Morgan Pearson should focus on running. He’s a better runner than he is a triathlete

Is he a national caliber runner? Absolutely. Would he be top 3 in the 10k or marathon and competing at the olympics? Probably not.

Workouts shmerkouts! Okay yes he does some great running workouts and clearly he responds well to all the aerobic stimulus he gets from Tri training. But that doesn’t mean he would be top of the crop in the US /world for a moment let alone consistently. If you want a case study in runner turned tri turned runner again look no further than Gwen Jorgenson. Yea she hangs on the US circuit but doesn’t dominate

it's also probably easier to cobble together a living off sponsorship money since there's so much more gear involved. if he focused just on running he might be good but would definitely take a pay cut.

pretty much every runner turned triathlete did so because they couldnt handle the mileage needed to compete for championships. triathletes can run 40 MPW (some run more, but doubt any ITU guys are over 60 regularly) and still be world class considering they are doing 20 hours of training on top of that.

I don't think he has the build to be a good runner.

I don't think he's been doing much since he left Good Morning Britain.

Morgan Pearson is a runner wrote:

He does running workouts on par with track and marathon olympians, but that goes to waste in the triathlon. He is a runner, period

I'm pretty sure we just watched this movie. I don't think it turned out the way you think it did.

No!

That's why he became a tri-athlete.

Juice Springsteen wrote:

Workouts shmerkouts! Okay yes he does some great running workouts and clearly he responds well to all the aerobic stimulus he gets from Tri training. But that doesn’t mean he would be top of the crop in the US /world for a moment let alone consistently. If you want a case study in runner turned tri turned runner again look no further than Gwen Jorgenson. Yea she hangs on the US circuit but doesn’t dominate

He ran 13:26 in college. That was in the collegiate top 25 at the time. So it is entirely possible he could have become an Olympic caliber runner if he had not made the switch to triathlon. Not guaranteed, but certainly a realistic goal.

You compare him to Jorgensen. Jorgensen was no slouch in college running, but Pearson was much better:

Pearson's collegiate PR was 47 seconds off of the 5000m WR at the time. 1116 pts on the IAAF charts.

Jorgenson? A whopping 1:44 off of the women's WR at the time. 1059 points on the IAAF charts.

Actually, Jorgensen's PRs now, after 4 years of dedicated professional running, are about equivalent to what Pearson did at age 21 in college.

Guess he proved he's not that good in the triathlon either. Wasn't even competitive. Didn't understand the rules and got a penalty. Never really in it... but watching his videos I was thinking his training was disaster compared to Blummenfelt and the guys online. It's almost like he was faking it/winging it by not doing the complete volume necessary?

Oh well, based on everything we're seeing in the Olympic Triathlon, he could win it on his 4th freaking Olympics in 2036.

CinqueMinute wrote:

Guess he proved he's not that good in the triathlon either. Wasn't even competitive. Didn't understand the rules and got a penalty. Never really in it... but watching his videos I was thinking his training was disaster compared to Blummenfelt and the guys online. It's almost like he was faking it/winging it by not doing the complete volume necessary?

Oh well, based on everything we're seeing in the Olympic Triathlon, he could win it on his 4th freaking Olympics in 2036.

he was doing 25+ hour weeks just like everyone else and got bronze in the world championships. his stock was high going into tokyo and has proved he can compete at a championship caliber race. im sure the conditions (a lot of boulder athletes arent prepared for hot AND humid races) and penalty played a part, but he is definitely inexperienced compared to others and it showed in this race with his horrible performance.

Morgan

I am sure you would have looked at your bike data aka wattage. 13-14 minutes over 500 watts seems to be the norm if you weren't on the front. No matter how good a runner you are if you haven't trained for those repeated efforts on the bike it was going to be a long day. But hey what do I know. Good luck for the rest of the triathlon season.

coahc wrote:

Morgan

I am sure you would have looked at your bike data aka wattage. 13-14 minutes over 500 watts seems to be the norm if you weren't on the front. No matter how good a runner you are if you haven't trained for those repeated efforts on the bike it was going to be a long day. But hey what do I know. Good luck for the rest of the triathlon season.

That long at 500 watts? That’s tough even for full time profesional cyclists

I’m pretty sure he also got into a crash with another athlete and he was one of the runners that had the unlucky start and got in the water and then had to restart. Just a bad experience, probably not indicative of his actual ability.

There are just a lot more bodies/performances between Pearson and the WR right now than there are between Jorgensen and the WR. Pearson would earn a LOT less just running than he could in triathlon. He'd probably be about Fauble's or Stinson's level as a pro runner, maybe even Ryan Hill's level: really good domestically and always on the cusp of breaking through to international class. He's made the right choice.

He's ranked fourth in the world triathlon rankings right now. He had a bad race at the Olympics, but he's one of the best triathletes in the world. Original poster has no idea what he's talking about.

Just shows that rankings are about participation and nothing else. He just got blasted in REALITY at the OLYMPICS. Morgan doesn't give a sh!t about rankings other than his performance bonus for being in the Top 10.

adfsfasf wrote:

He's ranked fourth in the world triathlon rankings right now. He had a bad race at the Olympics, but he's one of the best triathletes in the world. Original poster has no idea what he's talking about.

He is going to go home with a medal from this Olympics. Does anyone here have a clue what they are talking about?

Exactly! You read my mind. Cinque minute knows. Pearson was saving it for Friday.

adfsfasf wrote:

He's ranked fourth in the world triathlon rankings right now. He had a bad race at the Olympics, but he's one of the best triathletes in the world. Original poster has no idea what he's talking about.

Exactly. He's nowhere close to competing for a USA Olympic spot on the track, where you need to be about a 13:0x guy with a closing ability he's never shown. Bare minimum he'd have to drop 30sec off his 5k to be a medal contender on the track. He's already an Olympian and medal contender in the Tri, just had an awful day.