes in scrawny and comes out looking scrawny still but has all the abilities.
Aerobic sports are mostly a function of your aerobic engine, and he has a big one.
Each sport has it’s own little details where certain physiological or skill issues could make you suck even though you have a big aerobic engine, but he didn’t have any of those issues.
But yeah, if you were ever good at swimming and running, they will come right back very quickly.
Step 1. Dope for 20 years.
Step 2. Continue to dope while coming back as a triathlete.
Step 3. Be a high responder to to doping techniques.
Step 4. Have raced as a top pro triathlete before going full time in to cycling.
