Alan Webb First Triathlon Results

WEBB IS BACK BABY!!!!!!!

These are like jv triathlon races and it seems clear they're both damaged goods. Fun to see celebrity races though. I hope they race shaq or jeff gordon or miley cyrus for fun.

guys this was his first tri ever. I'd say not bad. Half of you are acting like if he's not some beast in his first ever race then he's done. Hows about we give him a year and see how he's doing then. He just started this sport, his bike should improve a ton over the next year and so should his run coming off the bike.

You both raced fine. If you want to continue, you are welcome to waste your time. I'm not playing favorites. Unattached.

idiots wrote:

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?

Most of them were never good enough to even get on the podium in triathlon. They gave up when they realized that fast running times don't magically turn into good swim technique and cycling fitness.

I can think of one person who went from elite status in single sport to elite in triathlon (Sheila Taromina). There may be others that I'm not remembering. I'm old and my memory isn't so good.

To put it another way, the genetic gifts and training that produced a mile race run 7 years ago is not a good predictor of triathlon success today.

Ole Time Tri Guy wrote:

idiots wrote:

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?

Most of them were never good enough to even get on the podium in triathlon. They gave up when they realized that fast running times don't magically turn into good swim technique and cycling fitness.

I can think of one person who went from elite status in single sport to elite in triathlon (Sheila Taromina). There may be others that I'm not remembering. I'm old and my memory isn't so good.

To put it another way, the genetic gifts and training that produced a mile race run 7 years ago is not a good predictor of triathlon success today.

You are a moron considering how ignorant you are about the backgrounds of elite triathletes. What do you think Potts was doing in his collegiate days? Carol Montgomery? Macca? Bolton? Larsen? Even someone like Sara McLarty, who isn't a great triathlete, was a great swimmer in college.

Maybe. Maybe not. You always have to remember that we are not talking about 3:46 Webb anymore. We are talking more like 4:01 Webb. Still fast. The real question is what is improvement curve looking like. For the first 12-18 months or so you would expect to see rapid gains. The question is when the gains start to level out where is he.

hasben wrote:

As a runner turned triathlete this thread is funny to read.

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.

How anyone can argue the talent is crazy. Webb may have one of the biggest engines of all time.... maybe biggest ever by an American? Give him some time on the swim and bike and he'll be fine.

Young with a Good Memory wrote:

You are a moron considering how ignorant you are about the backgrounds of elite triathletes. What do you think Potts was doing in his collegiate days? Carol Montgomery? Macca? Bolton? Larsen? Even someone like Sara McLarty, who isn't a great triathlete, was a great swimmer in college.

I said elite single sport to elite triathlete. Such as Taormina, who swam in the Olympics and then went to triathlon.

Montgomery isn't a great example because she ran ALL of her PRs off triathlon training. She didn't go the other way. She only ran ONE 1500m and SIX 5ks on the track in her whole career.

Larsen (RIP) is a better example.

Potts made the '96 trials in swimming, so that's a good example.

The rest may have been good or even great college athletes but they were never ELITE single sport athletes.

So we now have THREE people who have been elite at one discipline of triathlon then became elite triathletes. You think Webb is going to be the next one?

You are wrong about Montgomery. She ran in high school and college and made the Commonwealth Games in 1994 in the 10K -- well before she was racing triathlons full-time:

You also are wrong about your summary. YOUR list has three (four now that Montgomery is included). There are scores of other triathletes who were elite before converting over (not just Americans). Gwen Jorgensen? Shoemaker? Barb Lindquist?

Jorg was decent, Shoemaker was never any good as a runner (IMO), Lindquist was pretty good and apparently everyone forgets that Ryan Bolton was an XC All American, which is better than most anyone on this list, save for Potts (and maybe Larson, RIP).

Young with a Good Memory wrote:

You also are wrong about your summary. YOUR list has three (four now that Montgomery is included). There are scores of other triathletes who were elite before converting over (not just Americans). Gwen Jorgensen? Shoemaker? Barb Lindquist?

He got crushed. The fastest split was like 3 minutes faster: in a SUPER sprint tri. He has a long way to go

The guy went bald at like 24. (and definitely had transplants or something)

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=o5vplx&s=8#.Ux9-8Cv2Jcw

IHe is not the same prime athlete anymore.

dieselboise wrote:

He got crushed. The fastest split was like 3 minutes faster: in a SUPER sprint tri. He has a long way to go

I am sure the very the few people on this board that know triathlons would give Alan a B+ all things considered. I knew he would struggle on the bike, his bike improvement is going to come slow, after all, he just started this journey a month ago. His swim was surprising good and his run was not as good as I suspected. His run was definitely affected by being an inefficient cyclist. His biking will get better, he simply needs more time in the saddle. If he can learn to run off getting off of the bike close to where he left off on the track, I see a path to being a pro world-class triathlete. Just like running, there are 101 little things you can't be taught that you have to learn from experience. Unfortunately, by the time he gets the experience, age is going to be his worst enemy. Alan could become a pretty good triathlete, but I don't see him ever beating the big boys, which I am not sure he ever said that was his goal. With that said, I wish people would get off of his back and allow him to grow into the sport and let whatever happens, happen.

I'm impressed with team Mexico. I thought anyone who could run or swim would be in the USA by now...

oh that's ludicrous.

triathletes do not run that fast - quit it.

webb sucked, extremely weak result.

that's the truth.

can't fake that sport.

Webb was a club swimmer and swam at a very high level before becoming a runner in high school, fyi.

really didn't have time to do this for you yahoos, but here it is anyway.

I went over every single team's results and analyzed Alan's chances. they're pretty good. why?

the single greatest problem for him will be the swim (which showed). the bike will take care of itself, obviously the run will work out just fine. he will still have a learning curve with running off the bike, but trust me, it WILL work itself out.

back to the swim. there was one outlier at 34s faster than webb. McClarty (female) who often swims fast enough to be a front pack male, swam only 13s faster than webb. thats GOOD news. shoemaker (who;s a $#itty swimmer) swam a great swim, same time as mcclarty. on the average, webb was approx 20-24s down on the best guys, for the swim split. what does this mean in open water?

He should lose 24s x 4ish, or around 1:30-1:40. assuming there was little drafting benefit in this super sprint, he may be able to cut that (right away) to 1:15-1:20. this is out of the gate folks, this is workable! given a year to get comfortable in open water packs, learning to draft properly, learning to start properly, he has a legitimate chance to get that gap under 1min by the end of this year. that makes him a solid 2nd packer, which means he's a top 10 threat in ANY race he does. honestly, that's amazing, regardless of his talent level. pretty eye opening to see this. ok, back to work, there's your full split analysis for today.

Gomez ran 29:16 at the Olympics that was well within 30-45 seconds of Brownlee in a tri, #fact.

Great start for Alan Webb!