There’s a certain logic to it that if you’re just doing a one and done, but still oddly want to minimize your time, then I can see the logic that you can shave off so much more time on the bike (as a percentage of total training time) than you can training for one swim. I don’t agree with it (since you want to start fresher on the bike), but the logic is easy enough to follow.
Where it really falls apart is if you’re doing multiple races. I know guys who’ve been in the sport a while and will bike a 5hr IM but are still stuck at 1h:20-30 swim. To chop those 30 mins on the swim is going to take years (!), but they’ve now maximized how fast they’re going to go on the bike/run. Good luck getting to Kona if you’re spotting the top guys 20-30 mins.
I will say when I was racing, I was mostly a two days per week guy. That’s just how it worked out. There would be periods where I got a third day in whether that was the pool or ows, but a third day took a lot more planning. And given how the pools are in Mesa vs Scottsdale, there’s no chance of a third day if that day is Sunday.
I now resemble that remark! I was swimming an easy 1:15 Ironman distance (hard 1:10) 4 years ago and now I’ve moved away from my pool and I’m up there in 1:20 territory. But my bike and run is waaaaay more competitive. So I definitely have made that trade-off somewhat intentionally (easier to step out the door and do a run session or jump on the trainer than dedicate an 75 minutes round trip to the pool). But I’m hoping to jump back into things once track season ends.
Having a pool nearby (and clubs with a coach on deck) is definitely part of the equation, and what’s helped get my swim into a competitive time for the age group.
Different thing, but it kind of reminds me of when Sam said he turned around and did some backstroke one race to see who else was in the group.
I don’t know why he felt wasting any effort leading Jonas made sense. Since he faded so hard it almost makes him look like a chump. As if Jonas just need to listen to him and they’d make something happen together. Instead, he just needed to sit behind Jonas and conserve until he got closer, assuming Jonas wasn’t fading that is.
Taking the strategy to push the pace on the run and then falling apart with the finish line in sight is exactly gutsy, just not smart. Blaming carbs is fine and all but it’s clear he over biked and paid for it on the run.
Meanwhile, the guys who biked slower than him, who he could have got off the bike with, ran faster than him.
You actually think Long beats Stornes and Blu in a straight up 13 mile TT on the run if they all come into T2 together (with Long making the catch then “sitting in” the rest of the bike; I assume that’s the strategy your suggesting so not to “over bike”), chasing Schomburg? He’d have finished worse with that strategy imo.
Did Sam Long hold pace and get run down or did he fall apart and bleed a ton of time on the last leg of the HM?
How much did pulling out in front and leading the bike and having a little battle every aid station, in his words, cost him?
Sam was running on pace for 10 miles and the last 3 miles he gave up 3:30. He lost to KB by exactly 2 minutes (lets add 10s for his finish line celebration and say KB could have won by 2:10). He lost the podium to Stornes by 11 seconds. KB had more gas in the tank you say? KB only overtook Jonas with 1.5 miles to go.
With that information, put on your coaching hat and tell me your advice will still be, “you biked and ran it exactly like you should have”?
Maybe Sam was just mentally weak and fell apart under the pressure of being chased. You don’t wonder if he biked a minute slower, if he wouldn’t have had 3rd comfortably, and been in a battle for second, and possibly putting pressure on Super KB who himself admitted he cut things too close? You don’t think breaking Lionel’s bike course record by 2 minutes instead of a measly 1 minute cost him?
My advice- if you come into T2 with Blu and Stornes who have always beat you in the run…..ummm that’s not the plan I’d suggest.
So if your suggesting 60s is the difference in great plan and “over biking”, yeah that’s just to small of a margin of error to then shit on that plan he actually executed imo.
It’s obviously easier to monday morning quarterback this stuff, but I think that everyone should know by now, “bike course record* != great run legs” against a world class field. I assume that’s not in the plan either.
