Actually I think t100 is as valuable as you the athlete put into it. If you think you’re going to race bare min events and go race full IM series, something will have to give. If you go all in on this series and race max races to get max score and block other athletes, you will find huge success.
So I think it’s all in how each athlete views it.
I think it’s almost a given they’ll have closer to 30 athletes next year w so many coming off Wtcs series either full time or first 2 years in non qualification period.
Committing to 6 races is putting a lot into it.
Actually I think t100 is as valuable as you the athlete put into it. If you think you’re going to race bare min events and go race full IM series, something will have to give. If you go all in on this series and race max races to get max score and block other athletes, you will find huge success.
So I think it’s all in how each athlete views it.
I think it’s almost a given they’ll have closer to 30 athletes next year w so many coming off Wtcs series either full time or first 2 years in non qualification period.
Really doubt they will have 30 athletes for each gender. All this means incremental cost which serves no purpose. Top 20 fighting it out is exciting enough. Think the problem is getting all top 20 committing and having that season long narrative
I’d assume Sam has already qualified for Taupo?
I think he’s racing for glory in Oceanside. He’s racing for points and victory in Singapore. He has a decent chance of a 2nd or 3rd in Singapore if a couple competitors get unlucky with travel, humidity, local food/water issues.
I see Miami as an early season play on the fact that the field was a little less deep, early season fitness and humidity. I see the same thing being the case in Singapore.
I’d give the win in Singapore to Alistar though. I think he’ll be a little more run fit, and be a little less stupid on the run this time. He keeps racing like he’s breaking people early on in a 10k, but he’s only just breaking himself in the last half of his 18k. Why he doesn’t just run with the leader and then kick in the last 5k is beyond me. He’s not going to break a well paced and practiced long distance athlete with his early-run leads.
Either that or he’s pulling a season long Laidlow narrative of blowing up when you let him run away. And eventually he’ll hold it together the entire time and shock the field.
How is Brownlee in heat?
Think it will be hot and/or humid in Singapore?
I think this year will basically filter out the half in / half out athletes; the ones who race the “mimimum” requirements. Add in the WTCS athletes that filter in their spots next year and I think you’ll get to the point where T100 is an legit series where 90% of the athletes are “all in” for most of the events. The T100 is going to let the athletes decide how successful they want to be, and I think the ones who want to race all race distances and series are going to end up cramming a lot of races in a short period of time.
How is Brownlee in heat?
Think it will be hot and/or humid in Singapore?
Brownlee said in interviews post Miami that he thought he’s be fine and he felt fine the first few laps and then he felt himself starting to redline so he had to back it off and walk some aid stations and that at his age he wasn’t going to keep pushing when he redlines it anymore. He expected he could slow his pace and then hopefully go with Magnus when he caught him, but he was unable to when he got caught. He also said he’s only had 3 weeks of run volume if I recall. I’d expect him to be a lot better. But by the same token I should expect that or Magnus or Sam Long as well.
I do wonder what Sam’s heat prep was. It clearly isn’t training on cold dry desert mornings.
I see Miami as an early season play on the fact that the field was a little less deep……
HaHa!!!
T100 Miami had:
- A 2x Olympic Gold medalist
- Current IM World Champion
- Current IM 70.3 World Champion
- Current 140.6 record holder
- A 2x IM 70.3 WC second place finisher
ETA: And only 1 of those 5 dudes ended up on the Podium!!!
I see Miami as an early season play on the fact that the field was a little less deep……
HaHa!!!
T100 Miami had:
- A 2x Olympic Gold medalist
- Current IM World Champion
- Current IM 70.3 World Champion
- Current 140.6 record holder
If it had Knibb, Laura, Sodaro, Spivey, Haug, etc. would it have been deeper?
If it had Van Riel, Gomez and Neuman would it have been deeper?
“a little less deep” != “weak field”
Incidentally, when I typed t100 male start list in google, the initial search suggestion was t100 testosterone booster. HAHA. From “paid time off”, “parent teacher organization” to “banned drugs for athletes”. I wonder if anyone suggested the EPO100?
I see Sam Long is attempting to do Oceanside and Singapore back to back.
Not sure what his season plan is but he really seems to be front loading it? If this is the case I don’t know why he’s potentially sabotaging the T100 race by competing at Oceanside.
You would assume he would try get 3 good results in the first few races and then take it easy/take a break before prepping for the grand final at the end of the season.
