WHATS UP HAWAII IRONMAN

Fellow Flea wrote:

Rolly Olly wrote:

Ever taken a corner at 35 mph on a bike? How about holding a wheel in a pack going 50 mph? Go try it an come back to the conversation.

This thread is about an Ironman. I don't see too many people taking a corner at 35 mph or riding in a pack at 50 mph during an Ironman.

Do you?

Cycling is more than just stomping the pedals. I'm no expert, but have done some cycling, and have had many conversations with some pretty good cyclists. Most runners turn cyclists will try to stomp the hell out of the pedals instead of actually turning the pedals. Also they will tense up in the upper body and be too wide in the knees and too straight up....all slowing you down. There is also a lot of technique involved when changing gears if the course has any sort of incline at all. If you want to go fast on a bike it is far more than "just pedaling".

Alan

can this thread have anyone uninformed and incorrect posts? for those of you who have no clue, do all of us a favor and abstain from posting your malarky.

hunter kemper began swimming when he was SIX. yes, SIX. he has a swimming background and then got into tris when he was 10. also, his 10k pr is 30:17 -- not the made-up 28:30 you cited. you would think that a skinny stupid runner would at least get his 10k time at wake right.

whitfield began racing tris when he was 15 so he learned had to swim when he just started getting hair on his balls. that hardly is someone who was a "runner" who then decided to do tris and taught himself how to swim.

your debut marathon in an ironman is going to have very little predictive value in terms of what you could do in an open marathon (other than that you should be able to run it faster). i agree with the other poster that if you ran a perfect ironman, then you should have been about 20 minutes off your open marathon time. however, i don't know if you paced yourself right in kona and you also will be training specifically for a marathon when you run it (versus training for an ironman).

another clueless poster who should just let others comment on something that he knows nothing about. you do realize that the guys running 2:50 (1) are training for an ironman and not an open marathon and (2) can run a lot faster than that in an open marathon. your typical 2:30 marathoner is going to get crushed in the marathon on an ironman because (1) he is cocky and thinks that he is a runner and (2) he has no idea how much a 112 mile bike ride (plus a 2.4 mile swim) will take out of him. think about how you feel at about mile 22 of a marathon. that's about how you feel when you START the marathon in an ironman. nearly every ironman has some pure runners who think that they will crushed the run who pull a 4 or 5 hour marathon. it's amusing to watch them.

as stated repeatedly on here by people who actually know something about ironmen, the best ironmen competitors are those who can put up a monster bike time (a pure runner cannot) and then who can hold it together on the run (think 2:50s). even sinballe, who is humungous and who put up a monster bike split (i think the faster even), ground out a sub 3 hour marathon this year in kona.

edge wrote:

can this thread have anyone uninformed and incorrect posts? for those of you who have no clue, do all of us a favor and abstain from posting your malarky.

hunter kemper began swimming when he was SIX. yes, SIX. he has a swimming background and then got into tris when he was 10. also, his 10k pr is 30:17 -- not the made-up 28:30 you cited. you would think that a skinny stupid runner would at least get his 10k time at wake right.

whitfield began racing tris when he was 15 so he learned had to swim when he just started getting hair on his balls. that hardly is someone who was a "runner" who then decided to do tris and taught himself how to swim.

You are an idiot. Kemper comes from a running background, from his site: "Entering Wake Forest University in the fall of 1994, Hunter was a member of the cross country and track teams. He was All-Academic Atlantic Coast Conference for four years and All-ACC his senior year, as a result of finishing second in the 10,000 meters at the ACC Track and Field Championships"

I don't give two shits if he started swimming at age six. So did I. EVERY kid in my school had to take swimming lessons. It doesn't mean dick. And I don't care what his PR was. He wasn't good enough to swim in college, he was good enough to RUN. That is a running background, dumbass.

no, sir. you are the idiot. you don't care if he started swimming at 6 and was the national champion ag in tris when he was 10 in the context of whether you need to have a swimming background to be a world class itu racer??? it's more important that he ran in college when he was 18-22? you, sir, sound like a brilliant person. also, where does it say that he wasn't good enough to swim in college? i missed that part.

go to the usa triathlon site and look at the backgrounds of our top oly triathletes. almost every single on of them has a very strong background in swimming. please provide a single example of someone with no swimming background who ran in college, picked up tris after college and now is a world class oly/itu racer.

lastly, since when does "taking swimming lesson" equate to competing at a national level in swimming? more evidence of your brilliance. not every kid starting at 6 was competing competitively in swimming for the next 10 years. maybe in your fairy world but not on this planet.

6/10

The guy who won Hawaii this year ran a 2:42. The second place finisher at IM Florida (Sergio Marques) also ran about that speed, Sergio has also held the fastest marathon in Hawaii last year. Both of these people also did these runs of really fast bike splits. At an IM, there is NO drafting allowed and there are cheaters. But the run can un-ravel the best triathletes so what does it matter if you are just a runner. Zach Ruble, a 9:06? IM guy ran a 2:58 mary at IM Wisconsin this year, at Florida, he finished in 10:51, a good time for average people, a poor time for a pro. In Ironman, you are dealing with lots of time and lots of variables, in a marathon, you have a bad day and have to take some walk breaks. At an IM, you have a bad day and you are walking a marathon if you are tough enough to not drop out. At Hawaii this year, Rutger Beke (4th place IM Hawaii the year before, winner of Ironman Arizona 2007), blew up and walked his way to an 11 hour finish, this is a sub 8:30 guy who has posted a 2:48 run in Hawaii. These people mentioned are better runners than 98%of people on letsrun.com these people have competed at top levels of Ironman racing.

