Barb Lindquist wrote:
You can find out about how to qualify for an elite license here:
http://www.usatriathlon.org/el...ation.aspx
Barb, do you know when the 2016 elite license qualifying criteria is going to be posted? (Above links to 2015). Was wondering if they are going to change anything since there are not many domestic Olympic distance races with a $20,000 prize purse left to qualify for a license.
Arcadia wrote:
Just wondering, is the expected 5k time for a track or road race? Also, what are comparable swimming times?
Since most of the runners we recruit are coming out of college, they have track times vs. road times. That said, these are not cut and dry standards and I have absolutely looked at road times for someone a little further out of college. As mentioned previously we look at the history of the athlete, whether he/she was matched well to a NCAA program or not, history of injury, unmet potential-- all of these would be more important that the slight variation from a certified 5k on the road or a track 5k.
I'm not sure if your "comparable swimming times" question is for the swimmer or for our 200/800 swim test. Both are on the USAT website. For the collegiate swimmer, since there are so many events, we use either NCAA Championship qualification or Conference placings depending on if the swimmer is D1, D2, D3. A distance swimmer/IMer has a better chance at the sport than a breaststroker or even 50/100 sprinter, for example. The swim gets the athlete in the triathlon game, but the run wins it. If your question had to do with our swim testing times, for females we are looking for a 2:30/10:40 and for males a 2:15/10' in yards for the 200 all out, 1' rest, 800 all out test. Like the run A standard, these are not set in stone and depend on how much the athlete has been swimming recently.
Barb Lindquist wrote:You can find out about how to qualify for an elite license here:https://www.teamusa.org/usa-triathlon/elite/elite-athlete-qualification
????? wrote:
Barb, do you know when the 2016 elite license qualifying criteria is going to be posted? (Above links to 2015). Was wondering if they are going to change anything since there are not many domestic Olympic distance races with a $20,000 prize purse left to qualify for a license.
Great question. Please note that I attached the link to the newly migrated USAT website above. It is still the 2015 criteria. The Athletes Advisory Council (AAC) is in charge of the Elite license criteria with USAT Board approval. They are reviewing proposals for 2016. Our hope is that they will submit a the criteria to the Board in their mid-January meeting so that it comes into effect by the end of January.
It was a tough landscape last year with drop in the number of Olympic distance races with a prize purse greater than $20k. One of the current proposals is to use the USAT ranking system (all age groupers are familiar with this) to identify a threshold that would quality an athlete for their elite license eligibility. This would give an additional and new avenue to quality.
Hunterbecomeshaunted wrote:
Don't do it! Triathlon took away Verzbicas from arguably becoming one of the best runners we ever had and then he almost died on the bike. Go find talent outside of running to ruin with your bike crashes we don't want to lose anyone else like Lukas.
Triathlon didn’t take Verzbicas away. He chose to pursue another sport he loved. While the accident was unfortunate, Lukas has rebounded from it to dedicate himself to climb the ranks in order to achieve success at the highest level.
We all know there are risks of doing any sport, be it over-use injury from running 100mpw, crashing on a bike, or driving to a competition and getting hit by a truck. As athletes and humans going through life we need to weigh the cost/benefit of any risk and try to minimize those risks. This could be running on trails vs. roads or working on bike skills vs. another aerobic ride or choosing quieter bike routes and times. There are millions of triathletes and cyclists around the world who never have a terrible bike crash. You can’t let fear drive your life.
gdm wrote:
I\'ll bump this thread with a provocative question mostly unrelated to the topic at hand.
Does triathlon have a doping and corruption problem on the scale of Track and Field? Prospective track athletes certainly have to wonder whether they must dope to keep up -- is that the case in Triathlon? Is doping less effective because of the combination of skills/sports?
I can\'t comment on the issues in Track and Field, but I can tell you my personal experience from racing 10 years elite and at the top of the podium (world #1). Never in my years did I feel the need to dope to be competitive, let alone be exposed to how to go about doing so. I felt if everyone was tested as much as I was, in and out of comp, then the sport had to be clean. We\'ve had our bad apples, but from the leadership in the sport downward there is transparency and no corruption. Doping concerns shouldn\'t be a reason not to get into triathlon!
Yours is a great question and actually goes to one that Weldon asked earlier which was:
Also on timing, my basic understanding is you have time cutoffs that you are looking for in runners and then those runners undergo a swim test to see how good of a swimmer they are, and then you evaluate them from there and then bring them into the program. Should people contact you now, or try and improve their swimming first and make sure their swimming is close to the swim test standards before contacting you?
I would encourage a runner to contact me if he/she is at all interested in giving the swim test a go. I have resources to help the runner with the swim so that you aren't left hanging! First, I have a detailed handout on swim technique, with lots of drills (and videos of me doing them). Second, I send out a weekly email to recruits with three swim workouts at 2 different distances, a 2500yd and 5000yd. While it is best to swim in a program or have local swim coaching, I know that most runners who swim will just go swim straight if left to their own devices. This would be like a runner going out and running 50-70' easy every day and thinking they would run an 800m and 3k fast. Third, I can also review swim video to help give some swim technique pointers.
So I would encourage any runner who wants to do the swim test to contact me!
I'm intrigued. I'd be interested if 15' is the max, or if there is more time to tease out of the athlete. And of course if the athlete can swim is a good question, too. Send me an email!
Hey Barb,
Is the CRP coach still weighting his (male/female) athletes daily? What do you think of this practice?
Carneasada wrote:
Hey Barb I know Lukas Verzbicas was the top triathlete US had on the men's side heading into London 2012 but with his ridiculous crash I want to know if you offer some kind of insurance or help if something that serious were to happen to me doing triathlons
An accident which occurs in an independent training environment falls under an athlete’s own insurance but in sanctioned USAT races the insurance coverage becomes the secondary provider. As with any insurance policy, exclusions and deductibles apply.
