Alex Yee - 2:06:38

GreatDane wrote:

JerRun2000 wrote:

Granted he might need to do a training block on the bike to sharpen himself to hang with Wilde but they all sit in drafting lines anyway so he just needs to be good enough to hang close enough to him. Other than that the standard of athletes in long course triathlon is awful compared to short course so he would easily outrun the rest by 5 mins+.

I also just cant see Yee moving to long course for a long long time, look at Jonny Brownlee, he has raced elite drafting triathlons into his mid 30s at the very top level. Long course tri just isn't anywhere near as prestigious as the proper elite racing no matter how much Saudi money you throw at it.

Apparently he was interviewed after Valencia and he is fully commited and determined to defending his Olympic gold in the triathlon in LA. He didn’t mention if he was going to compete in any more marathons between now and then but you would have to predict that given it is still a full 2.5 years away and given his marathon form he would have to have it in mind. My prediction is he will try to break Mo Farah’s British marathon record up until 2027 with some triathlon races thrown in the mix and then focus all out on a triathlon build up before switching full time to the marathon after.

NERunner03533 wrote:

Eliud Bekele wrote:

2:11:08 in London to 2:06:38 in Valencia is a crazy improvement

On the surface, yes, but London temps weren't ideal this year. He ran 13:13 in August & 1:01-mid in October (Valencia Half/a little warm). Not many of us nail the marathon the 1st time. He went out in 1:04:19 in London in warm temps & faded a bit. Makes sense to put it all together with more mileage & better weather. Still, would've thought 2:07-08 more likely. I also don't think it's 100% fair to call Yee the fastest triathlete to run a marathon since he has a strong background in running. 2:06 is wildly impressive for anyone & I'm not so sure people would've thought he could get there if he had only focused on running during his career. I'm impressed with the transition he made between the Olympics & this race. I hope he doubles in LA. Focus on triathlon gold & hope the marathon comes after that (unsure if the schedule is already out?).

NERunner03533 wrote:

Eliud Bekele wrote:

2:11:08 in London to 2:06:38 in Valencia is a crazy improvement

On the surface, yes, but London temps weren't ideal this year. He ran 13:13 in August & 1:01-mid in October (Valencia Half/a little warm). Not many of us nail the marathon the 1st time. He went out in 1:04:19 in London in warm temps & faded a bit. Makes sense to put it all together with more mileage & better weather. Still, would've thought 2:07-08 more likely. I also don't think it's 100% fair to call Yee the fastest triathlete to run a marathon since he has a strong background in running. 2:06 is wildly impressive for anyone & I'm not so sure people would've thought he could get there if he had only focused on running during his career. I'm impressed with the transition he made between the Olympics & this race. I hope he doubles in LA. Focus on triathlon gold & hope the marathon comes after that (unsure if the schedule is already out?).

Re some of the tri specific chatter: 1) Idk that Yee would be better in non-time trial open road races. Short course is all about drafting on the swim/bike (& he was paced through the opening 1k of the run at the Paris Olympics by a teammate). His running races have all been in time trial settings. Would like to see it for sure just not jumping to any conclusions off of this which brings me to 2) Long course tri -- forget what you think you thought you knew about the sport 15-20 years ago. The sport has changed drastically even just in the last 5 years. You need to make the front of the swim or your day could be over -- yes even in 70.3/140.6 racing now. Then the bike is crazy fast. Bigger riders are throwing down big power #'s. IM is 12m & T100 is 20m for drafting so it's not a given he just comes off the bike & runs super fast. You're seeing 1:07s win a lot of races now & that's a 1:07 after holding 300+ watts without drafting the way you draft in short course. You have to be ready for that kind of an effort off the bike to win & you have to be off the bike with the leaders. Hayden is going crazy at T100 races. The Norwegians + some others are making IM racing very difficult. I think a good Yee comp is Patrick Lange. Feel like if Yee did Kona every year for a decade starting now he could come away with 2-3 wins. That should provide some additional perspective. I don't think he goes on any sort of dominant run. It could be 6-7 years between wins just because of pack dynamics. That marathon would be great for him on really horrible weather years. Then he could overcome a small deficit.

NERunner03533 wrote:

Eliud Bekele wrote:

2:11:08 in London to 2:06:38 in Valencia is a crazy improvement

On the surface, yes, but London temps weren't ideal this year. He ran 13:13 in August & 1:01-mid in October (Valencia Half/a little warm). Not many of us nail the marathon the 1st time. He went out in 1:04:19 in London in warm temps & faded a bit. Makes sense to put it all together with more mileage & better weather. Still, would've thought 2:07-08 more likely. I also don't think it's 100% fair to call Yee the fastest triathlete to run a marathon since he has a strong background in running. 2:06 is wildly impressive for anyone & I'm not so sure people would've thought he could get there if he had only focused on running during his career. I'm impressed with the transition he made between the Olympics & this race. I hope he doubles in LA. Focus on triathlon gold & hope the marathon comes after that (unsure if the schedule is already out?).

