the example was Bjorn right? I like Bjorn. He hangs it out there and hopes for the best. True viking style. Above are his times from Wildflower in 2003, and 2007. he has improved around 7minutes, even tho he is running slower and swimming slower. its 10min on the bike faster, and he was lucky that he won in a year when the big guns didnt show at Wildflower, and in the year when the record was set, 2006, here are Bozzone`s splits…

1 Terenzo Bozzone NZL 0:23:34 2:16:20 1:11:57 3:53:43

1:11:57 run on a 21.1km trail run that hardly has a flat section in it. Bjorn would have gotten 5th with his best split in 2006. Terenzo I salute you - you are incredible. that time on one of the toughest 1/2 IM races in the world is really smashing.

anyway…….. back to the point.

Balance is merely a set of values that relates to your peer group. If you hang with the runners, then thats your balance, if you hang with Bjorn and the Swedish Doods, then running isnt all important. Their culture is more about going full tilt and hanging on and seeing if you finish. Bjorn has run 3:05 at an Ironman, so the guy can run.

Its very personal and shouldnt be driven into a specific box, thats just stereotyping.

I hope you all achieve your personal balance.

For interest sake, here is Terenzo`s splits from 70.3 world champs last year, pan flat course…

9 Terenzo Bozzone NZL 0:23:08 2:02:51 1:20:44 3:50:10

clearly, that pop we all heard from this side of the atlantic on 10 November last year was Terenzo around the 10k mark on the run……….

ciao guys. play nice.

The last time I ran competitively was at school (20 years ago) where I was a handy 1500m runner, not exactly useful for Ironman. As for swimming, well I have never been competitive at that although I surfed most my school daze and thought that this must count for something.

As such I had a lot to learn and since swimming was technically the most difficult to master, despite yielding the lowest net gain in terms of Ironman, I chose to start here. I figured that getting out the water closer to the front would allow me to use my cycle strength to put me near the front of the race and that excited me. While I still have some way to go, I have made huge inroads in this area and am now able to start the bike leg ‘within sight’ of the leaders.

The next thing is to bring my run speed up to where it needs to be in order to achieve that balance that Gordo and Nikola speak of. I believe it can be done, I am also of the opinion that it doesn’t necessarily have to compromise my swim & bike times. With a little more focus and race specific training I will get there, and when I do, the sky is the limit.

Being somewhat driven by statistics and modeling, I took the results from the Prestige Ultra and calculated, by using the results of the other athletes, that in order to achieve a ‘balanced race’ but still have finished in the same time (4h28) I would have had to do the following (actual times in parenthesis):

Swim - 00h29, (00h30),
Bike - 02h30, (02h22), and
Run - 01h29, (01h36)

The swim time is insignificant since its actually a few seconds before rounding. That leaves the bike and run times that need major adjustment. As I said in the report, I took the run ‘easy’ and am of the opinion that I could have gone 5 minutes faster if I had raced to the finish (4h24). If I apply that to the model then I should have done the following times:

Swim - 00h29
Bike - 02h28
Run - 01h27

It comes back to the same thing, 5min slower on the bike and 4min faster on the run. Now what I want to achieve is 4min faster on the run and the same bike speed. If I did that it would have resulted in a top 5 position overall. All theoretical of course and we all know that a lot can happen out there on the road but at least I have something to aim for.

So now that this is as clear as mud, I agree with Nikola that I am unbalanced but also with paragon that at this point in time I am making the most of my strengths to compensate for my weaknesses and that at the end of the day I am doing alright.

Thanks for the kind word and motivation, bring on Ironman South Africa

here is a useful collection of information that touches a bit on balance in triathletes: cyclists vs runner etc - by coach gordo

For the properly trained IMer, we are probably looking at a continuum — at one end is the athlete with outstanding sport specific strength (typically the best cyclists, typically a weaker runner) — at the other end is the athlete with outstanding aerobic endurance (typically a weaker cyclist and a great runner).

Examples….
Bjorn — outstandingly strong athlete — cyclist
Gordo — aerobically very fit — runner?
Jonas — blended athlete — strong with good aerobic power — balanced (where I want to be!)

Not surprising that Jonas is the most balanced — I think that it takes many seasons to get balanced and Jonas has the oldest “athletic” age of most of us.

The athletes that improve season after season will be the athletes that are willing to embrace the changes required to address their limiters. Many athletes spend their time trying to make their strengths even stronger to counteract their weaknesses. It’s human nature to want to work on our strengths and resist facing our limiters.

for more go here

I do not think my comments was subjective. Propotionate means in relationship to best times. He is much closer to best (winner) cycling time than he is in running. That is very obvious.

Also I am not a strong runner at all. I am a disproportionate triathlete.

However I have been focusing on my weakness - cycling - for past two seasons and I hope this or next year my results in all three disciplines will be proportionate (same % of the winning/best times).

It does not matter if I swim 60, cycline 5:30 and run 3:10, or swim 60, cycle 4:50 and run 3:30. Both results are not proportionate which means there is a weakness which means that the athlete should focus more on this discipline and maintain others, if possible.

However training is very subjective so it is up to a coach to decide what is best.

Most extreme examle of disproportionate triathlete is Bjorn Andersson which is totally silly super fast bike splits after which he is not able to finish a run.

Also many people think that Stadler is a strong biker - this is not true. He is a super strong triathlete that cycles a bit faster than the rest. His results are still quite proportionate but a bit more speed on the bike gives him an edge. He himself wants to be recognized as a triathlete and not as a fast cyclists amongst triathletes. He himself says in an online interview that he could run sub 2:50 in Ironman if he cycled just a bit slower.

So you missed the point of my comment as it has nothing to do with me but objectively with his relationship between his results in each discipline. The more proportionate the results the better.