Could Lance Armstrong win the Ironman?

"Ken Parker" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

came across this article and thought it might cause some debate:

Could Lance Armstrong win the Ironman?
The consensus of triathlon experts and fans is 'yes,' but would the
cycling legend ever return to a sport he once competed in?

by Timothy Carlson

After watching former triathlete Lance Armstrong establish a legendary
record of seven straight Tour de France victories, daydreaming
aficionados of his original sport have been salivating at the prospect
that the Texan might take on the Ford Ironman World Championship in
his retirement from cycling.

Armstrong competed in triathlon as a teenager, racing elbow-to-elbow
with some of the sport's legends in sprint-distance events. His swim
and run were on par with the best, and we all know his attributes on
two wheels. Triathlon fans dream of what might have been, but because
it was such a small, emerging sport with comparatively tiny payoffs,
triathlete Armstrong would certainly not be the legend and
multimillionaire he is today.

Still, the daydreams begat fantasy estimations of what Armstrong could
accomplish swimming 2.4 miles, cycling 112 miles and running 26.2
more. Armstrong was a great swimmer as a teen, so hanging with the
leaders in about 50 minutes for the Ironman seems reasonable. Even if
the weather were not perfect, Armstrong could be penciled in for a
4-hour, 15-minute mark on the bike, then cruise to a 3-hour marathon
and add to his Superman legacy in, say, 8 hours, 10 minutes including
transitions.

How cool would it be to see Armstrong take on Peter Reid, Tim DeBoom,
Normann Stadler, Faris Al-Sultan, Simon Lessing and the rest of the
gang?

More... from
http://ironmanexplorer.msn.com/article.aspx?aid=21

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http://www.runnersweb.com

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"Can he" and "will he" are questions that, most likely, have different
answers.

I think not - he is a cycling specialist and I think he is not able to run
maraton after cycling...and I don't want to think about swimming :-)

÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷
S pozdravem
Sgt Pepper
÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷
"Ken Parker" <[email hidden]> píse v diskusním príspevku
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

came across this article and thought it might cause some debate:

Could Lance Armstrong win the Ironman?
The consensus of triathlon experts and fans is 'yes,' but would the
cycling legend ever return to a sport he once competed in?

by Timothy Carlson

After watching former triathlete Lance Armstrong establish a legendary
record of seven straight Tour de France victories, daydreaming
aficionados of his original sport have been salivating at the prospect
that the Texan might take on the Ford Ironman World Championship in
his retirement from cycling.

Armstrong competed in triathlon as a teenager, racing elbow-to-elbow
with some of the sport's legends in sprint-distance events. His swim
and run were on par with the best, and we all know his attributes on
two wheels. Triathlon fans dream of what might have been, but because
it was such a small, emerging sport with comparatively tiny payoffs,
triathlete Armstrong would certainly not be the legend and
multimillionaire he is today.

Still, the daydreams begat fantasy estimations of what Armstrong could
accomplish swimming 2.4 miles, cycling 112 miles and running 26.2
more. Armstrong was a great swimmer as a teen, so hanging with the
leaders in about 50 minutes for the Ironman seems reasonable. Even if
the weather were not perfect, Armstrong could be penciled in for a
4-hour, 15-minute mark on the bike, then cruise to a 3-hour marathon
and add to his Superman legacy in, say, 8 hours, 10 minutes including
transitions.

How cool would it be to see Armstrong take on Peter Reid, Tim DeBoom,
Normann Stadler, Faris Al-Sultan, Simon Lessing and the rest of the
gang?

More... from
http://ironmanexplorer.msn.com/article.aspx?aid=21

Cast your vote at the Runner's Web Frontpage
http://www.runnersweb.com

RunnersWeb.com
http://Store.runnersweb.com
The running and triathlon resource portal
RunnersWebCoach
http://RunnersWebCoach.com

"Sgt Pepper" <[email hidden]> wrote...