Re some of the tri specific chatter: 1) Idk that Yee would be better in non-time trial open road races. Short course is all about drafting on the swim/bike (& he was paced through the opening 1k of the run at the Paris Olympics by a teammate). His running races have all been in time trial settings. Would like to see it for sure just not jumping to any conclusions off of this which brings me to 2) Long course tri -- forget what you think you thought you knew about the sport 15-20 years ago. The sport has changed drastically even just in the last 5 years. You need to make the front of the swim or your day could be over -- yes even in 70.3/140.6 racing now. Then the bike is crazy fast. Bigger riders are throwing down big power #'s. IM is 12m & T100 is 20m for drafting so it's not a given he just comes off the bike & runs super fast. You're seeing 1:07s win a lot of races now & that's a 1:07 after holding 300+ watts without drafting the way you draft in short course. You have to be ready for that kind of an effort off the bike to win & you have to be off the bike with the leaders. Hayden is going crazy at T100 races. The Norwegians + some others are making IM racing very difficult. I think a good Yee comp is Patrick Lange. Feel like if Yee did Kona every year for a decade starting now he could come away with 2-3 wins. That should provide some additional perspective. I don't think he goes on any sort of dominant run. It could be 6-7 years between wins just because of pack dynamics. That marathon would be great for him on really horrible weather years. Then he could overcome a small deficit.

Thor123 wrote:

NERunner03533 wrote:

On the surface, yes, but London temps weren't ideal this year. He ran 13:13 in August & 1:01-mid in October (Valencia Half/a little warm). Not many of us nail the marathon the 1st time. He went out in 1:04:19 in London in warm temps & faded a bit. Makes sense to put it all together with more mileage & better weather. Still, would've thought 2:07-08 more likely. I also don't think it's 100% fair to call Yee the fastest triathlete to run a marathon since he has a strong background in running. 2:06 is wildly impressive for anyone & I'm not so sure people would've thought he could get there if he had only focused on running during his career. I'm impressed with the transition he made between the Olympics & this race. I hope he doubles in LA. Focus on triathlon gold & hope the marathon comes after that (unsure if the schedule is already out?).

Re some of the tri specific chatter: 1) Idk that Yee would be better in non-time trial open road races. Short course is all about drafting on the swim/bike (& he was paced through the opening 1k of the run at the Paris Olympics by a teammate). His running races have all been in time trial settings. Would like to see it for sure just not jumping to any conclusions off of this which brings me to 2) Long course tri -- forget what you think you thought you knew about the sport 15-20 years ago. The sport has changed drastically even just in the last 5 years. You need to make the front of the swim or your day could be over -- yes even in 70.3/140.6 racing now. Then the bike is crazy fast. Bigger riders are throwing down big power #'s. IM is 12m & T100 is 20m for drafting so it's not a given he just comes off the bike & runs super fast. You're seeing 1:07s win a lot of races now & that's a 1:07 after holding 300+ watts without drafting the way you draft in short course. You have to be ready for that kind of an effort off the bike to win & you have to be off the bike with the leaders. Hayden is going crazy at T100 races. The Norwegians + some others are making IM racing very difficult. I think a good Yee comp is Patrick Lange. Feel like if Yee did Kona every year for a decade starting now he could come away with 2-3 wins. That should provide some additional perspective. I don't think he goes on any sort of dominant run. It could be 6-7 years between wins just because of pack dynamics. That marathon would be great for him on really horrible weather years. Then he could overcome a small deficit.

Not true -- unless you call running behind someone pacing. See for yourself:

Video:www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTCrrTUpOpU

shirtboy2022 wrote:

Whiny Kelati wrote:

For T100 racing, the draft zone is 20 meters. Great swim-runners like Morgan Pearson, who has a better half marathon PR than Yee, have struggled in T100 because they can't hang with the top guys on the bike. I think the same would be true for Yee.

He would do better in 70.3 due to the 12 meter draft zone, but he would still need plenty of power on a watts course. He has expressed a desire to do Kona some day. But it is far from a foregone conclusion that he can beat a guy like Casper Stornes on a course like Kona.

i think you’re missing the point and failing by your own logic and example: Casper shouldn’t have been able to win in Nice since the bike course was not suited for him, let alone go 1-3 with guys who arent the greatest climbers or have the highest w/kg advantages

its no different in kona: you can have all this down as ‘conceptual’ advantages but that’s not how the races play out otherwise we’d be crowning Ditlev the champion of kona every year and Lange the champion of Nice

Pearson has struggled in every format for a myriad of reasons not really relevant to this conversation about the very best transitioning (yee, wilde, van riel, geens, norwegians). i wouldn’t include pearson in that conversation, sorry

Whiny Kelati wrote:

What is the point I'm missing? You think Alex Yee is going to step up to 70.3 and IRONMAN racing and immediately dominate Hayden Wilde, Jelle Geens, Casper Stornes, and Kristian Blummenfelt because he's a 2:06 marathoner?

