Should Parker Valby switch to the triathlon after college?

The girl just won NCAA XC, and now you want her to change sports? It is quite possible that she won't make an impact on the world stage as a pro - just like many other NCAA champions. Her training regimen isn't entirely unknown. Eilish McColgan does a lot of XT, is far older (allowing her to build on to what she did at Valby's age), and has just run 30.00 for 10000m (faster than the American record).

You have no idea whether her XT regimen might not take her to a higher level, nor whether being able to do a lot of running will get her there either (see American record for 10000m behind the British/Scottish one, and a minute behind the WR). Is it the easy route? Certainly not, but she did just beat all those runners who, presumably, do all the running - so how is that working out for them?! perhaps more of them need to include XT as an element to their training. It might actually keep more athletes healthy than running just to run.

Finishing her running successfully in college and then moving on to more important career possibilities would be the best thing for her.

What do we know about P Valby as a youth swimmer? If P Valby was a highly competitive club swimmer from age about 5 to age about 15, that would explain two things: 1) superior cardio ability on low mileage; 2) fragility when logging more than 30 miles per week, running.

I would need to know more about her youth swimming but your question regarding triathlons is a good question.

Amazingly, both Tuohy and Valby are excellent tri candidates, as is Irene Riggs. All 3 are competent swimmers and at least aware of cycling. It's next to impossible to get good at swimming, if you didn't swim youth or high school. Cycling can be learned and runners generally transition real well to bike.

Parker went to the rival high school of my former high school, although i graduated before she was born. The local paper mentioned she was a competitive swimmer before running cross country or track. My wife was a swimmer at UF, and also remarked that Parker should be a triathlete when we were watching the meet on TV yesterday.

Maybe she should go pro and run, but do we think she will have an Olympic medal chance at any distance? Too early to tell of course, but the American women are nowhere near the international level above 1500M right now. I guess Monson is closest currently.

As long as she’s a decent swimmer, she could crush the triathlon. Of course I have no clue what she can do on the bike, but I’d imagine she’d be fine with her fitness.

USA Triathlon recruits from D1 running programs looking for people who have some high school swimming background. Current 70.3 world champ Taylor Knibb was a runner and swimmer at Cornell. She makes major bucks in triathlon compared to a midling running career.

Swimming is cardio through the roof! Of the 3 events in triathlon, the swim is the hardest to get good at by far. Does not sound like she is using swimming as crosstraining but if she swam competitively previously that does exmplain the superior aerobic development.

Not to mention the performances on the bike are really fast now — an overall big improvement from like 10 years ago. Triathlon is a really difficult sport and you need to apply yourself at all three disciplines to have any chance of even being age group elite.

That is basically what this comes down to. Do you think she is running 3:52, 14:15 or 29:30? She could make a bunch of US teams and always be that 5th placers.

granted the odds of her being a good enough swimmer are low. And the money in running is likely to be better at least at the start..

At lunch I stated she can make the US team for Paris at 5,000 training as she is now. I strongly disagree with the few above comments that says she can run 10,000.

My understand is that she almost exclusively cross trains on the arc trainer. I don’t think the running + arc trainer would convert to triathlon. Maybe I’m wrong and she’s swimming and biking but in the LR interviews from this weekend, she said she does the arc trainer.

the money in gravel cycling is definitely not better than the money in track. what planet did you come from?

Obviously, there are increased injury risks if one moves up to 10k, half etc, to but looking at Valby's running style, giant motor-no speed, talent wise she will get better as distance increases. She could most likely go out tomorrow and run a 32:00 10k with her current fitness.

the options aren't restricted to mediocre running career or amazing triathalon career. are you people trolling???

What is your definition of "major bucks"?

Actually, she doubles with swimming now in her easy days

She should get a job at Morgan Stanley trading bonds like a respectable person.

Sounds like she already swims and bikes. I'm sure there would be some time needed to adjust to open water swimming and cycling outdoors, but it seems like she's got a good head start already.

i could see her doing steeplechase. she's Emma Coburn with speed.