“No, there’s no possibility of returning to racing with a number on my back,” he said. “I won’t be like Michael Jordan. I’ll still ride my bike to stay fit and I could also participate in a few mountain bike races or ‘cross just for enjoyment, but no more road racing.” Then again, Armstrong didn’t rule out a little competition in his new life completely. Asked whether he preferred golf to a marathon now, he said, " No doubt: marathon. I would like to train to run under two hours and 30 minutes, and perhaps I will shoot for two hours and 15. I know that I will face my challenges on other roads of life - but not soon. In the end, winning, being the best was a necessity for me, almost an obsession. From now on I won’t have that any more. I need a normal life. Of calm."
Ironman, here he comes! Okay, maybe not an Ironman or even a marathon this year, but those of you down in Texas, be on the lookout for Armstrong at a local race or two.
Many a great cyclist have faded on the run. My guess is that as he works on his running, his cycling will become weaker and he could very well have no real advantage over people like Peter Reid, Simon Lessing etc.
I agree that he will have no advantage over guys like Reid and Lessing. If he were to do tri, he may as well do the Larsen approach. Keep his bike strength and hang on during the run (or course, he had 16 min 5K speed as a 16 year old) !
Lance ain’t no dummy and he wouldn’t toss out a number like 2:15 if he didn’t think he had a shot at it.
I don’t see it happening however unless he has been putting in a lot of running miles over the years to compliment is cycling training.
I could se him possibly getting an Olympic Trials qualifier of 2:22, but 2:15 would be flat out amazing for a guy at his age without a lifetime of running miles in his legs.
I say he has a tough time going sub 2:30. Do you guys remember Mark Allen’s Berlin Marathon attempt ? He was trying to go sub 2:20 the year after he ran 2:40 in Hawaii. One would thing that this would be very possible, but he had to drop out with “wooden quads”. All you dudes on this forum that run fresh marathons know exactly what I am talking about.
He has done some amazing things but let’s face it, there is no hope in hell that he can go faster than Paula Radcliffe in the marathon. No f’ken way - and you can put that in your pipe and smoke it or take it to the bank…whatever your fetish. To run 2:15 requires not only an amazing physical ability (which he obviously has), but it requires the runners somatotype - lungs on legs with little muscle mass. It ain’t gonna happen folks.
Dev, 16 minute 5K times are pretty common in high school, in fact most competitive HS teams can put out 5 guys with those sort of times. Lance was not a phenom runner as a teen, talented but nothing special.
He will NEVER run 2:15. sub 2:30 is possible if he trains seriously for a year, sub 2:40 more likely.
There are only a handful of runners in this country right now who can go sub 2:15 and they were all faster then Lance in high school and they have all been running 100 miles a week since. Theres just no way Lance will run 2:15. Not a chance.
Exactly my point. He might go sub 2:30 in a marathon, but he will be hard pressed to beat Lessing in tri. My point about him being 16 min 5K guy is that unlike Larsen, he was a competitive runner in tris as a 16 year old. His 16 min times were in sprint tris, not flat out 5K’s. The point being, he can be a very good tri runner and he does not have to do tons of run miles to get there. Keep the bike fitness and just add some running like Larsen.
He has the course record at the Dirty Du - didn’t he set that during the offseason sometime in his 7 year TdF reign? (I could be mistaken)
If so, he hasta have SOME decent run abilty even at this moment, as being a super dominanant rider is all well and good, but he musta boogied along pretty well on both of those runs to nail down the record.
edited to add: OK, here’s the link to a story about the race:
He got beaten on the bike, and had to outrun the leader to take the win. Which he did, handily.
I bet Lance would kick ass on the Xterra circuit. He’s a very decent mtb’er (I think he finished 4th at Mt Snow that year he gave it a crack, and that is a very technical course, you can’t just fake it w/ fitness alone), and obviously also has the swimming background.
All Lance needs to do to run 2:15 in a 'thon is switch to PC’s for all his riding
I read here on slowtwitch that he raced the Emerald Health 1/2 ironman triathlon in Cleveland, Ohio. Was D’Q for cutting the bike course, when in fact his split was so fast they didn’t believe a 15 year old kid could ride that fast, which in fact he did.