Now all that being said, some letsrun.com kids think that because they are decent runners that they would clean up IM racing, think again, you need different strengths in different areas, it matters not if you are a 2:30 marathoner if the bike is going to take you 7 or 8 hours (because it will since most runners don't have the strength and power to Time Trial for 112 miles).

Q: What's the difference between JAson Mayeroff and Neil Armstrong?

A: One was the first man to walk on the moon, and the other f***s little boys.

check this out

from the usa triathlon site for kemper (it doesn't get any more pro swimming than this):

Athletic Background: Began swimming competitively at age 6… Swam for Parnell Barracudas Club team in Orlando, Fla… Was introduced to triathlon at age 10 by friends on his swim team… Ran cross country and track in college to improve his running in triathlons… Sent an inquiry letter to the Wake Forest cross country and track programs and received a letter from the coaches along with a women’s media guide… His non-gender specific name and relatively slow times caused the coaches to assume he was a female… Before college running was his weakest discipline… Took 1994 and 1995 off from triathlon to concentrate on his running…

http://www.usatriathlon.org/sitecore/content/AthleteBios/HunterKemper.aspx

I do both and love both, but I must add that ironman although is NON Drafting, watch one and you will see that most of the pros and even more age groupers draft. There is so much drafting, its no wonder they are running so fast off the bike

why is it relevant what lance looks like when he is retired? we are talking about what cyclists look like -- not what former cyclists look like. lance NEVER looked like a swimmer when he was busy winning tdf after tdf. have you even seen a swimmer? here's what tyler hamilton looks like with no shirt on:

http://www.roadcycling.com/artman/uploads/tourdefrance_tyler_hamilton_back_injury.jpg

you probably think that he looks buff because you are used to looking at your skinny ass in the mirror. that's what nearly every tdf level rider looks like up top.

knower of stuff wrote:

Now all that being said, some letsrun.com kids think that because they are decent runners that they would clean up IM racing,

You guys need to stop projecting here. The letsrun.com people do not think they would "clean up" IM racing. Nobody has said that. And the average pure runner is no more "cocky" than the average pure swimmer or cyclist. It's just that the swimers and cyclists think they are.

Of course they're not going to clean up. I just don't hear anyone saying they will except the people setting up little straw men to knock down.

edge wrote:

why is it relevant what lance looks like when he is retired? we are talking about what cyclists look like -- not what former cyclists look like.

What is relevant is how he looks OUT OF SEASON. Like when he's not tour-fit. You think Hamilton looks like that all year round? Don't be a fool. And please try to pay attention, mmmkay?

you probably think that he looks buff because you are used to looking at your skinny ass in the mirror. that's what nearly every tdf level rider looks like up top.

Fortunately my skinny ass could out-swim and out-cycle yours anyday of the week and twice on Sundays.

""At an IM, there is NO drafting allowed""

This applies tothe pros BUT all the age groupers do it. Even if unintentionally with so many people on the course at the same time it becomes the norm. Did you watch the televised coverage last weekend? there was a bunch of like 200 people in one group. WHat if you were a pro who had a bad swim and had to bike through/around them? wouldn;t you draft automatically just by process of elimination?

'WHat if you were a pro who had a bad swim and had to bike through/around them?

Given the fact that the pros get a 15mins head-start....if you're a 'pro' and lose more than 15mins to the age groupers in the swim, you shouldn't be racing as a pro in the 1st place.

Also, I assume you mean 200 people in 1 group as an exageration as 200 people getting off the bike in Kona spans over 20mins and often more than that. 200 guys/girls are not in 1 pack in Hawaii, not to say it doesn't happen, but 200 is a HUGE exageration

gereger - i looked at that youtibe video you posted. after watching i thought that perhaps that Alex Hutchison was the biggest tool i had ever seen. obviously the videowas supposed to be funny but it came off as weak. then when i learned he has NEVER finished an ironmandistance race i was wondering why he has a video ou in the first place?

durka durka - i don't have the telecast in front of me but there was HUGE group - at least 50 (no exaggeration) 0 in one biking clump. the 200 was a bit excessive.

and i found my supposed imposter on tri results. he DID complete an ironman race, all the way back in 2000, in 16 hours and 12 minutes. at leats he didn't lie. I am not one to make fun of people because i respect the effort and time he put into it BUT coming in the bottom 6% of his race and losing to the top 10 70 year old age group woman is not that impressiv. i mean this guy has an ironman tatoo and talks about being an ironman CONSTANTLY. it was 7.5 years ago and he did pretty shitty too. again, he's not lying but it is kind of cheesey