Who Makes the Best Triathlete?
Tuesday, May 5, 2009 at 8:33PM We were chatting on The Triathlete's Coffee Shop the other night about which athlete would make the best triathlete - a swimmer, biker, or runner. Being a former swimmer, I supported my old sport just for old time's sake.
During the show, Triboomer started throwing down some awesome statistics. It is incredibly rare for somebody to win the bike and then win the whole race. Even more rare is for somebody to win the swim and then win the entire race. At first look, the best runner wins the race.
I don't think that is the complete picture. It is the person who restrains him/herself the most during the swim and bike and then unleashes everything on the run that wins.
If you go out too fast on the swim and bike, you are spent. If you win either one of those events, you are trying too hard. It's an individual sport, but it is still all relative to the competition. Use your competition as a metric to pace yourself. Even in the shortest races, you have to run 3.1 miles after you get off the bike. If you went hard enough to win the whole swim or bike, you just blew your chances on sustaining the run.
So, It's not the great runner who makes the best triathlete. It's the smartest swimmer/biker combo: Trained to run like hell, but smart enough to remember and execute the correct strategy of holding back until the run on race day. I got a heck of a lot faster in my races once I started holding back in the swim, staying within my limits on the bike, and then taking on the run with everything I had. It really works.
Listen to the show to get Triboomer's statistics. He did his homework. Very impressive indeed.
Reader Comments (3)
Agreed--the IM winner has to have a decent swim & solid bike, but the race is run on the last half of the marathon.
The exception to that rule would be Chrissie Wellington. She has gotten off the bike first in both of her IM world championship wins and then proceeded to run away from the competition! I think if you are that good then the "rules" don't really apply to you but this is definitely great advice for the "average" age grouper.
Winning the bike doesn't mean getting off the bike first. Having the fastest bike time is winning the bike. Chrissie Wellington, during last years Kona Ironman, had a flat and was delayed in getting it changed. She didn't have the fastest bike time. Maybe the rest in the middle of the bike helped her unleash on the run.
I like the theory. If you go out too hard on the swim or bike, you are spent for the run. If you hold a bit back, you can unleash on everyone who went out too hard. I'm too slow for it to matter much. Doing my second Ironman in Tempe this November.