Quoted message said:

"Ken Parker" <[email hidden]> wrote...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

came across this article and thought it might cause some debate:

Could Lance Armstrong win the Ironman?
The consensus of triathlon experts and fans is 'yes,' but would the
cycling legend ever return to a sport he once competed in?

by Timothy Carlson

After watching former triathlete Lance Armstrong establish a legendary
record of seven straight Tour de France victories, daydreaming
aficionados of his original sport have been salivating at the prospect
that the Texan might take on the Ford Ironman World Championship in
his retirement from cycling.

Armstrong competed in triathlon as a teenager, racing elbow-to-elbow
with some of the sport's legends in sprint-distance events. His swim
and run were on par with the best, and we all know his attributes on
two wheels. Triathlon fans dream of what might have been, but because
it was such a small, emerging sport with comparatively tiny payoffs,
triathlete Armstrong would certainly not be the legend and
multimillionaire he is today.

Still, the daydreams begat fantasy estimations of what Armstrong could
accomplish swimming 2.4 miles, cycling 112 miles and running 26.2
more. Armstrong was a great swimmer as a teen, so hanging with the
leaders in about 50 minutes for the Ironman seems reasonable. Even if
the weather were not perfect, Armstrong could be penciled in for a
4-hour, 15-minute mark on the bike, then cruise to a 3-hour marathon
and add to his Superman legacy in, say, 8 hours, 10 minutes including
transitions.

How cool would it be to see Armstrong take on Peter Reid, Tim DeBoom,
Normann Stadler, Faris Al-Sultan, Simon Lessing and the rest of the
gang?

Quoted message said:

I think not - he is a cycling specialist and I think he is not able to run
maraton after cycling...and I don't want to think about swimming :-)

I think Lance's biggest challenge would be to re-train his knees and ankles
to absorb the shock of running long distances on pavement. If he simply
hung with the group during the cycling leg, he would be sandbagging (by his
standards), so T2 would not be problem. And Lance wasn't a slouch in the
water. He was a national-caliber triathlete before he focused on cycling.
I have vivid memories of him running down Mike Pigg, Dave Scott and others
on his way to a national championship while still in his teens. Loped along
like a snow leopard on cruise control, he did.

Spartakus wrote:
<snip everyone else>

Quoted message said:

I think Lance's biggest challenge would be to re-train his knees and ankles
to absorb the shock of running long distances on pavement. If he simply
hung with the group during the cycling leg, he would be sandbagging (by his
standards), so T2 would not be problem. And Lance wasn't a slouch in the
water. He was a national-caliber triathlete before he focused on cycling.
I have vivid memories of him running down Mike Pigg, Dave Scott and others
on his way to a national championship while still in his teens. Loped along
like a snow leopard on cruise control, he did.

A one-off marathon without running preparation hurts the joints, it's
true. But it hurts after the race, not during; it may take a very long
time to recover, but I reckon he'd have no worries getting through the
distance on minimal training.

Tam

Tamyka Bell said:

Spartakus wrote:
<snip everyone else>

Quoted message said:

I think Lance's biggest challenge would be to re-train his knees and ankles
to absorb the shock of running long distances on pavement. If he simply
hung with the group during the cycling leg, he would be sandbagging (by his
standards), so T2 would not be problem. And Lance wasn't a slouch in the
water. He was a national-caliber triathlete before he focused on cycling.
I have vivid memories of him running down Mike Pigg, Dave Scott and others
on his way to a national championship while still in his teens. Loped along
like a snow leopard on cruise control, he did.

Quoted message said:

A one-off marathon without running preparation hurts the joints, it's
true. But it hurts after the race, not during; it may take a very long
time to recover, but I reckon he'd have no worries getting through the
distance on minimal training.

Also, it is not like biking tour-de-france distances is a stress-free
manouvre on the joints... sure, running is harder on them than biking,
but he is not exactly moving from couch to start-line.

In article <[email hidden]>,

Sgt Pepper said:

I think not - he is a cycling specialist and I think he is not able to run
maraton after cycling...and I don't want to think about swimming :-)

And he was a top-level triathlete as a junior. Plus, he won the "Dirty
Duathlon" a few years ago, and he was trailing after the bike leg, so he
can run some, too.

--Harold Buck

"I used to rock and roll all night,
and party every day.
Then it was every other day. . . ."
-Homer J. Simpson