Lance Armstrong

my guess is that somewhere in kenya there is a man who has never rode a bicycle that could float climbs on a bike with the worlds best. he's probably sleeping in a shack and will run 59 miles to school and back tommorow is the problem. just like there is likely some dude in america who has never ran more than a PE mile in sixth grade that could be a sub 13 min 5k guy if he wasnt drinking coors light, eating lard, and working at the mill? you know that the kenyans (and other africans) have the skill and determination to ride well, but we will probably never know in our lifetimes because cycling is an expensive sport for such a very poor country. it really is amazing to me that there are zero pro cyclists that are black (excluding track bike racing). i know first hand that loads of them have tried, but nobody has been wicked fast. maybe there is something to this?

In my experience, good cyclists almost immediately transfer over to good runners, but not vice versa. Most distance runners suck when they get on a bike.

I'm confident Lance would be exceptional, but don't ask me for a projected 10k time. Not sub-28.00 out of the box, anyway.

bcg - Funny how one can be so ironic. My analogy asks how fast my gramda can swim in relation to how fast she has already proven she can walk. THe purpose of this thread asks how fast Lance can run in relation to how fast he has already proven he can bike. See the relationship there? You say my analogy was "awful" and "doesn't make any sense" yet you fail to realize this was indeed the purpose of my analogy. Since I see my analogy was not sophomoric enough for you, I will try to make things more elementary by using sock puppets in the future.

Next, you say I can see the title of the thread and should not post if I am not interested. Point taken. Counterpoint: The title did not say, "How fast could Lance Armstrong run distance x" Rather, it said, "Lance Armstrong" Being a popular name in athletics, I clicked on the title. Prior to this, I did not have any clue what the thread was about. Perhaps Lance got busted for the EPO he is using. Perhaps he has been hurt in a tragic biking incident. Perhaps he has decided to start a running career. You see, your sarcasim at this point (although admittedly funny) does not apply in this case. Hence, your feable attempt to dis ME(rather than counterpoint my OPINION) once again, has failed.

Finally, almost your whole post was dedicated to criticizing my previous post. You say for me to not look at the posts I'm not interested in and impied that I should not criticize others. Yet you again fail to see the irony here as well. You tell me not to criticize and simply ignore those posts I do not like, yet you yourself are indeed guilty of this very thing. It has been said, The pot should not call the kettle black.

As I have said before and will no doubt say again, PLEASE THINK BEFORE YOU POST. Perhaps we can all learn from bcg.

I remember discussing how strong Lance once was on a run with some buddies. As I recall, somebody said that he had run in the 9:15 range for 3200 meters in high school. That shows a lot of talent.

You clearly have too much time with such a long post to defend your honor on a message board. Who cares

runner,

It was stated in the June issue of Track and Field News that McMullen is not switching to cycling. He has been doing some riding for rehab since 97, but those were only rumors of him switching to cycling.

Allez Lance Armstrong ! Le tour de Lance!

Olympic Triathlon gold medal if he wants to!

He would be under 30 with just a little running training and a lot faster than that if he really trained (but of course we'll never know). He does have a good running and triathlon background and probably trail runs a little in the off season as as others have noted. 32 something at the end of a triathlon at around 16 years of age or so is as fast as many sub 29 Americans did at that age not at the end of a triathlon. Also, his body build after his recovery from cancer is very lean compared to before and at least 15 lbs less, so that would help a lot. His legs are not big and heavy like some cyclists.

On another note, many top Norwegian cross country skiers including Alsgaard, Daehlie, Mikkelsplass, and Ulvang can run sub-8:30 3k's on the track in training shoes with no specific running training. Of course nordic skiers cross train and run a lot in the summer. The nordic skiers here in Anchorage do particularily well in hill climb races.

You are right MUXC2K3. This thread was started and is supported by nothing more than a bunch of hero-worshiping geeks. Just ignore the silly kids.

nordic ski god bjorn dahle (sp?) ran a 8:06 3k on the track at a summer training camp in norway. this was in training shoes and done with nobody within 20 sec of him. armstrong could run sub 30 for 10k without a problem after a week or so to stretch the legs out. with his running background and tour de france fitness there is no doubt. take jan ulrich on the other hand and he may not be able to break 34. big legs and no running history. dude can roll on "E"

at dico's like an animal though!

"Lemond" = "MUXC2K3" ???

