Lance's Tri "debut" - and some insight

As you may or may not know Lance Armstrong has gone back to his roots and is doing triathlons again, but this time he's concentrating on long course, with the ultimate goal of qualifying and competing in the pro ranks at Kona.

In the ESPN article, I noticed this quote from Bevan Docherty, who was the eventual winner:

"I thought Lance would absolutely cream us on the bike, but he was probably in a similar position to me where he wasn't too sure how to pace himself," he said. "He certainly looked like he was holding back and that was probably why he ran so well off the bike."

Lance raced smart.  He could have hammered the bike and blown everyone away.  Then he likely would have fallen apart on the run.  However, he held back and had "fresh" legs for the run.  His 1:17 run split was a lot faster than what a lot of people predicted he could do.  It's going to be interesting to see what Lance does as the year progresses.  I'm not going to say he's going to win in Kona, but he'll be in the mix.

Also, the quote brings up a good point.  If you want to run strong, you need to ride strong.  However, you can't overcook yourself on the bike or you are screwing up your run too.  The key to running better is getting stronger on the bike.  Its a delicate balance though, as you don't want to hold back too much on the bike.  Lance only lost by 31 seconds.  Did he hold back too much on the bike?  Its something most struggle with, but its similar to negative splitting in the marathon.  Sure, you can go out hard on the first half (the bike) and hope to hold on, but not many are able to.  Not only that, but you typically feel miserable in the late miles when you are trying to grasp at strings.  Instead, go out strong on the first half (the bike) and put yourself in a position to finish the second half stronger (on the run).  It's bad enough to suffer the last 8 miles of a marathon after the wheels come off at mile 18 because you went out to fast.  Now think about going out too fast on the bike and having to suffer for an entire marathon.

The simple version is, the stronger you are on the bike, the faster you can ride and still feel "fresh" for the run.  How do you figure out how hard to run off the bike?  Bricks are a start.  Experience from doing races is priceless.  After a race, sit down and really think about how you felt on the bike, coming off the bike, and on the run.

Some of this I learned from experience, some of it was pounded into my head by Jonathan Cane, and some of it I'm still trying to teach myself.