The three Norwegians you mention have every bit the W/kg of any in the sport. Do I think guys like Magnus Ditlev, Sam Long, and Trevor Foley stand a much better chance at Kona than Nice? Absolutely.

But the reality is these Norwegians aren't that small and aren't that big, so they can dominate on both types of courses with lab tested VO2 max figures in the 90s. Alex Yee is tiny. I would not be surprised if he could manage a meager 275 watts for an Ironman bike leg and follow that up with a 2:25 in the heat, which would have been more than enough the year Jan Frodeno rode 262W for the win. But it's a different game now and I wouldn't be surprised if 275 watts and a 2:25 doesn't crack the top 5 in Kona. Can he do 330 watts for an hour to stay attached before the climb to Hawi? Probably not.

Lange is a relatively lousy cyclist, and now that the top runners in triathlon are posting power not that much lower than Ditlev and Laidlow, they're never really going to be threatened by those guys.

I'm not sure why Pearson is an irrelevant comparison. He's faster over a half marathon than Yee. He's getting crushed in T100 because he's putting out 325 watts for two hours while being on the bigger side, while guys like Rico Bogen push 375 and smaller guys like Geens push the same power.

Sub 60 wrote:

Whiny Kelati wrote:

What is the point I'm missing? You think Alex Yee is going to step up to 70.3 and IRONMAN racing and immediately dominate Hayden Wilde, Jelle Geens, Casper Stornes, and Kristian Blummenfelt because he's a 2:06 marathoner?

The three Norwegians you mention have every bit the W/kg of any in the sport. Do I think guys like Magnus Ditlev, Sam Long, and Trevor Foley stand a much better chance at Kona than Nice? Absolutely.

But the reality is these Norwegians aren't that small and aren't that big, so they can dominate on both types of courses with lab tested VO2 max figures in the 90s. Alex Yee is tiny. I would not be surprised if he could manage a meager 275 watts for an Ironman bike leg and follow that up with a 2:25 in the heat, which would have been more than enough the year Jan Frodeno rode 262W for the win. But it's a different game now and I wouldn't be surprised if 275 watts and a 2:25 doesn't crack the top 5 in Kona. Can he do 330 watts for an hour to stay attached before the climb to Hawi? Probably not.

Lange is a relatively lousy cyclist, and now that the top runners in triathlon are posting power not that much lower than Ditlev and Laidlow, they're never really going to be threatened by those guys.

I'm not sure why Pearson is an irrelevant comparison. He's faster over a half marathon than Yee. He's getting crushed in T100 because he's putting out 325 watts for two hours while being on the bigger side, while guys like Rico Bogen push 375 and smaller guys like Geens push the same power.

If you run a 2:06 marathon you can run faster than 1:01. Probably close to 60 flat

Whiny Kelati wrote:

shirtboy2022 wrote:

i think you’re missing the point and failing by your own logic and example: Casper shouldn’t have been able to win in Nice since the bike course was not suited for him, let alone go 1-3 with guys who arent the greatest climbers or have the highest w/kg advantages

its no different in kona: you can have all this down as ‘conceptual’ advantages but that’s not how the races play out otherwise we’d be crowning Ditlev the champion of kona every year and Lange the champion of Nice

Pearson has struggled in every format for a myriad of reasons not really relevant to this conversation about the very best transitioning (yee, wilde, van riel, geens, norwegians). i wouldn’t include pearson in that conversation, sorry

What is the point I'm missing? You think Alex Yee is going to step up to 70.3 and IRONMAN racing and immediately dominate Hayden Wilde, Jelle Geens, Casper Stornes, and Kristian Blummenfelt because he's a 2:06 marathoner?

The three Norwegians you mention have every bit the W/kg of any in the sport. Do I think guys like Magnus Ditlev, Sam Long, and Trevor Foley stand a much better chance at Kona than Nice? Absolutely.

But the reality is these Norwegians aren't that small and aren't that big, so they can dominate on both types of courses with lab tested VO2 max figures in the 90s. Alex Yee is tiny. I would not be surprised if he could manage a meager 275 watts for an Ironman bike leg and follow that up with a 2:25 in the heat, which would have been more than enough the year Jan Frodeno rode 262W for the win. But it's a different game now and I wouldn't be surprised if 275 watts and a 2:25 doesn't crack the top 5 in Kona. Can he do 330 watts for an hour to stay attached before the climb to Hawi? Probably not.

