Acc to the Ironman Oceanside results, here are LS’s splits and Blum’s splits:
LS: 26:00/3:30/2:05:37/1:53/1:10:00/3:47:01
Blum: 23:55/3:00/2:22:19/1:56/1:07:19/3:58:29
I was wondering if it could be heat related. He builds up a lot of fitness all winter, but he always seems to fade through the summer. I wonder if he’d benefit from consulting a professional (world tour team perhaps?) on a real proven heat acclimation protocol. Like in the Kona vlogs, Laidlow is doing trainer rides in their garage and is dripping sweat. Maybe not the best example since he ended up blowing up due to some sort of electrolyte/hydration issue, but he still took the bike record.
Lionel moved to Arizona a while ago. I don’t think the lack of heat prep is the issue - he can train at 6 a.m. in the summer and be dripping sweat in canisters. Quite the opposite in fact - he’s been struggling to do intensity at the appropriate level in the summer if I remember correctly.
What could be the issue (an issue) is simply the fact that others aren’t as fit in April, especially when it comes to the bike, but catch up later.
If you change your mind about fundamental issues every few months, how are you going to plan your fitness over an entire season?
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Oceanside water is 11.9 -12.5 C, Marbella is over 18 + ???
Oceanside is a super cold race until at least 11 am in the mourning.
One reason run paces are fast at oceanside, for a course that isn’t on paper super fast, is the cool temp.
Why is that so strange? California Current - Wikipedia
I’ve wondered about his heat issues as well being in AZ. I haven’t followed his latest health journey too closely, but I wondered if there’s some metabolic stuff going in there. It’s likely linked to his heat tolerance, but I think it’s more than just running in the heat. He seems to be bonking hard and having other nutritional related issues with the heat (remember his revelation every couple years about electrolytes being important).
Maybe this is all related to his recent revelation that he has prediabetic markers. I don’t think it’s simply that he needs to heat train more.
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It was in regards to saying the water temp and environment are the same between the two when they are not
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It could be as simple as Arizona winters are cool and he can train hard. Then the summer comes and he can’t train hard due to lack of cooling effect and he gets detrained.
Where I live, all my friends who are serious nordic skiers literally have our best tris in April-May after ski season where we can train super hard for long duration with infinite cooling. It’s also why swimmers train in cooler pools and we do trainer workouts with fans.
I think Lionel can do well at Marbella. After Nice, take two weeks super easy and then hit it hard for 4 weeks of intensity in Arizona October, and then taper for a week for a cool race in Marbella
If I’m recalling correctly, it seems to be limited to full ironman distance races, not 70.3 races. He seems very consistent at 70.3, usually winning or close to winning - it’s at Kona and other full distance races where he drops off more than expected.
I actually wonder if his training protocol has something to do with it; he’s said on his vlog that he never rides more than 3-4 hrs on the bike at a time, and he’s always doing intervals. He obviously has way better coaching input from Jan, etc. than us here at ST, but I would have guessed he would have put in more longer effort work like 5-6 hr bikes to counter any potential dropoff in pace at the full distance.
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He does a lot of work indoors though, in a small room with a dedicated mini split (i.e., likely low humidity as well). I’m wondering how acclimated he truly gets despite living in the desert. I get that he does this because he can hit intensity targets more consistently, but does this not also mean that he’s missing heat acclimation? Perhaps the goal should be hitting those intensity targets in the heat.
I.e., for Oceanside, he can train indoors all winter to ride 350 watts for 56 miles, because there is no heat to worry about. For hot Ironman races, he needs to be able to hit X watts for 112 miles in the heat.
Would even a strategic heat prep with workouts like Jesse Coyle does in this video help? Not necessarily creating a simulated heat chamber, but having designated heat prep workouts in the plan to acclimate to the conditions of the race.
Look everyone, yes training here in AZ during the summer, specially May-September, is challenging. It’s really only during the more humid months of July and August where it’s 95 degrees at 5am with 40% humidity where it’s really hard. Otherwise if you are willing to get your training done very early in the morning it’s very manageable. Lionel’s problem isn’t that he lives in Tucson, it’s that he was unwilling to get up at 5am and head out the door. He was doing tempo runs at 4pm. That’s crazy and no doubt the quality of those workouts sucked.
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Even waking up at 4:30 am for a 2-3 hr ride during the summer months still cooks our cardiovascular and CNS. No reprieve from the dehydration that day after day in this heat does to us.
That’s why I think he does the bulk of his training indoors.
I can’t remember who’s podcast or video it was, maybe tri mockery, where they said they poked Blu once to see if he was fat and it was like poking a polar bear. I thought that summed up his physique nicely. Rock solid and terrifying
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Oh but he’s definitely not fat. He just has a tanklike build with big bony torso and thicker legs. Which isn’t commonly seen at that level of running/tri.
After seeing him in person at Oceanside he is much smaller than I thought he was.
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No Lionel on the texas start list what happened, did he forget to sign up???
Solid for sure, but the guy does have a fat roll on his lower stomach and love handles? Blu has done more for the dad bod than anyone in history.
Hopefully just decided to race St. George versus Sam Long and Magnus.
I believe Texas is a qualifier for Nice and Lionel is already qualified at Penticton. Better to race St. George 70.3 rather than burn legs out at an IM.