Lionel’s fountain of youth, running across Africa, and can van der Poel be stopped

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How many of you are still recovering from last weekends races? SHEESH! At 42, took me a solid 72 hours to feel “normal” again. And by normal, I’m talking, walk down the stairs like a human being and not the Tin man. I took one day off (Monday) to reflect, then slowly got my legs and body moving again. But by the time you get this, the past is the past and we move forward to the next, a 100-mile gravel bike race in 3 weeks.

Stay moving…✌🏼 – Scott

Headlines

🏊🚴🏃 Not Dead yet or Never Left: If you love triathlon, there is no way you wish bad on Lionel Sanders. Because. Just when you think his time has come and gone, the admittedly self-deprecating son of a gun goes out and crushes IM Oceanside 70.3. Lionel put on an all-time performance. Did you see his times and splits?!?! SWAM, BIKED, and RAN at incredible speeds. Lest not forget, he is THIRTY SIX. The second and third place finishers, Sam Long and Jackson Laundry are 28 and 30 years-old respectively. [tri247]

🏊🚴🏃 Primed for Paris: Let us all say a prayer that Taylor Knibb stays healthy because right now, she’s without a doubt the best female middle distance pro-triathlete on the planet and it’s not even close. At IM Oceanside 70.3, Knibb wiped the floor with her pro female competitors, besting the 2nd place finisher by 11+ minutes. With the pro women starting 3-minutes behind the male pros, the 26-year old American would have finished in the top 30 of the men’s race. [triathlon magazine]

🚴 Can he be Stopped: It was off to Paris-Roubaix and at this point, it doesn’t feel like anything can stop Mathieu van der Poel in 2024, not even 35 miles of cobblestones. The 29-year old Dutch World-Champion took P-R for a second straight year after a solo 37-mile breakaway to win”the Hell of the North.” [FloBikes]

🚴 Grabbing a Belgian Waffle in Utah: As the 2nd race in the Belgian Waffle Ride Series, it was off to Cedar Creek where Sofia Gomez Villafane won the pro women’s category by over 13 minutes. Villafane has dominated the 2024 gravel season thus far and with the Lifetime Grand Prix starting April 19, it’s hard to imagine anyone beating her with the fitness she’s been showcasing. On the men’s side, the legendary Peter Stetina took the W by 46 seconds even though he was battling cramping throughout. Big win and confidence boost for Stetina. [CyclingNews]

Meanwhile

🏃 A Casual Run Across Africa: As the first person to ever do it, Russ Cook (27) ran the entire length of Africa last Sunday after travelling through 16 countries. The 352-day, 9,000+ mile odyssey had plenty of ups and downs with Cook being robbed at gunpoint and suffering food poisoning; but on the bright side, he raised +600,000 pounds for charity along the way. [Reuters]

🚴 Results are in: Though the Zwift Games wrapped on March 31, the results highlighted it was a smashing success. More than 80,000 people participated in the Games, completing over 215,000 races. The races themselves broke records in terms of field sizes, with almost 50 races attracting over 1,000 starters and an average race attendance of over 250. [Zwift Insider]

🏃🚴 I ❤️ Gas Station Nutrition: For anyone who goes for long runs or rides, a stop at the local gas station is truly a bright spot in the journey. I’ll refill my bottles with ice and devour some junk food I’d never otherwise eat. But what about gas station drinks for recovery; choose water (when paired with a recovery drink or bar for electrolytes), sports drinks, real fruit juice, and milk to kickstart the restoration of fluids lost during training. [Triathlon]

🚴 Don’t be an a**hole – volume 367: As if 35 miles of cobblestones wasn’t hard enough, one “fan” decided to throw a hat into the wheels of Mathieu van der Poel at Paris-Roubaix. Luckily for Mathieu, he didn’t wreck but in even better news, the woman is getting charges pressed against her. Yadda, Yadda, don’t be an a**hole. [Escape Collective]

Dissecting IM Texas 70.3

Heading into this race, my main goal was to hit 4:45. Last year, I went 4:53 and I knew I’d gotten stronger, smarter, and more fit in the last year. So while it was going to take a lot to improve by 8 minutes, I was confident it could be done. After analyzing last years race, we came up with a game plan to focus on breaking 2:30 on the bike, and 1:40 for the half marathon. But would I?

Training

For context. My training block started in early January and with the race being April 7, that’s roughly 14 weeks. In 2023, I took two trips during this block, one to Columbia (the country), and Cancun in March. In 2024, I didn’t have anything on the books in Q1; mostly because we did a big Disney World trip at the end of December ‘23 and I was now poor.

Overall, I’m an 11-13 hours of training guy but mostly stick to 11h a week. And because data is fun, let’s look at my year-over-year numbers. When analyzing the same timeframe of January 1st to the day before IM Galveston, percentage wise, I didn’t do much different. But as the numbers show, I did cycle more, and saw a slight uptick in my running, while my swimming decreased. In 2023, I was swimming 3 days-a-week swim but brought it down to mainly 2 days this go around. That was a strategic move to focus on getting stronger in the other two disciplines.

The Swim

One reason I wasn’t so concerned with decreasing my swim training was because this year I switched from swimming alone and following a workout plan my coach provided to joining a kick ass Master’s program. With a lot of ex-college swimmers and fellow triathletes, the intensity of each work out has exponentially raised the bar for my fitness, stamina, and focus in the water. It showed in Galveston as I’ve never felt more comfortable. The effort was there but it really felt almost … easy. Between glass like water, and a start time that had the sun coming up in real-time and making it easy to sight, I’ve never felt better in the water for a 70.3 swim. It wasn’t my fastest swim (28:05) I’ve ever done but I also didn’t gas myself at all.