Now if he has a shit Singapore he’s going to have to get up for another race. Seems strange to me unless he’s trying to Q for Taupo as well??
Because T100 isn’t as valuable as people think. As stated clearly in a bunch of threads. 6 Appearances but only 4 results matter.
Yes & no. Sam is fit rn & raced & won before T100 Miami. So maybe he’s riding that out at these early season races. He grew up on IM racing so maybe he couldn’t resist not going to the unofficial 1st big race of the year. One of the narratives for the PTO Tour will be if people who arrive fit & ready to race early can carry that fitness throughout the entire year. It’s a hard thing to do & Sam Long hasn’t shown that kind of consistency in the past. I would be skipping Oceanside, especially after that 1st big result in Miami. It’s right that you need to fulfill the T100 appearances & that you don’t necessarily have to do well in all of them. But it gets harder in harder when you add races on top of the series. The best athletes can peak 2-3 times/year. I’m not sure adding in some IM races puts you in a better position to hit in the right # of PTO races. We’ll see. It’s certainly going to be entertaining.
I see Miami as an early season play on the fact that the field was a little less deep……
If it had Knibb, Laura, Sodaro, Spivey, Haug, etc. would it have been deeper?
I was speaking to the Men’s race specifically…
Glad to hear AB is in midseason form about he’s only ran for 3 weeks, did he call the other athletes, wankers for full affect? I think he’s been using the “I havent even properly run trained” for 10+ years, even while smoking the wtcs world’s best for many of those years.
#ABspeak
I see Sam Long is attempting to do Oceanside and Singapore back to back.
Not sure what his season plan is but he really seems to be front loading it? If this is the case I don’t know why he’s potentially sabotaging the T100 race by competing at Oceanside.
You would assume he would try get 3 good results in the first few races and then take it easy/take a break before prepping for the grand final at the end of the season.
Now if he has a shit Singapore he’s going to have to get up for another race. Seems strange to me unless he’s trying to Q for Taupo as well??
Because T100 isn’t as valuable as people think. As stated clearly in a bunch of threads. 6 Appearances but only 4 results matter.
Yes & no. Sam is fit rn & raced & won before T100 Miami. So maybe he’s riding that out at these early season races. He grew up on IM racing so maybe he couldn’t resist not going to the unofficial 1st big race of the year. One of the narratives for the PTO Tour will be if people who arrive fit & ready to race early can carry that fitness throughout the entire year. It’s a hard thing to do & Sam Long hasn’t shown that kind of consistency in the past. I would be skipping Oceanside, especially after that 1st big result in Miami. It’s right that you need to fulfill the T100 appearances & that you don’t necessarily have to do well in all of them. But it gets harder in harder when you add races on top of the series. The best athletes can peak 2-3 times/year. I’m not sure adding in some IM races puts you in a better position to hit in the right # of PTO races. We’ll see. It’s certainly going to be entertaining.
I definitely agree with your analysis. Oceanside is all about glory and attention. But I can’t help look at the overall season like it’s a race itself from March to November/December. Sam likes to say he trains and races well at high intensity, but I would be worried about him digging himself into a hole. I suppose it is possible he’s going to just make Oceanside into a training day and not compete for the win though. Why not if that’s the case? But otherwise if he’s racing for the win (or if he smells blood and pushes himself beyond what he intends to), I would worry he might put himself in a Brownlee-running sized hole that takes a few races to recover from. If you’re in second place, what can you do to ensure you stay at that level or advance? Is the answer to do back to back weekends of races?
Ya I really don’t understand this move. Capitalizing on good fitness? The paycheck for the win isn’t that huge and unless he’s going to throw in some fulls he won’t score well in the im pro series anyway. We will have to wait and see how it will affect him but I could see this being one of those mistakes people make who coach themselves and don’t have anyone to be a voice of reason.
Here’s how I make sense of it:
The day of the Oceanside race he was planning on doing a long training day anyway. Then the next day heading over to LAX for his Singapore flight.
So he does a nice promotional appearance for the sponsors and fans at Oceanside and gets in the top 10. Gets some attention on the webcast with people talking about his name. And doesn’t over do it. Then heads the next day to Singapore via LAX.