*on a somewhat not-so-deceptively challenging course
Casper was in T2 at 9:13:24am, Sam was in T2 at 9:10:44am. There’s enough of a difference in those times for them to not arrive at same time and have better run legs than he would have, I suspect. Easier said than done, as he doesn’t exactly know how close they are.
Of course it is, but then when you actually talk about the plan your suggesting. Your literally saying the margin of error was 60s…..lol that’s almost impossible to tell the difference in a bike leg. So good luck with that margin of error I’d say. 60s effort wouldn’t be “over biking ‘imo.
Again if your saying 60s was the difference in best strategy and overbiking that’d be one shitty coach/plan/execution if that’s how small a margin of error your dealing wtih.
I guess that’s one way to look at it. I think it’s more like 30 minutes of a little too much effort rather than just suggesting he pull over and take a 1 minute coffee break.
Right but that’s because Long comes out of the water 2 mins back of the FOP guys and can’t match their run speed. So no shit your going to have to bike stronger and likely come into T2 in front of them. So again if your margin of error is that small, he didn’t overbike imo. But monday morning qb all you want.
I don’t know how you can see someone literally run 3:30 minutes slower than their average running pace over the rest of the race and in the last 3 miles and not see that as a huge problem. So I guess you think he biked fine within the margin, and just ran too hard and there’s nothing he could have done differently.
Meanwhile, KB, who ran the race, actually said, something like, maybe Sam should have just biked a little slower and he’d run better.
I’m trying to figure out how Sam Long is going to bike slower and then come out of T2 closer to runners who have always ran faster than him. You’ve yet to answer how he was going to win in that situation. It’s a puzzle and even more so if your not a FOP athlete so Long is always going to be much more on the edge then a guy like KB will be. So if your telling me he should have biked easier over 30 mins, that was not going to be a 1 min differennce. So all your doing is showing your math aint mathing in your monday morning qb’ing. So he wasn’t going to podium in your hypothetical and he didn’t podium in the actual race where he potentially “over biked”. So we are no closer to an improved Long with any of your theories.
No duh, Long has to bike harder than the guys who beat him because of the swim deficit. So let’s start there. He’s already by default in “over biked” mode compared to the guys who beat him if they all come into T2 together. So there is no scenario where you want to be in T2 more fatigued than the faster runners who also did less work and have to run shoulder to shoulder for 13 miles with better runners. That’s likely a 10% chance of winning at that point. So the next logical strategy is to put time between you and them and hope that gap puts pressure to mess them up. That also brings in “over biking” but again if your telling me it failed with 3mi to go, I’’m willing to take that gamble then to suggest Sam Long come out of T2 shoulder to shoulder with those guys who beat him.
Which again was why I was so damn adament that the swim block 18 months ago when he signed the pto contract was going to be so important to get right…cus it was never going to be for t100, that swim improvement was never going to be there….but it was for IM branded races that was ultimately going to see the biggest impact if he actually gets his swim improved.
Are you not looking at the run splits? If he gives up 1 minute on the bike, does he run 2-3 minutes faster than he did? Did he just run at a suicide pace for 10-11 miles? He lost by 2 minutes and ran 6-6:30s in the last 3 miles instead of 5:10-20-30s like he did the rest of the race. If we play the pretend numbers game, is it possible that he runs 2-3 minutes faster if he bikes 1 minute slower? You might say, no way, he doesn’t run that fast. But he also never biked the course that fast.
In my near 20 years of coaching, I’ve never seen difference in bike splits of 1 min then be classified as “over biking” at a half distance level. I’ve always seen it be much more of an obvious “blow up” on the run, not just in the final 3 miles. But if your suggesting that is the margin, that’s a interesting monday morning take so thumbs up to that theory.
All this means is that he’s still losing the race in the swim because he’s too far back that it’s causing him to be in a situation where he has to potentially “over bike” while others ahead of him don’t have to. I think his swim is improving, but it still obviously isn’t there (nor do I suggest he’ll ever get FOP or 1st chase pack, but I think he can potentially get another 30s in a 70.3 that could maybe be all the difference in the world.
