Kona World Championships! (Page 4)

What is FOMOP?  10 minutes back? 20 minutes?  I figure middle of pack is still somewhere around that 2:00/100 mark, no?  So what are we talking about here, 1:45/100?   

You can't compare FOMOP of elites and FOMOP for AG'ers as far as I'm concerned.....two different animals.  Sure, there is a huge difference between an IM swim and what it does to your race and an OLY or a sprint swim......but let's face it, there aren't many 10 our IM'ers (I'm guessing it takes around that to KQ).....not many AG'ers pulling that off with a 1:45/10 swim is there?

Potts isn't going up by a couple minutes in an Elite ITU Oly race so it doesn't really matter in your example. 

If I were king for a day I'd make the IM swim a 10K.....it'd bring the mystique back to the event and make all three disciplines much more even.

And that's what's coming IMO.  Hell, even at the Jr. level you're not playing if you can't run 16:00 off the bike for a 5K....that's for 16 year olds....move up in age a bit and the top guys are running sub 15:00.....they all want to run sub 30's for 10K at the next level.   The other thing is, the youth and Jr. ranks (the folks I'm looking at 10-15 years down the road) are full of club swimmers.  I agree that the speed will not change much, but I think the ability to recover from that swim will.  In addition to the speed that is emphasized in the youth/Jr. ranks these kids are building tremendous bases of fitness.  20 hours per week during the season is pretty standard stuff for the kids at the top 20%....although most of it continues to be swimming.

Try to keep up bro....the point is, these kids are taking podium posts in every major AG sprint triathlon in the world (and absolutely dominating some of them....see the Chicago ITU race last year)......unheard of just 10 years ago. Oly is next, then long course.  They have the speed that you, me, and 99% of AG triathletes will NEVER build.  It's not about 16 year olds, it's about athletic development and triathlon development in particular. Gomez will only be the beginning.  The ship has passed you by....enjoy your "head duffer" status as long as people will listen. LOL

Looks like you missed on the FOMOP swim point.....but ..... Good try!!! 

No, it doesn't......but if you can run a very fast 5/10K, swim a 16:XX 1500, and carry 4.5-5.0  W/kg on the bike you can....especially if you are hitting those numbers as a kid and holding them for a number of years.  That's the difference......balanced athletes who do all three really well.  Will it transfer to long course?  I'm betting yes, absolutely.

Pros will put down somewhere between 5-5.8 w/kg for an hour given their position.  They could probably put down slightly more power if they were on road bikes where they are not constricting their breathing as much in order to gain aerodynamics.

Granted though, w/kg generally doesn't mean that much for triathlon or time trialing compared to pure power and your cda.  At 430 watts and 77 kg, Bradley Wiggins is about 5.8 w/kg.  Even is someone like Quintana, at 58 kg, could put down 348 watts for an hour, for a w/kg of 6.0, I would never bet on him to win a flat TT over Wiggins.

So is it possible for a junior elite to put down 4.5 -5.0 w/kg in a draft legal Oly.  Sure...if they are skinny enough.  That doesn't mean they are faster on the bike than the 75 kg guy who's putting out 4.2 w/kg though.

Just making the argument that w/kg can be extremely deceiving when applied to triathlon.

More than you think.  My kid was tested before last season at a Pedal Hard shop....he's 6'4" and weighed 150 when he was tested at 310 FTP before the start of this season.  He'll get to 5.0 pretty easily if he keeps progressing as he has, he's only 16 still (race age 17) so he has two more years on the Jr. circuit.  He is far from alone, and not near the most powerful cyclist on that circuit. But c'mon dude.....you don't throw down the top time on the bike at Chicago sprint if you don't have any power. You need to get out more.

For all I know he may already be there.....he was tested when he hadn't been on a bike for 2 months....they just wanted to see where he was before they started with him.  Still, he's closer to 160 lbs. now so who knows. 

You know what, for some of these freaks it is easy.....they put in the time and it happens. I don't like it either, but it is what it is.  As you know, he also runs a sub 4:20 mile......they are not like us.  I'm good with it.