Yes the ham question. Im skeptical that this heavy swim training volume will have a proportional positive affect on the B/R. It will hopefully allow him to hang on to the second pack and expend less energy and stress for the bike and run. I really hope so.

As usual,Lionel being the only one who speaks honestly about Lionel.

Frodo yelling “Go on without me” is canon now.

XD

It’s funny I know he gets shit for changing direction every other season but it finally feels like he’s comfortable with himself within the sport. And quietly super confident and excited for the season.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

He really seems to be very consistent in his approach this year. Also he's rubbing some sand in everyone's eyes. 3:20 pace for 3x3km in race week seems like a perfectly logical training as 3:20/km translates into a 1:10 half marathon. In other words he's just doing some race pace efforts and not even wearing the carbon shoes.

The majority of this video was done several weeks judging by who was on the pool deck. I think he is being very smart in his season approach and putting up a little smoke screen in the process.

Definitely feels like he is underplaying his fitness a bit. I do think he'll have a good showing in Oceanside and continue to build as the season continues.

Listening and watching LS is getting more and more worrying by each new video these days. Maybe his past is finally catching up on him?

Have seen that with a bunch of friends in the Ultra/Ironman world. Partied a bit too much in their youth, fueled by weird stuff - then found another "drug" in long-distance sports - but eventually in their mid 30s or early 40s they all became a bit strange, developed heaps of mental disorders, etc.

I love LS, and for the sake of his family, and himself, I hope he is well...

Classic Lionel underplaying his fitness. He makes it sound like he does not have a chance to end top 20 yet we all know he will be minimum top 5.

Haha, if you think he's abnormal now but was normal back when he was doing insane workouts at volume all the time....

He seems very adjusted to reality and playful to me. He's having a bit of fun with life. You can tell he obviously takes it seriously by the effort and thought he's putting into training, but he's not taking this whole triathlon world too seriously, which seems very healthy to me.

Agree totally. I have more confidence in Lionel's ability to generate some results this season and the next than I had when he was inventing a new magic bullet every quarter. Plus, his trolling about interval paces betrays a good mood and a certain self-assuredness.

And I do not actually think he'll make top 5 in Oceanside, due to the high swim volume. The results will have to come later. His reaction to being outside the top 5, if I'm right about his placement, will tell us if he's ready to stay on his path for once.

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"FTP is a bit 2015, don't you think?" - Gustav Iden

I was thinking just the opposite. Seems he is finally able to accept that getting older/slower is a real thing, still looks like he is in great shape and has repeatedly said he has plans for what he wants to do when he is ready to hang it up.

Agreed I think the opposite as well seems like he’s accepting where things are now where they were in the past and it looks like he has a good path forward

Yup, his reaction to this first race will be key. However, I'm sure he'll do another 180 after which is unfortunate. Guess we'll see.

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My Strava | My Instagram | Summerville, SC | 35-39 AG | 4:41 (70.3), 10:05 (140.6) | 3x70.3, 1x140.6 | Cat 2 Cyclist

Same here. He looks scary to me in a good strong and confident way. I would be scared shitless if I were his competition. It's like calm before the storm and he's going to unleash everything tomorrow. He used to look tired in most videos but he's different in this one. He looks fresh and looks even younger. Hopefully, he shows us what he got at Oceanside. I wonder what his choice of carbon shoes is going to be. Asics as usual?

Since the Oceanside race day thread will soon drop off the front page, just wanted to put into context Lionel's swim in the race and how much improvement he has made. He was 90 seconds off the lead mens group, which had some firepower in there. But just in case that wasn't enough to gauge his effort, he beat Knibb out of the water by about a minute, something he never does. And she had help in her effort, drafting maybe for about half the swim back and forth with the other top lady.

His T1 was a big wonky, and he gave up most of his advantage on Sam there, but he kept just enough to compose himself, and then ride very smartly in that small lead group once they got to the front. Sam's swim was pretty good too for him, just gets lost in Lionel's super improvement. He came out just behind what Knibb swam, so really good for him too. Kind of like the swim meet they both did awhile back, Lionel taking Sam down while tired and training, but sam still doing a respectable time.

And just for a comparison sake, Knibb can probably beat both those guys by over a minute to 2 minutes in the pool at this distance, so OW really can be the equalizer sometimes...

Congrats to Gerry and Lionels other on deck coaches, they have done something that no one else has been able to do. And that is to just get him to listen and follow instructions... (-;

Thanks for the context Monty. I was just gonna bump this with a LFG! So this is a much better contribution to the forum.

Great race by Lionel.

One thing I wanted to point out is he was super stretched out and smooth on the bike. It looks like the new trend is extending those pads/bars and adding a lot of reach. I'm not sure if he sized up on his bike but his reach looked ridiculous.

He did not size up

1. I am a Lionel fanboy. That's not to say that I don't acknowledge his reptitive mistakes, it's just saying that I follow all his posts, videos, races, etc., and he is my overwhelming favorite to win.

2. I actually thought that he might never get back to this point again.

3. The path he took to win Oceanside 2024 is amazing, more so mentally and emotionally than physically.

4. I wonder if he was about at this point physically last year around the time of Superleague, and then the bike wreck + illness + reinventing everything just torpedoed the season.

5. Looking forward to what's to come for him!!!

Lionel hit the race on the head today like he has so many times before. This time Jan , blummenfelt and gustav didn’t race .

People’s memories are short just 2 years ago he was 2 nd in Utah IM worlds behind the greatest “one year in triathlete performance of all time” blummenfelt .

He seemed to be more willing to suffer early in the year than later ?

Or is it trainers smarter in the winter on quality Vs too much volume and fatigue built in the hot months and being over fatigued and mentally turned off?

His 2022 was great 2023 was ok good start to 2024.

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Technique will always last longer then energy production. Improve biomechanics, improve performance.
http://Www.anthonytoth.ca, triathletetoth@twitter

Love watching LS prove his doubters wrong! And yes, I unfortunately doubted his ability to win against a truly world-class field given his results from the past year, but it's great to see him turn it around for the win -with a kid in tow no less!


Anyone know if Lionel actually swam a faster split or placed higher in his swim than in prior years?


And still hoping he can have some wins/success at the full IM too - LS has always been consistently outstanding at 70.3s, which is in itself an amazing accomplishment.

His split or actual place is irrelevant. The group he came out with is far more important than deciding if this split or a split 7 years ago was faster, etc. It's all in where you are within the race dynmaics. This was clearly a good day for him in the water.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Truly impressive win by Lionel,for a minute I thought he must have installed a Flux Capacitor on his bike and gone back to 2017.
Credit where credit is due.