I’m sure he’s capable of handling the volume. Afterall, we had Gustav and Blu doing heavy volume in the heat a couple days before Kona and placing well. But then Gustav fell apart in St George and all the next year, and getting off the bike in Kona Blu said he felt empty and couldn’t contend with Gustav or Laidlow for the win.
So being able to do the volume and getting the best possible performance out of oneself with the volume are two different things. Let alone the possibility of injury or other unseen fatigue issues setting in at a later day because of the long season.
- Current 140.6 record holder
Kristian Blummenfelt wasn’t there.
Apparently Knibb called Pat L as soon as Abu Dhabi was cancelled to inquire about getting back to Miami to race. Pat went through the proper channels to request a lay flat seat to fly Knibb to Miami and eventually heard back that it was a no go. I don’t think this suggests a tightening of the purse strings. I can totally understand them not wanting to have to deal with LCB or Magnus or Kristian or Hayden/Alex or any other athlete requesting business class tickets once they heard Knibb was given one. Seems rather sensible to me.
The entire lie flat seat request is a massive can of worms at any organization. You quickly go from a $800 airfare to $6000 if it is last minute. In volume you blow your travel budget quickly. Once you open the gauntlet then everyone wants that treatment. I would have told Taylor she makes plenty of money and can upgrade herself if she wants to perform, It is an unfair competitive advantage if she gets that treatment.
What’s the over/under on Gomez being on the start line?
- Current 140.6 record holderKristian Blummenfelt wasn’t there.Cozumel is properly excluded from ‘best time’ considerations because its swim is well ‘downhill’.
https://www.trirating.com/...an-distance-records/
And Challenge Roth is a tiny bit short, and yet it stands.
You shared a link, let me do the same: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironman_Triathlon
Btw. Dietlev did IM Cozumel in 2022 with a time of 7:50, while KB did in 2021 with a time of 7:21. That’s 29 minutes difference. If the ‘downhill’ is such a factor, why wasn’t Dietlev faster?
Btw. again, ST wrote an article on 2021 Cozumel saying the bike was short (https://www.slowtwitch.com/News/Olympic_Champ_Blummenfelt_Sara_Svensk_Win_IM_Cozumel_8149.html). Funny, since my own Garmin recorded 181.5km.
To me training volume and race volume are very different stimuli on a person. Even if said person is saying “mate I’m just training through itâ€â€¦…bullshit. You’re adding travel stress, race morning stress (3am wake up, he’s not doing that for training) race stimuli stress that at some point you have to account for. That’s not even pretending that he’s 100% “not going to over do itâ€. By default you’ve already over done it if your equating this the same as “well I would have trained anyways†with all the extra factors that come into a race situation. You are only going to get so many bites at the apple- would be foolish to waste one knowing ahead of time “training mode race†mindset. Why even show up then?
I get it an series where you have to race you may prioritize events as “check box†situation but to add an non series race as a “meh just training purposes†seems to be way counter productive. Again I get sometimes you’ll have to just show up for an T100 event but to do it for a non T100 race seems to make no real sense if your truly only going to shoot w blanks that day.
So if you truly are going to check the box for sponsor obligation that makes makes even less sense because what are the chances he mails it in? I would assume it’s going to take an “honest effort†to gain top 10 here.
Sam Long doesn’t have the ability to mail it in front the start and still gets top 10. He will 100% have to go for it on the bike and run for a large percentage cus he’s so far back in the swim. He doesn’t get any “free†passes thah a front pack athlete sorta can get within race dynamics. So for the most part of it, this is going to be an event that he’s certainly going to have to account for especially if you’re saying to come in top 10.
So I dont think this is a “just train through” setup. If he wants to go top 10, that’s going to take an get after it mindset and tactic, he’s not just going to “meh” race through and get a top 10 and get on the broadcast. His swim won’t allow that. So I think he’s got to put this on the ledger of events that add up in a season long narrative. Why do it just to finish 8th? Seems very counter productive?
So if you wanna race to secretly chest pump and see where you are in the overall standings of the sport- go for it. This is not going to be one of those situations where Sam Long can just “train through it” race style/mindset and finish top 10. So I think that’s the jist here, not some “he would have trained anyways” so it’s the same. No where close will that be the case…UNLESS he truly mails it in fron the start of the bike. But if your talking about wanting to go top 10…no Sam Long can’t “mail that in” like others likely can do because he’s such a weak swimmer and thus has to “ride through” 75% of the field; that is going to cost you in a season. Full stop