Two Hours

The headline might have read: Inquiry in Boise.

World Champion Craig Alexander, in winning his second Boise 70.3 in as many tries, braved the relentless winds of the bike course en route to a stunning 4:03 victory. The inquiry part comes in when you take a closer look, as it seems that Crowie's time, beat every other competitor in the 1,400 strong field, but, perhaps more astoundingly, the RCVman himself by TWO HOURS. Yes, that is as in 120 minutes. Over the course of 70.3 miles.

Two possibilities here, ONE Crowie is super human, or,
TWO, RCVman had a bad day.

Let's concede point one. Crowie IS GOOD. He is two time reigning Ironman World Champion, the best of the best, in a class by himself.

But that class is two hours faster than our reluctant hero? TWO FREAKING HOURS ? (I shout)

There are a lot of things one could do in two hours. As a perfect example, right now, you could log off, pack your workout gear, drive to the club, do a one hour high intensity interval spin workout, shower, sauna, shower again, have a protein fruit smoothie, stop at the store for bread and wine, drive home, check your e-mails and rejoin us. All in about the same time differential between Crowie's time and Me. Two hours. I stand thoroughly humbled.

Yes, the winds were in our face for most of the afternoon, slowing bike splits and further impacting the run, but, as in any good race, the conditions were the same for everybody. All this proves that Mr. Alexander (and everybody else who finished before me) simply had a better motor on Saturday.

Which is not to say that I didn't have fun, I did. And although a touch disappointed, there were slivers of silver lining. The swim strategy worked to perfection. The video from the Roo-Cam is even better than I imagined (although cut short due to battery issues), and perhaps best of all, I was able to dig for some finish gas and put in the eighth best run split in our age group, scurrilous and cantankerous cut-throats that they be. So what did we learn?

The test was to see if super high intensity sessions on the bike could replace "traditional" three sport training and save precious time and the breakdown of body parts as a result of over training. The answer is yes.

And no.

Here is what I have determined from the first round of testing:

This approach works up to a point. And that point is one of distance. It works great for sprint distance races, very good for Olympic and with single sport events, BUT FOR HALF IRONMAN AND ABOVE, not so well.

You still are better served by getting in a few long sessions per week, per sport.

Perhaps the best part of yesterdays experiment was that I think the flames for the long course have been rekindled in the RCVman. It REALLY hurt out there.

And I had almost forgotten what that feels like and the rewards of a long day out in the pack.

Glad to be back. Now that we have a bogey, I was a dismal 12th, there is work to be done.

And from that we have never shied.

Pix: World Champion Craig Alexander prior to running a 4:03 in winning the 2010 Boise 70.3. Full results here. RCVman asking how this is possible after his sluggish 6:03. Yes folks, that IS two hours, not two minutes.