PEDS?
Barb,
As a former D1 A-A swimmer, there is a real bias against the swim in the standard tri distances.
Is there any talk of evening out the distances? Say 10K swim, 60 mile bike, 26.2 mile run (or some equal variation). All those distances take about 2 hours for the top guys in the individual sports.
Former A-A wrote:
Barb,
As a former D1 A-A swimmer, there is a real bias against the swim in the standard tri distances.
Is there any talk of evening out the distances? Say 10K swim, 60 mile bike, 26.2 mile run (or some equal variation). All those distances take about 2 hours for the top guys in the individual sports.
This isn't ironman dude.
No they aren't going to change the Olympic distances in the next 10 years and the USA triathlon people have no say in that anyway.
stop asking this wrote:
Former A-A wrote:Barb,
As a former D1 A-A swimmer, there is a real bias against the swim in the standard tri distances.
Is there any talk of evening out the distances? Say 10K swim, 60 mile bike, 26.2 mile run (or some equal variation). All those distances take about 2 hours for the top guys in the individual sports.
This isn't ironman dude.
No they aren't going to change the Olympic distances in the next 10 years and the USA triathlon people have no say in that anyway.
Ok. How about 3k swim, 25k bike, 10k run.
As the parent of a top junior elite racer who came up living and breathing triathlon, I take exception to this untrue statement you gave in response to a strong question:
"USAT actually has a VERY robust youth and junior program. You can read more here:
http://www.usatriathlon.org/el...teams.aspx
There are over 35 High Performance Teams around the country and we have Talent ID Coordinators for each of our 10 regions. There are whole generations of athletes who have grown up as triathletes, not swimmers or runners."
Kids TRY to grow up as triathletes--mine tried. The talent ID program is really a joke, at least in our region, which I won't mention so as not to embarrass anyone. The top few kids in the country are good draft-legal on the boys side, but many homeschool, so don't have hs sports and academic obligations. A decent athlete can half-ass training in 2 of 3 disciplines and finish in top 10 at nationals. Coaches are not developing talent!! They aren't looking for it, except in Iowa. So much talent on the coasts, yet the top kids are from landlocked states and all of the races are too? Most coaches don't put together workouts, or offer much other than good race day coaching.
Then, for college, the junior men are VERY frustrated as they have no options. Look at Brent Demarest--former champion, running, and running fast, at UVA. You lost Tony Smorgawicz (sorry, sp) as well. Even some ladies are running: Gorman, Spearing, because collegiate tri programs won't get them where they need to go, which is really fast in a 10K.
The kids you need back in the program are all of these guys, and the current generation of junior elites who have a ton of talent (see below), and the best character/drive/dedicated kids will go off to run in college.
My question is, will you keep track of them and what will you do to get them back in 4 years? Is there a plan?
I would love to see these kids go at it against your college recruits. My hunch is that they would be far superior. Top Junior Elites who would return in 2016--if you can keep them:
Austin Hindman, runner--, one more year of HS, will be top D1 runner
Rider, all 3--So good as a youngster, but off to disappear at Queens, good luck keeping up with kids who are training in well funded--and here is the key--well coached college D1/2/3 running programs.
Smith, swim/run--maybe ditto
Pimental, swimmer--ditto
McQueen--swim/bike--??
Jarvis, run/bike--one more year, track miler
Bailey, swim--?
Reid, former cyclist--college runner
Dingman, run and improved swim--college runner
Hershey, run--college runner
Wilimovsky swim/bike--club tri in Colorado
Former A-A wrote:
Barb,
As a former D1 A-A swimmer, there is a real bias against the swim in the standard tri distances.
Is there any talk of evening out the distances? Say 10K swim, 60 mile bike, 26.2 mile run (or some equal variation). All those distances take about 2 hours for the top guys in the individual sports.
It's funny you say that because my joke is that if I was queen for a day I'd have it be roughly 40' per leg to give a 2hr event (for women), so 3000m swim, 26k bike, 10k run. There is no talk of this format, though. As NCAA swimmers we can just be happy in the fact that the transition area is less congested and that we haven't extra energy left after the swim.
[quote]tripoppa wrote:
As the parent of a top junior elite racer who came up living and breathing triathlon, I take exception to this untrue statement you gave in response to a strong question:
"USAT actually has a VERY robust youth and junior program. You can read more here:
http://www.usatriathlon.org/el...teams.aspx
There are over 35 High Performance Teams around the country and we have Talent ID Coordinators for each of our 10 regions. There are whole generations of athletes who have grown up as triathletes, not swimmers or runners."
I'm sorry that your experience with our YE/JE program was not a great one. I still stand by that this is a thriving program. Triathlon is a tricky sport in regards to training youth, much different than say swimming or even soccer. The emphasis is on learning skills and love of the sport and the more serious aspect of training comes later when the body can handle it. You do not see 15 year old Elite World Champions for a reason.
College provides many avenues for triathletes. One of those avenues is to go and run in order to sharpen the sword for coming back to triathlon after college. Hunter Kemper (4x Olympian) did this. He knew he needed to run faster so he walked on at Wake Forest and put triathlon on the back burner for 4 years.
Just for your knowledge for your son/daughter, junior triathletes who opt to run in college are eligible to come under the Collegiate Recruitment Program post-grad.
Former A-A wrote: Ok. How about 3k swim, 25k bike, 10k run.
In the early days of the US Triathlon Series (through 1983?) the standard distance was 2k swim, 30k bike, 15k run. Made for about a 2:30 race for the top men, 2:45ish for the top women.
