San Diego and Auckland Triathlons

Different strategies are coming into play in triathlon.  Changes come from above to below, hardly any change come from below.  That is the reason why revolutions do not change anything, they come from below to above imposed by force most of the time.  Something moving from above to below is not common, frequent and/or well-accepted; we appreciated what Mr. Brownlee, The Great Champion of Triathlon, said at the finish line interview:

“I didn’t know how fast I was going to run to be honest because it was only literally this week that I felt decent,” Brownlee said of trying to break away on the bike. “I don’t understand why there’s eight to 10 guys in that group and none of those guys finished in the top 10. I don’t know why they’re not pushing on the bike. It doesn’t make sense to me. I tried to get away a little bit; form a group of three or four of us, see if we could get away, but that didn’t work.”

We will try to answer the above question.  Jan Frodeno has giving us interesting information regarding the effort done during the last two competitions.  For Frodeno, the effort was the same at San Diego and Auckland (changed a wheel and kept with the first pack).  370 watts average during the 40k bike, meaning he had the same power in a hilly course as in the flat course. 

Frodeno's power Auckland

The bike was harder in San Diego compared to Auckland for Frodeno! Different training protocols are required for the two courses.  Jan is a heavy guy for a triathlete and going up hills requires extra watts, he used the same watts without lifting his weight in San Diego; meaning that he was giving more work to the ones behind him (Jan was one of the ones pushing the pace at the chasing packs).  370 watts is the limit for the majority of the triathletes competing in these races to have a “wet run.”  Whoever kept hidden longer in the second pack led by Frodeno was able to run faster at the end.  The ones that stayed with Brownlee were not able to run because they just kept “closing the gaps;” and as a consequence, they could not do a “wet run.”  Please see previous post:

11 mars 2013

Wet Run II and Triathlon

Of course, this strategy works for second, third place, but not for the champion: Brownlee.

Frodeno's power San Diego