If you look at LS run times you can see he definitely hits a wall around mile 10-12 and never recovers.
His training vids are still entertaining.
I just wasn’t sure if there was a problem that lead to that or just not his best day. I’m a fan and definitely love the videos too.
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Catching up to A Brownlee in a race would be enough to retire on in my book😀
In his own words (and it’s a lot more grim than a mere bonk!):
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Hi Jonathan,
It was great to see you all out there!! Thanks for the cheering on the course. I’ve decided that I’ll miss 2020 and aim for 2021. So hopefully we’ll be on the Kona start line together 
I guess something did happen after all. Poor nutrition, again, for Lionel. Falling over and puking, definitely not good. Seems like a recurring theme.
I wonder if he will ever hire a coach? He eats like crap, would love to see what he could do if he addressed his eating/nutrition.
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Thanks for the link, really good post race analysis for him which I’m sure a lot of amateurs can relate to.
But…how does he look so slow on the road, go through all that, and still do the marathon in 3h13? 
Id kill for that run split!
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Yeah I thought about this thread when I watched his video.
He’s not coachable. If he gave everything over to a proper coach, and not hired a “consultant” which he’s done in the past, he’d be a serious threat every year.
I don’t understand how he forgot to eat or drink. I get how people forget sometimes generally, but this guy spent weeks at Gatorade’s facilities dialing it in, etc. He obsesses over it.
I’m not sure why you think he eats like crap? I know there was one video with him downing a bunch of garbage but I thought that for some birthday party or something, I really doubt he doesn’t have a pretty clean diet.
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I know he eats a lot of pizza, sugar cereal, doesn’t count calories, lots of junk food (drive thru included. I understand he needs a massive amount of calories but he doesn’t seem too focused on the source of that fuel.
Even from his Freshli bio:
With unprocessed foods, you have to eat so much of them to amass that kind of quantity that it’s hard to sustain an appetite. Whereas with processed stuff all you need to do is eat a bag of cookies and you’re done.
Then in the afternoon, I run. My shortest would be 10km, but during Ironman training I’d run up to 45 kilometres, which means about three hours. And then once again, a litre to a litre and a half of chocolate milk, plus some cookies.
Yes I cherry picked some of the info but the point is made.
Just saying relative to other serious high level athletes he doesn’t seem to care much about eating clean. I’m a fan though so not wanting to tear him down. More wishing he cares as much about his nutrition as he does other elements of his race prep.
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I think Sebi said it best on Breakfast with Bob…LS knows everything he needs to know. He just needs to put it all together. He seems to forget lessons he learned. The day he puts it together, he will achieve something great.
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Gotcha. I read the freshii bio, which I’d never read. I think you’re right that you’re cherry picking. He was saying he had a bad diet, then he had a 100% clean diet that meant he couldn’t get enough calories in to keep his weight up, and now it’s more of a balance. Which makes a lot of sense, considering the sheer volume of calories he needs to eat. I don’t watch all his youtube videos or anything, I see what he’s posting on instagram sometimes, but that’s it. He seems to at least put a fair bit of thought into his diet. But maybe there is a ton of serious junk, I dunno. And we all know that just because he’s putting a lot of thought into something doesn’t mean he’s going to nail it.
He seems to me to have a forest for the trees problem. He gets really into the details of everything and can’t get a broader view of his needs. So he gets in his own head, has to prove to himself that he’s fit, and puts on his best performances in training.
That said, let’s be real, dude’s won the vast majority of the races he’s ever entered. It’s really just Kona that’s elusive for him, and he’s far from the first to struggle with it.
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Watch his videos. I cherry picked rather than doing a research project on his diet but you will see what I mean. You will see he eats like crap.
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Hey Trainer Road crew and competitors of Kona19,
It was great to meet ye again and many for the first time.
To the TR employees hope ye enjoyed the longest, most highly charged, race experience there is.
You help and support so many athletes in their dreams. How many people on a tri program will watch a Kona race for years to come and you experienced it first hand.
From Admin to Support, Tech, Programing and Product Managers, Producers and Everyone in between. Thank you.
As always to the Three Amigos Pleasure as Always.
But I only saw @Jonathan on course!!
Hope all the Kona Qualifiers that use Trainer Road had a safe and enjoyable race.
The headwind back from Havi was just another turbo training day for me, loved it.
It was nice to chat to ye in the Kona Brewery even though I had to bail early.
Why dont the companies have the athlete parties after the Race $$ some little drunk emogi
Till next time and cant wait to listen to the Kona casts while on my turbo staring out in to the dark of the day.
Be Safe on your bike,
Emmet
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