2:59:36
 

He is 20 lbs heavier than he was when he was in cycling shape. He has trained his body to be a cycling body, not a running body. Indeed, some people speculate that part of the reason he came back so strong after cancer is that he could start his body over from scratch and make it into a cycling-specific machine. I know you want to see his performance as an indictment on all of cycling, but I bet if you took the top marathoners in the world, had them each gain 20 lbs, not train sufficiently, and enter the Tour, it would not be pretty.

2:59:36
 

Ty, I love you like a boxed-wine addled co-moderator of an obsucre interweb, but stop. please.

The only positive I see here is that all the apprehension that this guy could jump in and rock Kona has been alleviated by observing this result.

2:59:36
 

I don't get this. if you gained 20 lbs. wouldn't all your cycling buddies start calling you chub-o in the locker room? or would it be a "more cushion" thing?

2:59:36
 

They hunt seals with spears, and make clothing from the skins. They also have boots made from the feet of polar bears, and scarves knitted from the tiny feathers of the ptarmigan.

http://donsmaps.com/clickphotos/ptarmigan.jpg
Our friend, the ptarmigan

2:59:36
 

I know you are a warm clime, but you want me to run in a freakin' shearling? sniff.

2:59:36
 

if you only would let us drill oil in the artic, I think the pilot fires could provide "heat-pit stops" every mile or so.

No, no imports. Your wife's insistence on using the escalade has me spoiled.

2:59:36
 

How about your gaseous emissions, assuming you are not able to stop at the elementary school along the way? global warming, indeed.

How pastors stray.
 

A Christian pastor from Penske's neck o' the woods tells it like it is:

• As every pastor knows, we are always at risk from the sin in us and the sinful temptations around us. Pastoring in one of America’s least churched cities to a large number of single, young people has been an eye-opening experience for me. I started the church ten years ago when I was twenty-five years of age. Thankfully, I was married to a beautiful woman. I met my lovely wife Grace when we were seventeen, married her at twenty-one, and by God’s grace have been faithful to her in every way since the day we met. I have, however, seen some very overt opportunities for sin. On one occasion I actually had a young woman put a note into my shirt pocket while I was serving communion with my wife, asking me to have dinner, a massage, and sex with her. On another occasion a young woman emailed me a photo of herself topless and wanted to know if I liked her body. Thankfully, that email was intercepted by an assistant and never got to me. . . .
  
  Most pastors I know do not have satisfying, free, sexual conversations and liberties with their wives. At the risk of being even more widely despised than I currently am, I will lean over the plate and take one for the team on this. It is not uncommon to meet pastors’ wives who really let themselves go; they sometimes feel that because their husband is a pastor, he is therefore trapped into fidelity, which gives them cause for laziness. A wife who lets herself go and is not sexually available to her husband in the ways that the Song of Songs is so frank about is not responsible for her husband’s sin, but she may not be helping him either.

You kinda feel bad for that assistant, though -- presumably he's headed for Hell.

2:59:36
 

Perhaps, but the Tour is a rarified event. It would like saying if Lance had done the marathon with solely the sub 2:12 guys.

And I question that 20 pound number (as well as the 16 mile long run number), notwithstanding that his upper body was wispy prior to retirement. Athlete's lie about their numbers for psychological reasons all the time.

Look at me.

How pastors stray.
 

That puts a lot of pressure on the pastor's wife to upkeep and be a Trophy Pastor's Wife. How is that totally fair? Some pastors how much she upkeeps would be irrelevant he may stray in spite of her upkeep....

2:59:36
 

Well, approximatey 15% of the purpose of my post was to bait you. Regardless, Lance's performance is not an indictment on cycling. I don't think any more or less of it because of Lance's marathon time. Nevertheless, I expected Lance to be faster in the marathon based on his superior VO2 max/lactate thresholds and general endurance conditioning. Can you honestly say you're not surprised that he wasn't faster?

2:59:36
 

I didn't realize you were talking about running. Eskimos have a trick they use so that they can keep running through the icy darkness of the Arctic winter. This is what enables them to compete with Kenyans and Ethiopians in road races around the world, notwithstanding their stumpy legs and long kayaks. When then run, they start out in extra sealskins. This makes them sweat profusely. Then they strip off the sealskins, and the sweat freezes, forming a layer of ice on the body. This is called "layering." Much like an iglu, warm air is trapped under the ice, next to the skin, providing insulation, and yet the ice does not melt because it is so freaking cold outside. This trick is just part of the Eskimo heritage of running. A little known fact is that the Eskimos have hundreds of words for running, including esoteric words like "sprint" and "bonk" that have been incorporated into the English language.

2:59:36
 

No, its muscle, like the stuff in your head. When I went from running to tris, I went from 125-140. I needed some upper body strenght to swim.

2:59:36
 

Lance claims that if he had trained properly, he could have done a 2:30. That's more what I would have expected from a professional endurance athlete of his accomplishment.

He also said he'll never do it again - so I have to agree with the others that he is a pussy.