Triathlon Evolution

I was listening to Guennadi Touretski while watching world class triathletes.  He just told me:  “They are average swimmers.”  We still are average swimmers as triathletes and some even worse than average.  Biking and running have improved several notches but the likes as Andy Potts are gone.  Triathletes need to start as good runners and average swimmers to have a chance to be on the international scene 10 years later.

I was a runner in College and remember the female master record holder for 10,000 meters, Carmen Troncoso, when she was 22 years of age.  She ran the 800 meters in 2:22 and the 10,000 meters above 40 minutes.  At the age of 40, she was running below 34 minutes the 10k as the following article stated:

Born in New York City, Ayala-Troncoso grew up in Mexico, where she was a sprinter and long jumper at Monterey College. After suffering a sprained ankle during her senior year, she began running distances for rehabilitation and gradually developed into a distance runner, recording track times of 15:50 for 5,000m and 33:21 for 10,000m during her peak years. By finishing third in the 1993 national cross country championships, she represented the U. S. in the 1994 world cross country championships in Budapest; she also ran the 2000 world games in Portugal. At 41, she clocked 16:05.68 in the Olympic trials 5,000m.

http://www.runnersworld.com/masters-profiles/age-group-ace-carmen-ayala-troncoso

It takes that long to improve if we have perseverance.  Even though she was slow running, her technique was good enough to improve running times with mileage and intensity.  The same has been the case with Gómez and the Brownlees.  Alistair was running the 10k in 34 minutes at the age of 17, nothing great.  Five years later, he was below 30 after swimming and biking in a triathlon.  Gómez was just below 31 minutes running for the 10k when he started winning in triathlon.  He has improved his running time for 10k by approximately 2 minutes since he started competing.

http://www.elitecoach.me/blog/2014/5/25/the-making-of-an-olympic-champion-malcolm-brown

Malcolm Brown has made empirical research very helpful to know the reason why triathletes as the Brownlees have evolved the way they have done it.  Brown says nothing new for the ones that have been around observing and experimenting with teams and athletes:

1)   Family and working environment make the different to have successful athletes.

2)   Talent is not about the physical attributes, but the degree of education and perseverance.

Please watch the video mentioned above which helps to understand the evolution of triathlon.