“Why I am aiming for 7hrs 30mins in the Hawaii Ironman.”
http://www.petejacobs.com/category/race-previews/
Most of the chatter surrounding this can be found here: http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=4916498;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread
I just thought I’d post his ‘official’ response.
What would a 7:30 IM even look like in terms of splits?
.
:45
4:07
2:38
Lance could have done it
.
He should be setting a goal of winning the race, not some time…
I like Pete Jacobs, and there is nothing wrong with having lofty targets.
But in this case, I think he has jumped ahead 30 minutes.
Plenty of pros have come out and said a sub 8 is possible, and that they would want to achieve it, but saying you are aiming for 7.30 is a tad silly IMHO.
:45
4:07
2:38
Just take 2 more minutes off the bike for transitions. No problem.
Sooo… you need a guy that can swim like Potts, bike like Starky or Kienle and run like Del Corral… and do it in hot humid conditions on a course with some hills.
@petejjacobs: “What’s the point in setting a goal you know you can achieve.#motivation Didn’t think people would take me seriously. #flattered
The best responses were the ones that understood what I was saying, along the lines of “shoot for the stars and you might make it to the moon”.
Landing on the moon actually was quite an accomplishment. But I think Mr. Jacobs may be setting his sights on landing on the Sun 
You never know!
People didn’t think it was possible to break the 4min mile
the same was thought about breaking 15min for 1500m swimming
Who would have thought someone could run 9.58 for 100m
Maybe 7:30 is possible.
It would certainly take a special athlete and a significant rise in the profile (ie $$ available) in the sport though. There are lots of sports out there with big $$ as an attraction for exceptional athletes.
The problem with 7:30, or any other insane time at Kona is the problem most of us face when we race.
We have done XX standalone swim time when we’re peaked, shaved and tapered, drafting off the fast guy in the lane. We’ve also ridden down a hill with a howling tailwind and smashed a YY time. We’ve also run wicked fast in training on our best day, say ZZ for 42km.
when we show up on race day, do a bit of quick math and reckon we can go X+Y+Z if the planets align.
We are fit, peaked, shaved and well rested, hydrated and fueled.
The problem starts when we get to the beach and there’s an increasing chop on the water. Some retread kicks us in the face and we take on urine filled water (how do you think the ocean tastes so salty?). We exit the water and run way further to transition than the RD told us. Unperterbed, we hop on the bike and smash the first half, making up the time we lost in the swim and in T1. By the second half of the bike, the wind has increased to hurricane levels and holy crap, the weatherman never said the race would be on the surface of the sun. How come the aid stations are so far apart? By the end of the bike, we’re a bit behind schedule, but the wind on teh run is less devastating than on the bike. We tear out of transition, feeling like a million dollars, with the fans cheering deservedly! The temperature somehow rises, and the aid stations are empty. We slow to a crawl, hoping death will be swift as the pain is becoming truly unbearable.
We cross the line (on a good day), unable to focus or recognize our own family members. We can’t even hear Mike Reilly call our name and we stumble into the massage tent, delerious and much later than if the planets had aligned. Hell, the massage girls aren’t even porn stars!
Whether you make your living at IM or just pay WTC for the pain, the planets rarely align, we rarely exceed our ridiculous expectations but we sign up for next year, confident in the knowledge that we’ve cracked it know exactly what to do to break 7:30 on the Big Island
Potts, starky, and del corral could not even do tha time as a relay, probably have trouble doing 7:45
.
Maybe Jacobs could do it too if he got in touch with the good doctor Ferrari and then pretended it was 1996, there was no hematocrit limit or EPO test. With a hematocrit above 60, we could expect a 10% boost in aerobic capacity and 7:30 would be a piece of cake.
Is that what we can expect in Lance’s unsanctioned race with Macca? What good entertainment that could be!
Macca could do it. He just no longer feels the need to do it.
Potts, starky, and del corral could not even do tha time as a relay, probably have trouble doing 7:45
Yeah but Sun Yang, (insert favourite top pro cyclist), and any of the kenyans could and all have afew cold ones in transition before passing the baton - and if there was $10million on offer to the first person to do it you can bet it would get done within 5 years
.
You may not recall but Vegas offered 100k for any relay that could break 8 hours there. Winning team had one of the fastest open water peo swimmers, Tyler Hamilton on the bike, and a 2:11 Kenyan runner. They did not break the 8 hour mark, due to the Kenyan never having run a marathon tt before.
It is a tougher course than Hawaii, but it illustrates how different paper predictions can be from real world courses. Everyone figured that team would do 7:30 too, and the swimmer got to wear a wetsuit even!!
You never know!
People didn’t think it was possible to break the 4min mile
the same was thought about breaking 15min for 1500m swimming
Who would have thought someone could run 9.58 for 100m
Maybe 7:30 is possible.
It would certainly take a special athlete and a significant rise in the profile (ie $$ available) in the sport though. There are lots of sports out there with big $$ as an attraction for exceptional athletes.
People didn’t think it was possible to break the 3 minute mile.
Or the 13 minute 1500m
Who would have thought that someone could high jump 11 ft or break 8 seconds for the 100 M.
7:30 might be possible.
You never know!
People didn’t think it was possible to break the 4min mile
the same was thought about breaking 15min for 1500m swimming
Who would have thought someone could run 9.58 for 100m
Maybe 7:30 is possible.
It would certainly take a special athlete and a significant rise in the profile (ie $$ available) in the sport though. There are lots of sports out there with big $$ as an attraction for exceptional athletes.
People didn’t think it was possible to break the 3 minute mile.
Or the 13 minute 1500m
Who would have thought that someone could high jump 11 ft or break 8 seconds for the 100 M.
7:30 might be possible.
Why dont the pro’s go for it at a PR possible course?
Roth, florida, IM AZ, Hits 140.6 havasu
An Ironman has other limiters than aerobic capacity.
And Kona has other limiters than just regular Ironmans.
But a hematocrit of 60 is a lot so maybe, if he is really low naturally =)
Maybe Jacobs could do it too if he got in touch with the good doctor Ferrari and then pretended it was 1996, there was no hematocrit limit or EPO test. With a hematocrit above 60, we could expect a 10% boost in aerobic capacity and 7:30 would be a piece of cake.
Is that what we can expect in Lance’s unsanctioned race with Macca? What good entertainment that could be!
due to the Kenyan never having run a marathon tt before.
Last 10K in 75 minutes! ~12:00 mile. You think he’d be deported from Kenya! Have to think there was more going on there than just difficulties running alone. A 2:11 marathoner is probably physically incapable of running that slow, even bonked. And the Silverman marathon isn’t very hard (it’s the bike that’s hard).
The run at Silverman is not easy, probably 5 minutes slow for world class guys. And he did not run that slow, he just had it physically sit down and stop several times. He went out in 1:09 for the half and barley took a drink. He blew like a hot Pepsi shaken a 1000 times. There was some heat too that added to his misery, but it really was just not being able to pace by himself.
As I recall all he had to run was a 2:36, pretty much training pace for a 2:11 guy. But as we can ALL attest to, once bonked and blown, we each have our own death march that is slower than actual walking fast.