Knibb went within 2min of the standing IM WR at TX. She probably didn’t think going in it would take 8:10 to win. Between that and the results from Singapore, she may have some expectation adjustment to do.
As for Kat, this win indicates that she had a good shot at winning IMWC last year if she hadn’t raced such a heavy schedule. Doubt she’ll repeat that.
Just had a look at het Strava. Looks like she did back off in the 2nd half of the run with her hear rate averaging in the mid 150s compared to 160s in the first half. She’s also alluded to Hamburg being 5 weeks away.
Good spot (Matthews’ Strava). Reflects an atypical positive run split: 1:21 and 1:28. I’d have expected some cardiac drift given increasing heat. Run distance almost bang on.
As far as recovery/backing off, Hamburg on 1st June will drive the immediate training profile. Listen to pod at 26:10 for l’actualite.
Then there’s June through August for further improvement (punctuated by two 70.3s ‘B’ races in race calendar) and then the Kona build/prep for the 5 weeks before Kona (11th October).
Why would “increasing her run volume” be a good idea. Run quality not quantity is the key: see also Matthews.
@Titanflexr “this win indicates that she had a good shot at winning IMWC last year if she hadn’t raced such a heavy schedule. Doubt she’ll repeat that.”
Matthews had an excellent shot at “winning IMWC last year” and was beaten by the better athlete. I cannot see how Matthews’ swim or bike could’ve been any better with less racing, and noone was going to run faster than Philipp that day (at best Haug would have been with Sodaro off the bike, 10+ minutes down and Philipp/Matthews would have caught LCB no problemo).
As for “doubt”: no doubt at all. Last year Matthews chose to ‘go for it’ and delivered in spades: #1 IM Pro Series, #2 IMWC, #4 T100 Tour, #2 70.3WC. This year refuses T100 contract and focus is IMWC (with associated IM Pro Series coming along for the ride). No doubt about non-repeat.
@monty Wurf’s strava, with time differential fix (recorded time 3:53:32 v Strava 3:50:01), suggests the bike course was exactly 180km. I note on the PTN pod the bike length was suggested as 111.3 miles but prefer Wurf evidence.
Good race reviews: Pro Tri News - Podcast - Apple Podcasts
Matthews debrief from 13:00 (after a men’s review).
Bike distance was also 180k on the dot for the females who uploaded e.g. Alice Alberts, Steph Clutterbuck
Anyone know the slot allocations? Nothing in the app yet this morning
Eh but both of these athletes are at completely different points of their IM careers. I think it’s pretty obvious when your only run times for the IM are 2 x 3:05, you’ve got some run training figuring out to do. But again she’s very raw at the distance, and again you have to put in that she’s racing all these other distances as well so she’s got a full plate for her. So whether it’s nutrition, whether it’s 'biking too hard", whether it’s lack of experience/volume and hitting that proverbial “wall” that is so famous for marathons, etc. Did you calculate that Knibb started at what just under sub 3 for her half marathon split (~2:58?), (Kat was ~1:21 half marathon) and still couldn’t hold that pace. I don’t think she posts much data on the socials or will say much, so it’s going to be a lot of internal dialogue between her and her team. Based on the “finishing time” she’s killing it, based on the actual competition and how she’s achieving those times, she’s got some figuring it out still to do.
Wondering about this as well (for women/kona). 75 total according to IM site, guessing the larger age groups could have 7-10+? So mid pack gets you a roll down…
Not just IMTX. But the times being done now are faster than men didn’t Kona or most other courses.
A) What exactly is causing times to be so much faster? Some of the women currently are phenomenal athletes but no way they are faster than Crowie, Macca, Potts, AlSultan etc.
B) When will women go sub 8?
Maybe this requires its own thread
This is one of the most wildest conclusions I’ve ever read on a sports forum!
And that leaves me Questioning where Kat is in the season and training. Taupo, an outstanding effort after a taxing season, was only 4 mo ago and now the record-break TX effort and still 6mo. to Kona and a full race calendar. Scary
Matthews says she’s dialed back her volume (we don’t know that’s true, but let’s assume it is), but I’m going to assume she’s got a history of running more miles.
Knibb, I assume as a short course athlete has a lot of quality miles. They do a lot of volume too, but looking at Knibb’s Kona and Texas finishes, she’s trashed by the end. Holding back on the bike would obviously help, but my assumption is she’d be more durable if she had more running volume in her legs since she obviously has a lot of quality in them.
Chris McCormack - 52
Craig Alexander - 51
Andy Potts - 48
Faris Al Sultan - 46
Kat Matthews - 34
For one, Kat is younger than all of them. The sport has changed. Triathlon suits are more aerodynamic. Bikes are completely designed in the wind tunnel and aero optimized. Aero deep set wheel systems. SHOES. Nutrition.
