Lionel Sanders has a way to go to match the achievements of IRONMAN legend Mark Allen.
But Canadian Sanders, who has two second-placed finishes at the IRONMAN World Championships to his name, reckons there is one big difference from Allen’s era as he paid tribute to one of the greats.
American Allen won six World Championships in a row after finally seeing off his big rival Dave Scott in 1989.
“Just massive”
And while the sport has clearly made big performance gains since via improved aerodynamics on the bike, Sanders says the biggest game changer when it comes to the run isn’t carbon shoes but the increased carb intake of triathletes these days.
Speaking as he pedalled an exercise bike in a new YouTube video, Sanders said: “The carbs is just massive. You could make an argument that but for the carbs and the shoes, nobody is running any faster than Mark Allen.
“Mark Allen running a 2:40 in 1989 with basically barefoot shoes, and I would assume less than 90g of carbs an hour.
“The vast majority of our performance gains have come from aerodynamics on the bike, increased carb intake. There is literally double the carb intake now, than then. I’m literally almost double the carb intake than I was four years ago.
“The shoes? I don’t know if I believe the shoes really do anything. Maybe a little bit. But the carbs is just massive. Especially now. On my ride, I’m normally I’m at 50g an hour. So I would consume over 400 calories, burn over 2,000 calories, massive deficit.
“A quick snack”
“Contrast that with now, over 150g, so that is, 1200 calories consumed in two hours. Two thousand burned – only 800 deficit. Big difference. That’s a quick snack after my ride.”
Sanders knows all about carbs. Recently hampered by a diet-related condition known as Relative Energy Deficiency, or RED-S, he was forced to up his food intake to combat its potentially debilitating impact.
The 37-year-old has since doubled his intake of carbs and now weighs over 169lbs, compared to the 158lbs when he won at St George in May.
“A real rebuild”
Sanders was back in Tucson last week putting in the hours as he rehabs from his latest injury – a hairline crack to a bone at the base of his spine.
Sanders also won 70.3 Oceanside in April, bit admits he now in “a real rebuild” as he targets this year’s World Championships in Nice, probably without the opportunity to take part in any kind of warm-up event.
He said: “The season didn’t start how I planned, but I’m finally healing up and putting the pieces together again. Still not running, but getting in some solid bike work, swimming in 100-degree heat, and making sure nutrition’s dialled in.”
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