Alan Webb First Triathlon Results

Running and cycling have little in common. Back in the day I did a number of duathlons - Run, Bike, Run - and the bike/run transition is a tough one. Basically your quads and glutes are shot. Power generation on the bike is a big deal ... there is a reason why cyclists have big quads. Anyhow, just wanted to reiterate that biking isn't running.

Scroll through interview and youll see him on a bike doing test. Trust me, hes getting coached up to the t on cycling

m.usatriathlon.org/news/articles/2014/1/012614-alan-webb-qa.aspx

international guy of mystery wrote:

Running and cycling have little in common. Back in the day I did a number of duathlons - Run, Bike, Run - and the bike/run transition is a tough one. Basically your quads and glutes are shot. Power generation on the bike is a big deal ... there is a reason why cyclists have big quads. Anyhow, just wanted to reiterate that biking isn't running.

The B -> R transition is tough if you don't practice it. If you practice you can get reasonably efficient, and that is a great tool to have in your bag on race day. When I was racing tri's I'd do a brick workout 1-3 times/week, May-Oct because I knew the faster I could get up to regular running speed the more guys I'd go by. And today, with the majority of pro Olympic Distance (+/-) races being draft legal, your quads and gluts aren't going to tend to be as shot because a lot of times you can sit in the pack the last 5-10 minutes of the bike.

In this case it was a little different due to the relay format, plus the shorter length of the ride. I'll give Webb a pass on this one because he's just getting started, but looking at the results his result doesn't look very good to me. His team was in 3rd after the first leg (48 seconds back), but when he finished they had dropped to I think 11th, almost 3 minutes back, and they were about a minute behind a group of teams. Even with losing some time to the crash he got caught/gapped pretty significantly in a short bike ride.

Not a big deal, but I was hoping for better. I hope he stays interested and puts together a good 6 month training block really learning how to ride the way he needs to on this level and getting his swimming on track. If he can get his bike to "competent" this could be interesting.

How do you triathlons think LV is progressing? He's gotta still be a ways off his previous form if he's a minute off the leader in a ~20 minutes race.

As a non-expert on anything who has no opinion on Alan Webb, this training mostly on rollers sounds ridiculous. You got a couple of flats? These are obstacles faced by all of your competitors and they managed. If your "elite coach" is ok with this, then nice job, you found yet another elite coach who's terrible at his job, or perhaps is merely a yes man going along with whatever silly demands you make to keep you in his stable hoping to ride your talent to coaching stardom.

Whether or not he cared much about this tri, he's starting out years behind in a sport where he's a longshot to succeed and in which it's hard for anyone to have a career. Why in the world is he screwing around with rollers.

hasben wrote:

For Webb to be on the same planet as LV FIRST TIME OUT is a great showing. His run will come with swim / bike fitness. You cannot run well off the bike unless you are SUPER fit on the bike! This may not take months, but rather a couple years.

yes indeed. Webb's been swim training for a couple of months but is still within a few seconds of Lukas, who has won ITU races..

Crashes on the bike, still not more than a few seconds behind LV.

It takes a couple of years' training to run well off the bike. As an ex-runner I was surprised by this, but it's consistent with the experience of all the converted runners I know.

So overall think this was a fine performance. With another year of tri training he'll be swimming FOP, making the break on the bike, and able to access his run speed off the bike. should be good..

Yeah but LV had that horrific crash/spinal injury/surgery a couple of years ago and I haven't seen any indication he's even close to where he was before the crash...

Anyone who thinks Webb is going to be a top 30 triathlete at world level is a retard

His last race on the track was under a month ago and some of you are condemning his first tri result? He wasn't that far back on either swim or bike and he crashed. This is a fine result. And give him six months training in the pool and the bike and he will be competitive. He hasn't swum competitively for maybe fifteen years or more.

I do get Webb's desire to train indoors a great deal. I can't stand dealing with stops and traffic and crap like that either and for TTs it isn't as crucial to spend too much time outdoors, but you gotta spend some time on the actual road and you gotta train some in your TT setup. For a long straight out-back TT, he will be fine doing most all his hard stuff indoors, but he has to ride the TT bike outside enough to keep it straight and be confident braking/shifting and comfortable in that position. I often just ride boring laps that let me stay wide open and not deal with cars. But if you don't have a job and have time to drive somewhere and have daylight, you should be getting outdoors. You shouldn't be flatting that much if your tires are installed right (not pinching tubes, properly inflation) and you are riding a decent training tire.

Ideally, I would have a set of rollers for just my easy rides and learn to ride them on the TT bike just to learn to pedal smoothly away from traffic. I can't do hard stuff effectively on rollers. At very least you'd need added resistance that you can vary from the bike itself.

oldhalfmileguy wrote:

A decent runner could learn to bike and still destroy triathletes on the run.

I guess Webb isn't a decent runner?

"V" is a Lost Cause- Forgotten footnote at the bottom of a notebook! He could've been a World Class if not Best Runner but chose tri instead? He gets what he deserves. Tri is not an up and coming sport- not does it get any attention from the media that is published to the world. As you can see, this is Webbs first tri and he nearly matched "V" in every event! and supposedly V is the tri's next best thing to sliced bread- well move over chump because the old man Webb s got your number and then you'll be singing the triathlon blues

Why duz dis thred alreddy hav so many posters

Yes (C)arlos, I have heard of him (finished right behind him once, many moons ago), show me ONE SINGLE RESULT where he's run below 29min. I've yet to see it. and i'm not talking about the 10k in Barca that's DH, or teh one tim don ran which was also DH. as an aside, I'm still to this day one of the highest finishers ever at a WC for my paticular country, so i do know what I'm talking about.to Brian, interesting one on the indoor aspect, Andy potts apparently does 90+ % of his bike work on a computrainer nowadays, for the pure efficiency of it. assuming webb also has a trainer (I'm sure he's not ONLY riding rollers), then it would actually make sense for him to do most of his training indoors, and hit up a good group ride or practice crit once a week just to keep his handling skills sharp

arlos Danger wrote:

ITU hack Wrote: and don't even try to rebut me with Brownlee, he's the only guy in the world who can go sub29, albeit barely. nobody else is within 30-60sec of him in an open 10K, and therefore nobody is within 30-45s of him in a tri, #fact.

UM EVER HEARD OF JAVIER GOMEZ????

Most important question....Was Webb wearing his hairpiece?

I keep hearing about all these other "star" track athletes who took up tri's but werent successful. Which one of them ran 3:46 for the mile, 13 low for the 5k?

And im pretty sure Webb isnt only riding on the rollers you dipsticks. Just because you watched him on video training on rollers doesnt mean he isnt riding on the roads as well.

Alan will do well because he has the fire back. He lost that with running. Expect him to improve dramatically the more he races. The guy is insane when he is motivated

both v ans webb have lomg damn way to go to be any kind of threat at itu on world stage. they're getting pushed to limit and/or beaten by girls and unknown americans at the moment.

webb is coming back baby