Lange is a relatively lousy cyclist, and now that the top runners in triathlon are posting power not that much lower than Ditlev and Laidlow, they're never really going to be threatened by those guys.

I'm not sure why Pearson is an irrelevant comparison. He's faster over a half marathon than Yee. He's getting crushed in T100 because he's putting out 325 watts for two hours while being on the bigger side, while guys like Rico Bogen push 375 and smaller guys like Geens push the same power.

Sub 60 wrote:

Whiny Kelati wrote:

What is the point I'm missing? You think Alex Yee is going to step up to 70.3 and IRONMAN racing and immediately dominate Hayden Wilde, Jelle Geens, Casper Stornes, and Kristian Blummenfelt because he's a 2:06 marathoner?

The three Norwegians you mention have every bit the W/kg of any in the sport. Do I think guys like Magnus Ditlev, Sam Long, and Trevor Foley stand a much better chance at Kona than Nice? Absolutely.

But the reality is these Norwegians aren't that small and aren't that big, so they can dominate on both types of courses with lab tested VO2 max figures in the 90s. Alex Yee is tiny. I would not be surprised if he could manage a meager 275 watts for an Ironman bike leg and follow that up with a 2:25 in the heat, which would have been more than enough the year Jan Frodeno rode 262W for the win. But it's a different game now and I wouldn't be surprised if 275 watts and a 2:25 doesn't crack the top 5 in Kona. Can he do 330 watts for an hour to stay attached before the climb to Hawi? Probably not.

Lange is a relatively lousy cyclist, and now that the top runners in triathlon are posting power not that much lower than Ditlev and Laidlow, they're never really going to be threatened by those guys.

I'm not sure why Pearson is an irrelevant comparison. He's faster over a half marathon than Yee. He's getting crushed in T100 because he's putting out 325 watts for two hours while being on the bigger side, while guys like Rico Bogen push 375 and smaller guys like Geens push the same power.

If you run a 2:06 marathon you can run faster than 1:01. Probably close to 60 flat

shirtboy2022 wrote:

Whiny Kelati wrote:

I agree. Still it's astonishing Morgan Pearson stacks up against these other guys on the run in T100. Yes he often has the fastest run, but it ain't by much. Hayden Wilde is a very good runner and a damn good time trial cyclist.

Short course is basically "which elite swimmer can run the fastest 10k". Long course brings in another dimension.

‘stacks up’ sure when the race is a complete disaster and ppl do an extra bike loop and the wrong number of laps

has the fastest run because hes 2:00 behind coming out of T2 in a Olympic distance event

a lot of promise but lets see some hardware at this point.

like McElroy, Jason West, decent in one or two disciplines, but not consistent and stretching the credulity of being called a modern triathlete

but youre on about Yee who’s ‘worst’ discipline is the bike but yet still managed a Silver and a Gold at the Olympics

obviously youre having a hard time understanding how these guys scale up as they move through their careers

shirtboy2022 wrote:

Whiny Kelati wrote:

I agree. Still it's astonishing Morgan Pearson stacks up against these other guys on the run in T100. Yes he often has the fastest run, but it ain't by much. Hayden Wilde is a very good runner and a damn good time trial cyclist.

Short course is basically "which elite swimmer can run the fastest 10k". Long course brings in another dimension.

‘stacks up’ sure when the race is a complete disaster and ppl do an extra bike loop and the wrong number of laps

has the fastest run because hes 2:00 behind coming out of T2 in a Olympic distance event

a lot of promise but lets see some hardware at this point.

like McElroy, Jason West, decent in one or two disciplines, but not consistent and stretching the credulity of being called a modern triathlete

but youre on about Yee who’s ‘worst’ discipline is the bike but yet still managed a Silver and a Gold at the Olympics

obviously youre having a hard time understanding how these guys scale up as they move through their careers

Whiny Kelati wrote:

shirtboy2022 wrote:

‘stacks up’ sure when the race is a complete disaster and ppl do an extra bike loop and the wrong number of laps

has the fastest run because hes 2:00 behind coming out of T2 in a Olympic distance event

a lot of promise but lets see some hardware at this point.

like McElroy, Jason West, decent in one or two disciplines, but not consistent and stretching the credulity of being called a modern triathlete

but youre on about Yee who’s ‘worst’ discipline is the bike but yet still managed a Silver and a Gold at the Olympics

obviously youre having a hard time understanding how these guys scale up as they move through their careers

I think you're having a hard time understanding. How did Alistair Brownlees (the undisputed GOAT of short course) fail to win a single 70.3 or Ironman World title? Same reason Yee may not be able to. There are better guys when you figure in a time trial bike leg. But just too stupid to argue anymore.