Boulder 70.3 Report with Matt DiMola

Welcome to Episode #392 of the 303 Endurance Podcast. We’re your hosts Coach Rich Soares and 303 Chief Editor, Bill Plock. Thanks for joining us for another week of endurance news, interviews and discussion.

We’re excited to have an exciting recap of Boulder Ironman 70.3 as will as an interview with Race Director, Matt DiMola.

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In Today’s Show

• Feature Interview – Race Director, Matt DiMola
• Endurance News – Boulder 70.3, AI Coaching
• What’s new in the 303 – Cyclists for Community and Bicycle Colorado Crash Database
• Video of the Week – Boulder 70.3 A Fighting Chance

Endurance News:

IRONMAN Boulder 70.3

IRONMAN 70.3 Boulder 2023 results: Long and Knibb win on home soil

By Tomos Land

Americans Sam Long and Taylor Knibb were unstoppable at IRONMAN 70.3 Boulder, as the pair blew the field away on the bike course to take commanding victories at altitude.

In the men’s race, Canadian Lionel Sanders and American Chris Leiferman battled ferociously for second, with a similarly close finish in the women’s race between Britain’s Holly Lawrence and South African Jeanni Metzler.

Pro Men – No stopping Sam Long

In the men’s race, defending champion Matthew Sharpe of Canada was first out of the water, as a strong trio of swimmers that also included American Braxton Bokos and Australian Sam Appleton emerged +0:40 ahead of the chase pack, which was led by debutant Andrew Shellenberger.

Pre-race favourite Long was out of the water +2:19 back alongside compatriot Leiferman after a very strong swim, with Sanders within seconds of the pair heading into transition, as in total a group of eleven men headed out on to the bike between +2:15-2:20 from the lead.

On the bike course, Long quickly began to claw back time after a rapid transition that saw him shake off everyone but Sanders, moving him to within 30 seconds of the lead at the 28km marker. At this point, Sharpe was alone at the front and whilst riding strong, looked in grave danger of being caught sooner rather than later.

By the 42km mark Sharpe was still in the lead, with +0:13 over Long, but by the time they came through the next checkpoint at 55km, Long had managed to put a remarkable +1:29 into Sharpe in the space of 13km and looked good, as he built up a buffer of over two minutes to the likes of Sanders and Appleton.

Coming off the bike, Long was in control, as defending champion Sharpe, joined by Sanders and Leiferman, rolled into transition close to four minutes down on the Boulder native.

Through the first half of the run, Long looked in control, as his lead remained intact and his competitors seemed more focused on the battle for second, with Sharpe and Sanders trading blows after dropping Leiferman, who despite losing touch with the Canadians had more than three minutes to his closest rival.

By 18.5km, Long had a five minute buffer and looked on course to take his third successive middle distance win, as Leiferman made his way back past Sharpe and up to Sanders, with the real battle between this duo as they made their way into the final couple of miles.

As Long took the tape after a dominant performance from the minute he stepped on to the bike, Leiferman dropped Sanders and looked to be clear, until Sanders grappled his way back on to the shoulder of the BMC athlete, with the pair neck and neck going into the finishing straight.

Sam Long wins IRONMAN 703 Gulf Coast 2023 [Photo credit: Julio Aguilar / Getty Images for IRONMAN]

[Photo credit: Julio Aguilar / Getty Images for IRONMAN]

Misjudging the sharp corner into the finishing chute, Leiferman ceded the inside line to Sanders which proved to be a big mistake, as the Canadian prevailed in the sprint finish to take second place by a whisker, with Boulder based Leiferman celebrating his first race since Kona with a podium.

Pro Women – Knibb goes gun to tape

In the women’s field, all eyes were on 2022 IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion Taylor Knibb, who in her return to non-draft racing after surgery had opted to race her first middle distance since the world championships at an event close to home, despite the focus for the American continuing to be the Olympic Games next year.

Exiting the water, Knibb was at the front of the race, having swam with fellow American Lauren Brandon, who came into transition alongside the reigning world champion. Behind, Kiwi Teresa Adam was next out at +1:32, with Rachel Olson hot on her heels and Lawrence at +1:53, with recent IRONMAN 70.3 St George winner Metzler at +2:11.

Despite taking her time to put socks on in transition, Knibb quickly reeled in Brandon who was first out of transition and powered past her compatriot to take the lead, building a gap of almost three minutes by the 28km mark with the rest of the field unchanged behind her.

At 42km, Knibb was clear, as Adams passed Brandon and Lawrence began to work her way up to the podium positions, gapping Metzler and Olsen. By 69km, with Knibb +5:19 to Adams, the race seemed to be for the remaining spots on the podium, as Lawrence flew past Brandon and started closing down on the Kiwi.

By the time they reached transition, Knibb had +6:36 over Lawrence in second, who had not managed to shake Adams over the last few kilometres of the bike, as both came into T2 within 10 seconds of each other, but crucially close to four minutes ahead of strong runner Metzler.