So much is different from when all those olds you just threw down compared to these younger women who had better genetics, nutrition, and training, than the women and MEN who came before them. Why wouldn’t someone be able to throw down with male times from 20 years ago?
Kat Matthews won. But she’s still almost an hour behind the men’s winner. So first, why are you asking about the times of the women?
Cycling has a rotating crew. Usually A-team at the start, B-team for midrace, and A-team for the finish. They also go full baseball and tell random stories for minutes at a time. Most critically, IMO, they don’t try to explain the sport to the viewer, at least not at a fundamentally. Tri coverage all feels like it’s aimed at someone who’s never seen a triathlon before, which is the exact opposite of their viewer base.
Tri coverage would be improved by having a separate swim, bike, and run commentator. Even if they just appear alongside the main crew.
Why can’t women be faster than dudes from a bygone era? The gap between men and women is narrowing in endurance sports in general (less so in power and explosion sports). The difference in the men’s and women’s marathon record went from 15 minutes to 9 minutes over the past 20 years and that’s in a very well established sport.
But yes this convo feels like a separate thread.
The size-limited rules generally favor smaller athletes, and women are generally smaller than men. A frame/wheelset that is 20w faster 50kph is more of a gain for a small rider that needs 300w to go 50kph than a big rider who needs 400w to go the same speed (1.6% more, in theory).
Ditto for shoes. 40mm stack height across the board give a higher effective stack height to shorter athletes.
I was thinking the same thing. It’s barely 4 months since she had a great race Taupo, now it sounds like Hamburg full IM is on deck barely a month and a week after putting down a world record. From the heart rate profile on the run that someone pointed to, it seems that either she backed things off as the thermal load would otherwise mean tha the heart rate would keep climbing, so maybe she’s got more to give and was holding back !!!
But others may be more fresh come Kona. It’s still half a year away and almost another season in the sense she could be doing this and Hamburg off the Taupo and beyond stretch of prep and will take a bit of an off season during Northern Hemisphere summer (I don’t know, just speculating) and then launch back into heavier stuff in Sep-Oct
It seems that in many longer races Knibb had a porta potty break. This CAN be an indication of calories too concentrated and never absorbing and running right thru her body and never nourishing her. Not such a big deal in half IM, but you need those for the full IM.
From a distance it does not feel like it has anything to do with her bike fitness (likely not over biking) it definitely has nothing to do with her running top end inherent speed which means her jogging speed is going to be still pretty fast and she’s barely going at her jogging speed compared to her sprint finish at team relay at Olympics. It could be run volume related, but we would see faster opening 10km (I think). Maybe some niggle from the crash/fall factored in too?
What do their current age have anything to do with anything? Those guys were the same age about 15 years ago.
I don’t think bikes have changed much since then.
They had aero wheels.
Maybe some position change improvements with higher hands
Helmets maybe a little.
Shoes, sure
Clothing, probably
Wetsuits no
Training, a little. They still had pyramidal programs and volume 15-20 years ago. I’m not comparing it to the 1970’s.
Probably the most attributable thing here is better athletes with better genetics have entered the sport.
It just boggles my mind that they are so much faster than 15 years ago
The age has everything to do with it to illustrate all of these other factors at play. Triathlon was a complete fringe sport 20 years ago, still is a fringe sport today but the juniors system essentially now exists all across the world. That doesn’t explain everyone of course, but we’re seeing more high level crossover athletes.
Take Lucy Charles as an example, she was one of the best swimmers in England in her age group. So she’s already a first choice athlete. The majority of people who have set records in Triathlon were not first choice.
So better genetics, better nurture, better equipment. That all comes with the TIME since those former greats began the sport.
What’s most interesting and it’s fun to sorta see how athlete’s build their race careers and schedules. Essentially Knibb is trying to 1 up Kat’s '24 season of racing all the distances from T100-70.3-IM but hoping to end with wins instead of just podiums that Kat got. Kat basically won all the money, became a sorta fan favorite (read the thread on the EOY awards, people were nominating her over gals that beat her at various world champs), yet was empty when it came down to WC wins. Now I think Knibb is still way strong in the T100/70.3 realm so even if she goes move into more IM specific training it won’t be a huge hit this year on her full spectrum of distances. But I think the behind the scenes requirements T100 requires, can sorta add up so that the 1% difference from that suddenly/maybe is the difference in winning and losing in world championship races. That was essentially Kat’s reason for passing on T100. Will Knibb come to same said conclusion next year? “We’ll see”