Lance would destroy any sub-elite runners (myself included). Maaaaybe some elites as well, given time. He would reserve "the glare" for for MUX... wait, no, he would save it for the worthwhile.

And if one is a hero worshipper for worshipping lance, it is in fact because he is a hero, and the most deserving sports icon in the USA. The End.

Seriously, "destroy" elite runners? Well than... On a serious note, I thought he got busted for EPO or something 2-3 years back, I believe after his 2nd Tour de France title. It could just be me mixing it up with someone else. Does anyone else remember anything like this, or if it is in fact true?

Lemond: I'm glad to see someone else on this board a) has a sense of humor and b) has any sense at all.

armstrong has never failed a drug test. he gets tested a minimum of 30 times a year. many of these being random. i would love to think he is clean, but who knows? he is kinda a science experiment in a way even if he is clean. with all the drugs he took recovering from cancer (EPO being one of them), huge weight loss (race weight is 18 pounds less than before cancer), and total recover, he is not like everyone else.

So we know Armstrong could be a top local level runner (<30 minute 10km) and we know he kicks ass on the bike but the question remains, can he swim? It would be interesting to see him lay some smackdown at a World ITU event.

Leg times from last year's winner at the ITU champhionships

8:25 1500m swim

57:42 40k Bike

31:55 "10"km (which is at least 450m short)

lance was a nasty swimmer, i am very involved in the triathlon scene and i know that with minimal training lance would be the fastest swimmer who can bike in any competitive itu event.

he would dominate the ironman distance. steve larsen was a pro mountain biker with zero running background and resembled more of an anchor than a person good at swimming before last year. he had only done a few triathlons ever and then got fourth at wildflower, won ironman lake placid, and got 8th or 9th at kona. blows in the water, takes like 15 minutes back on the bike, and then runs 3 hour marathons.

armstrong can swim well, would take 15 minutes outta larsen (30 outta 3rd fastest bike split in 4 hours) and then could undoubtably run way faster than larsen. i may be an idiot, but i think the dude could very easily be the best in the world at short or ironman distance triathlons? it would never happen but damn it would be fun to see him dedicate a year to triathlons after he wins a few more tours! it would be sick...............

Daehlie was just as much of an aerobic machine as is Armstrong. Nordic skiers, on the whole, have a higher recorded VO2 max than distance runners and cyclists.

It would be pretty incredible to have Dahelie (back in the day) and Armstrong go head-to-head in a lab to see who was the biggest freak of nature. Throw Ulrich, Alsgaard (if he can stop racing cars for a minute), Geb, Indurain, El G, Elofson and maybe Kannouchi and Tom Dolan (back in the day) in there as well, just for curiosity's sake.

-kk

As jmx notes, Armstrong has never failed a drug test, despite a rigorous and random testing system imposed by cycling\'s governing body that puts anything the track and field world has to shame. In fact, a few years back, entire teams were ejected or voluntarily exited the Tour de France \"in protest\" due to stringent EPO tests. Armstrong won that Tour. He did use EPO during his chemotherapy, as do most cancer patients. Chemo kills blood cells at the same time it kills tumor cells. Theoretically, chemotherapy could completely cure most cancers if it didn\'t have the unfortunate side-effect of killing the patients. Therefore, the success of chemo, in lage part, depends on doctors\' ability to control the blood-killing side effects. Red blood cell levels can plummet to ranges far below their normal count, so far that chemo is no longer a viable option. Drugs like Procrit (EPO) are administered to make chemo viable again. The notion that this was a performance enhancer is ludicrous, especially if you\'ve ever spent any time in a cancer ward. Patients get exhausted walking to the bathroom.

Perhaps one could argue Armstrong did derive some \"benefit\" from his brush with death, in terms of his changed body shape and equally changed perspective on the world. I doubt anyone with even the most rudimentary knowledge of what he went through, however, would ever use that word.

DT, you are right. Not to mention, it is completely ridiculous to imply that the EPO he had while dealing with cancer 4-5 years ago would still have any effect. As a matter of fact, the effects of that EPO were gone within about 2 weeks after taking it. Now, is he on EPO (or some other type of drug) now? Nobody knows b/c he always tests negative. However, this does not totally mean he is innocent. I would like to think he is clean since he has accomplished so much in the face of amazing adversity. I can also understand how some would be skeptical of a clean person so thoroughly dominating a sport that is known to be dirty.