2024 – 28:24. 1st 40-44 / 13th gender / 17th overall

2023 – 28:43. 5th 40-44 / 16th gender / 18th overall

T1

Didn’t love where I racked my bike but easily got to it. Stripped my wet suit off and had a water bottle with electrolytes to the side. Chugged that. Put on my helmet, sunglasses; threw on socks, my shoes, and turned on my Garmin computer. DOH! I didn’t reset it from the AM Saturday ride. Ugh. stupid mistake. So as I’m running to the mount line, I’m trying to reset my computer. Dumb mistake on my part.

The Bike

No better feeling than jumping on your bike and getting to work. It’s my favorite part of the race. The first 10 miles was congested and you’re battling others for position; motorcades are in the mix with refs watching you, you’re passing each other, getting passed, sometimes yelling at each other – sorry TREK bike guy. Athletes are feeling each other out. You’ve got your plan, and you don’t know anyone else’s plan. It’s the best!

My plan was between 230-240 watts for the full ride. I wanted to go under 2:30 and based on our calculations was aiming for 2:20. My fueling was to be 1-24oz bottle of water with 800mg of sodium (LMNT + RAW endurance) + 50g carbs every 30 minutes. I’d also suck down 2 ounces of SIS gel every 30 minutes too. I had all of that on lock and my fueling wasnt an issue at all. I was flying and focused but around mile 40, I always find my brain and body start to get antsy. The same happened in this race. I sat up for a half second longer. I started checking my distance more. I just get antsy. But antsy turned to panic when I hit something on course that blew out my back tire. Between the shotgun like noise and sealant spraying everywhere, it shot my heart through my toes and my adrenaline threw my eyes. Luckily my sealant closed up the hole but I could tell I was running flatter than before. But I didn’t care. I pushed on with the final 16 miles, keeping pace and power. If it was effecting either of those two things I’d have stopped and topped off my tire. I did have to pee with about 2 miles left but could not for the life of me go on the bike. That would have to wait until T2.

2024: 2:22:54. 16th 40-44 / 87th gender / 92nd overall

2023: 2:31:11. 12th 40-44 / 76th gender / 78th overall

T2

Coming into T2, my left quad was a bit tight but I knew it was just from the bike effort. I wasnt worried and felt decent jumping off my bike and running to rack it. It was there I took that huge pee. Just 40 seconds of the dam opening down my leg. It was what it was. I just wish it could have gone faster. I changed shoes, grabbed my bib, hat, bottle and took off for the run.

The Run

I won’t belabor the run. It’s the worst of my three sports and I cannot figure out why and its frustrating. It’s as if my body goes into this 8:15 pace and I cannot get out of it. I’m spinning my wheels in a muddy field. I hit my running goals in training but for the life of me cannot put it all together, YET. Is it my form? Is it because I never ran until July 2022? Is it because I’m 165 lbs and zapped after the swim and bike. All of the above? Likely, but no excuses. I will say, I didn’t feel terrible. I didn’t curse this sport once. I ran and ran. I never walked. I’m just not fast, YET.

2024: 1:46:32. 28th 40-44 / 174th gender / 208th overall

2023: 1:49:53. 15th 40-44 / 107th gender / 119th overall

Final Thoughts

Remember I led with my goal being 4:45. Well….I hit that. I went 4:43:58. I was elated and so proud. If you compete against others and with yourself, you know the difference between what hitting a goal feels like, versus what NOT hitting a goal feels like. I am so thankful it was not the latter. I spent so much time working and building toward something so to hit that made everything worth it. That said, my brain is already chipping off areas I can save time and go even bigger next year. Is 4:35 possible? I certainly think so 😃

Deals and Steals

💸 20% off deal in April: In the market for new cycling gear, Competitive Cyclist is offering 20 percent off any full priced item throughout April. Just use the code April20 at check-out.

Training Tips

Because training is life.

Perfect Running Form – 3 Simple Techniques to Get Better: Nothing revolutionary here but learn why the perfect form includes body posture, stride and arm movement.

The Training Secrets of the New 50-Mile King: On November 11, Charlie Lawrence set a new 50-mile world record, running the distance in a time of 4:48:21 and besting the previous record by nearly two minutes. Read up on his training that led to the record and what the actual race was like. [Inside Hook]

How to Train for Gravel Racing and Riding: Hear from pro rider Dylan Johnson on the specific demands of gravel racing and how you should train for those demands.

The Rewatchables

Content for long training days inside or just everyday life.

🚴 BWR Cedar City 2024: Catch highlights from the second stop of the Belgian Waffle Ride Triple Crown of Gravel Series. Held in Cedar City, BWR Utah, dubbed the Hell of the South (West), presents a unique juxtaposition to its California counterpart. At 128 miles long, this Euro-style Spring Classic on American soil promises insanity, challenge, and an unparalleled experience.

🏃 Racing for the Win – MOAB 240: Watch Jeff Pelletier take on The Moab 240, a foot race that starts and finishes in Moab, Utah. As this was his longest race to date in terms of distance, he hoped it would be his fastest 200+ mile race as well.

🚴 Paris-Roubaix 2024 Highlights: Dive into the biggest moments from cyclists’ 162 mile trek from Compiègne to the Roubaix velodrome in the 2024 Paris-Roubaix.