By the 7.7km time split, Knibb’s lead had continued to grow, as Lawrence built a big buffer to third place Metzler, who was looking very strong but still had a three minute gap to make up on second place. By 13.7km, with Knibb clear, Metzler was keeping things interesting by continuing to reel in Lawrence, who was holding strong in second but losing time.

Over the final few kilometres, as Knibb took the tape in commanding fashion after a gun to tape win, Metzler kept chasing hard, narrowing the gap down to just +0:50 at 18.5km to set up an exciting finale between the pair. Lawrence, however, rallied to hold on to second, with Metzler coming through for third.

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IRONMAN 70.3 Boulder 2023 Results

Saturday June 10, 2023 – 1.9km / 90km / 21.1km

Pro Men

1. Sam Long (USA) – 3:33:23

2. Lionel Sanders (CAN) – 3:38:13

3. Chris Leiferman (USA) – 3:38:14

4. Tomas Rodriguez Hernandez (MEX) – 3:39:23

5. Matthew Sharpe (CAN) – 3:39:35

Pro Women

1. Taylor Knibb (USA) – 3:56:34

2. Holly Lawrence (GBR) – 4:04:39

3. Jeanni Metzler (RSA) – 4:05:26

4. Lesley Smith (USA) – 4:12:57

5. Batya Beard – 4:15:20

Will Your Next Running Coach be Artificial Intelligence?

Alicia Woodside

This article originally appeared on Trail Runner

Look across the internet and you’ll find many different options for trail and ultrarunning coaches. In a May 2022 survey fielded by the American Trail Running Association, 14 percent of trail runners had coaches, and 4 percent were considering getting a coach.

With new Artificial Intelligence (AI) innovations, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s newly-released Bard, will AI coaches compete with human coaches? How will these emerging technologies affect coaching as we know it?

What is AI (Artificial Intelligence)?

If you ask ChatGPT to define itself, it will say: “the development of computer systems that can perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and language translation.”

The reason AI has become the tech world’s darling is that there have been incredible advances in a type of AI known as “Large Language Models,” or LLMs. These models use natural language processing and have the capacity to quickly complete complex tasks. The company OpenAI is leading the way with ChatGPT, which can do things like summarize a long body of text, infer meaning, transform data from one language or format to another, and even expand text: you can literally give the model one sentence and ask it to complete your paragraph.

According to Stanford University’s Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence group, the new models are incredibly powerful: “These models have already been used to co-author Economist articles and award-winning essays, co-create screenplays, and co-construct testimonies before the U.S. Senate.”

How AI is Being Used in Coaching Today

A December 2022 report by McKinsey & Company found that AI adoption by companies has more than doubled globally since 2017, with 50 percent of companies stating that they’ve adopted AI in some form.

Currently, we have yet to see an app that’s fully leveraging the new technology to coach trail runners. Instead, what you’ll find is a growing marketplace of digital training tools that use existing, more stable forms of AI, like machine learning. These apps can analyze your data and dynamically adjust your plan, based on pace, heart rate, and in some cases, power meter data. Companies leading the way include TrainAsONE, AIEndurance, Athletica, HumanGo, and enduco.

And I will add Predictive Fitness to the list.

What’s New in the 303:

Cyclists For Community, A Look Inside Their Work in 2023

By Bill Plock

June 14, 2023–Wide shoulders, bike paths, and any infrastructure installed or improved to provide safer cycling just don’t happen. They are advocated for, fought for and voted for. It’s hard to get most times and comes with a great deal of strategy and relationship building–and money.

This is a copy of Cyclists For Community’s (C4C) latest update of all of their activities and initiatives so far in 2023. It’s interesting to learn about all the projects and initiatives on their plate.   Included is a link to all the road and infrastructure projects happening in Boulder County–the costs of projects, impact, and timing.

Even if you don’t live or ride in this area, this is an example of what a local advocacy group can do. We have many, many groups in Colorado that have a massive impact on improving cycling whether it be on road or dirt.

Here is a list from Bicycle Colorado of all of the local advocacy organizations.

The rest, from Matt Muir of C4C

When you donate and support C4C, these posts show where your support goes. C4C’s annual fundraising gala, Crank It Forward, took place in May 2023.  It was a big success, thank you to everyone who helped.  Here’s a look at where the $91,000 (the updated figure as of June 14) raised at Crank It Forward is going.

Bicycle Colorado

This dataset shows all CO crashes in 2021. You can see the streets/intersections where these occurred in columns D & E. Do you see any patterns in where these crashes are happening? Do you have thoughts on where your community could put new speed cameras?

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/114ulRs6nSOXdTVpLrmsCCFd9jx3BvOAQOZoU0UsS5gY/edit?fbclid=IwAR0G23auQGqiawdhkau8QyKpSVcpPuOOjFgv-OV4l6b3NwWaUGd99CuTJ8M#gid=1383961553

Video of the Week:

2023 IRONMAN 70.3 Boulder: A Fighting Chance Ep.2 presented by Wahoo Fitness

Closing:

Thanks again for listening in this week.  Please be sure to follow us @303endurance and of course go to iTunes and give us a rating and a comment.  We’d really appreciate it!

Stay tuned, train informed, and enjoy the endurance journey!