Did you read my post? I said hopefully she's been hammering the bike -- not that she'll hammer the bike. See the difference? Obviously the bike is where she has the most room to improve. That's why I said I hope she has been spending her training time there.
Also for the poster above, I wouldn't be shocked for her to be able to stick to the swim pack in an ED sprint. She was 13th out of 200+ in the swim in her September sprint. Now she has more training under her belt. This is a development race for people hoping to earn their elite cards. She should be pretty evenly matched here. Look at the Clermont results for this race from last year. Day 1- 63 finishers. Her September score rating would put her around the top-15 already. So now she's had some real training. The winner scored a 101-flat. She should be able to make up that gap or come really close.
There is no way that she can learn to race bike in a couple of weeks. Sure she might can bike without falling down, but there is a huge difference between a recreational bicyclist and a race bicyclist.
She did a sprint tri in September & biked almost 21mph for 10 miles. That was a so/so result on what was probably a fast/flat course but it was also her first race. It's been more than a "couple of weeks" since then. She's done real training & she's competing against non-pros trying to get to that level. It should be perfect for her.
Clermont EDR. 2 races -- 1 on Saturday, 1 on Sunday. Finish top-3 & you get your elite card. Or you could get two elite score ratings from the races that would also get you your pro card. Last year's winner scored a 101, which is under the elite standard. Cain was 97 in her one sprint in September on limited training. She should be able to contend for a top-3. She's top-10 or so if she hasn't made any improvement at all.
I'm a Mary Cain fan. What's the best way to follow the tri- scene. Are there any sites that do live scoring, post race interviews, and race highlights?
Won't be anything too helpful for this. Triathlon has a streaming platform for ITU races that's actually pretty good because 1) it's pretty cheap & 2) it's the only subscription you need. Just gonna have to look for race results/check twitter/IG.
Triathlon YouTube content is really, really solid. Would recommend checking out Lionel Sanders, Sam Long, Lucy Charles-Barclay, Joe Skipper, Kristian Blummenfelt, PTO, Super League, etc. Lots of good documentary type stuff.
Slowtwitch is the triathlon forum. People seem kinder over there.
Evidently, she had some trouble on the bike. She came out of the swim in the second pack, very close to the eventual top 3 women (low 11 min.), but lost over three minutes on the bike (31-34+ minutes). She had one of the top 5 run times, but the fastest woman ran 16:59 to Cain's 18:37. Her bike was bottom 10 slowest, maybe flatted? Final place 23/55 finishers. Story needed.
Evidently, she had some trouble on the bike. She came out of the swim in the second pack, very close to the eventual top 3 women (low 11 min.), but lost over three minutes on the bike (31-34+ minutes). She had one of the top 5 run times, but the fastest woman ran 16:59 to Cain's 18:37. Her bike was bottom 10 slowest, maybe flatted? Final place 23/55 finishers. Story needed.
Rooting for Cain but I'm amazed a runner of her caliber could run 18:37. I have never done a Tri and can imagine running off the bike is quite difficult and an adjustment but still...
A brick (bike/run) workout should be a staple for any athlete who plans to be successful at triathlon. With her first race having been in September, I highly doubt she hasn't been doing that kind of training. Even weekend warriors do these workouts. It's easy to dismiss the slower bike and what people think is a sub-optimal 5k for a former elite runner as due to inexperience, but someone who wants to be a pro triathlete has probably been doing these workouts. Obviously, she's not a 15:45 5k runner anymore, and not even close. Probably a 17 or 17:30 is her new reality. Having said that, I'm rooting for her and hoping to see those times come down. She can still be a very good triathlete running those times.
Evidently, she had some trouble on the bike. She came out of the swim in the second pack, very close to the eventual top 3 women (low 11 min.), but lost over three minutes on the bike (31-34+ minutes). She had one of the top 5 run times, but the fastest woman ran 16:59 to Cain's 18:37. Her bike was bottom 10 slowest, maybe flatted? Final place 23/55 finishers. Story needed.
Something went wrong on the bike, I agree. She lost about 3 minutes on the bike. Women who were behind her on the swim finished ahead of her by the finish. Maybe it was mechanical or for some reason she couldn't hang on to the paceline? Hopefully, we'll get an update.
She also lost roughly 15 seconds on T1 and 45 seconds on T2 compared to the women who finished ahead of her. That's not compared to the best T1 and T2 times; that's roughly the median (just eyeballing) of the times of the women ahead of her. Even the women in the botton third were faster in transition.
This puzzles me. Why didn't her coach have her work more on transitions? You can't expect to compete against high level triathletes if you spot them a full minute in the transitions.
But the first race of the season is the baseline for improvement. It's obvious where she needs to improve. She needs to practice transitions, cycling, and bricks.
Evidently, she had some trouble on the bike. She came out of the swim in the second pack, very close to the eventual top 3 women (low 11 min.), but lost over three minutes on the bike (31-34+ minutes). She had one of the top 5 run times, but the fastest woman ran 16:59 to Cain's 18:37. Her bike was bottom 10 slowest, maybe flatted? Final place 23/55 finishers. Story needed.
The swim was quite solid, in the ballpark of the top athletes, but the run was not very fast, 23rd time coming off a slow bike. T1 was not super fast, but kind of reasonable for a beginner (1:31 compared to 1:10-1:20 of the top atheletes), but T2 was very slow. I agree that she may have had a flat or some problem on the bike and then may have called it a day and jogged the rest as she had no chance to catch up with the top group. Would be curious to hear the story.
I think that he started training for triathlons in the fall (Sept? Oct? Nov? Dec?). I’m not sure if this was his first triathlon.
His transition times were decent. 1:08 and 40s. Not the fastest, but he did not lose a ton of time like Mary did. For example, he lost 3s and 2s respectively to the guys in 2nd and 3rd in T1 and 3s and 7s respectively to the guys in 2nd and 3rd.
Yeah, in a sprint triathlon two good transitions can be worth a good 20-30 seconds on the competition, which can be the difference between 1st and 4th place. In a local sprint triathlon I got 2nd place and the 3rd place guy was faster than me in all of the three legs, but I got 40 seconds on him on the transitions... good memories.
”Cain having fun doing triathlons to try to stay in shape”
As good as Trouard was yesterday. His time was only 58:30 (Klau’s only sprint triathlon was a 56:30). But again, Trouard may have simply jogged the 5k since he may have been only going for the win (it really looks like that’s what he did)
Cain came 5 min behind a 15/16 y.o.
Not the same thing…
Trouard and Klau (and Foley and Dubrick…) have become pros in triathlon
From three years of real training she ran 1:59 and 4:06 at age 18.
She could decide to focus on the 800 and compete at world level again 18 months from now, with a minimum training time requirement as opposed to how she used to train.
She can be a perennial 1:58 runner.
If she wanted it she could have her comeback and all the media attention in the world it would bring with it, but perhaps she has closed this chapter. Sad if so.
In her lawsuit, Mary states that some of the effects from her injuries while she was with the OP are permanent. I doubt returning to being an elite distance runner is an option for her.
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