Gwen Jorgensen Quitting Tri, Going Full Time Marathon.

She will end up injured before she makes it to the start line of a marathon.

Seriously doubt that.

I am curious as to whether she is still incorporating swimming and cycling into her marathon training. I noticed that after my age group triathlon career (kids and work) I stopped cycling but kept swimming and running. Swimming is great for cardiovascular fitness but not so good for running economy. There was a noticeable difference though in my running stride sans cycling. Cycling is really good for tempo and leg strength development. While I think cycling will make you a slower runner in the shorter races it does seem to let you go further, more efficiently.

If she's not cycling as cross training she may see a dip in her performance as she segues into run only environment for the marathon.

There's no reason in the world why she can't break 2:30 and maybe sniff 2:25 but outside of that it would take divine intervention from our Dear Leader.

GJ is in CO training with BTC chicks again. Why doesn't she don the black and red?

Raysism wrote:

the odds that a 32 year old, 5'10" woman with little running background is the next one to run 2:25 are pretty slim. She ran a 2:41 on no marathon-specific training, but a TON of aerobic training.

I've coached youth/HS runners who come over from competetive triathlon circuit, and many times they get no faster (and sometimes get slower) because it turns out they're really great triathletes but just good distance runners (when compared to people who are far more talented at pure aerobic running).

All of our great marathoners debuted in the 2:25 to 2:28 range, and none of them got their PR much lower than that (Shalane being the biggest improver, and Gwen ain't Shalane).

Well I pretty much nailed that one.

She should go back to the triathlon. She has had greater success there.