(door opens)
(door closes)
- Whoa, morning Trainiacs.
It's fresh out there, I need my vest.
You all remember how a couple days ago
I did that video about how I thought Daniela Ryf
was boarder line unbeatable?
I don't know how I didn't think about this.
I think I know who can potentially beat her.
Mel Hauschildt, the reason I should know that
is because we just interviewed her on the pod cast
and Mel and I bonded over our mutual love
of peanut butter so I really should know that,
so we're gonna talk about why I think Mel Hauschildt
might win in Kona right after this group ride, yeah.
(upbeat music)
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
(exhales)
51K ride, whole bunch of sprints in there,
I ended up winning the King of the Mountain sprint.
Straight up, straight up.
(grunts)
Alright now, Mel hauschildt.
(claps hands)
Alright, let's go.
(construction equipment ringing)
Heavy construction going on outside
and I know a lot of you are going to be saying
like who in the fuds is Mel Hauschildt?
Well, Mel Hauschildt is somebody who we interviewed
who is a fellow Skodi athlete.
We just published the podcast with her this past week
and looking into her results, she might be
the greatest triathlete of all time.
She has raced 67 or 68 pro races,
she has won 48 of them, she holds the world record
for the amount of course records that she set
and the number of half Iron Man's done
by a woman under 4 hours and 10 minutes.
She has 22 course records, three bike course records
and five run course records.
A reason that you might not know about her, however,
is basically since 2014, every single year leading
into Kona, she wins, wins, wins, wins, wins, wins, wins,
wins, wins, and then has been injured coming into Kona.
Now all that said, Daniela Ryf is Daniela Ryf.
She's dominant, she is destroying female fields this year,
even some of the males in the field this year,
and she is the overall course record holder in Kona.
She's the person to beat.
So let' start with the swim, Daniela Ryf isn't gonna be
in the very pack with Lucy Charles and Lauren Brandon,
but she'll be in the biggest main pack.
Mel Hauschildt is not a fantastic swimmer
and so she's gonna end up coming out of the water
in about four to five minutes back of Ryf.
In addition to that, she's probably worked fairly hard,
whereas Daniela Ryf get's into that lead pack
so that she doesn't have to work hard
and kind of cruises her way, that means
that going onto the bike, Mel Hauschildt is going
to have to catch up to Daniela Ryf.
And this is the big question that is really hard
to analyze how it's gonna stack up.
Daniela Ryf, amazing biker.
Mel Hauschildt, amazing biker,
but they've never really gone head to head.
So we can look back at some of their previous times.
Over the last four full Iron Man distance races,
Mel Hauschildt's average bike on a course
that is a legitimate distance is a 4:47.
Daniela Ryf is a 4:48.
However, in those races that I was doing
that calculation on, Daniela Ryf
was racing against the best of the best in the world.
Whereas Mel Hauschildt wasn't,
so she wasn't necessarily pushing nearly as much.
In addition to that, Daniela Ryf is the top dog.
She is going to have everyone gunning for her
so odds are not very likely that she's gonna have anyone
that wants to work with her.
She's gonna have to do this on her own.
Mel Hauschildt is probably gonna be getting out
of the water with Heather Jackson.
(construction tools ringing)
And Heather Jackson is an amazing biker
and if you look at last year's bike chart,
(construction tools ringing)
- Shut up, Dad.
- Yeah, Dad.
(laughter)
- And if you look at last year's bike chart,
you see that Heather Jackson caught up to Daniela Ryf,
basically being just a minute or two back.
However, because she was working on her own,
she ended up falling off of that pace.
But if Heather Jackson and Mel Hauschildt
can work together, get themselves up to Daniela Ryf,
and Mel Hauschildt can hold Daniela Ryf's wheel,
then they're gonna be coming off the bike together,
and then we have runner vs. runner.
Daniela Ryf has an ITU background,
she holds a lot of run course records,
she tends to gain distance on the field in the run.
Mel Hauschildt was literally a world class runner,
like top 30 in the world in the middle distance,
1500, 3000 meter kind of event, competing
in the Common Wealth Games and even getting on the podium.
So at that point, we've gotta start looking
at some of the intangibles.
So Daniela Ryf.
(construction tools ringing)
Daniela Ryf, obviously really well suited to Kona.
Mel Hauschildt in the podcast that she did with us,
when I asked her if she's well suited to Kona,
she responded with...
- Well I think so, I really like heat and humitity.
- They're both very, very lean, however, Daniela's
a little bit bigger coming in at 5'9", 139 pounds.
Whereas Mel Hauschildt is 5'5", 114 pounds.
Kona tends to favor lighter athletes
because it's less body mass that has to be cooled down.
Mel Hauschildt also makes a point of being fat adapted
so that she can get into that aerobic zone,
and basically just half her body fuel itself
do really, really well at that locomotive,
kind of chug-a-chug sort of pace.
So at that point, it kind of comes down to freshness.
Now freshness as far as their build up to the season.
They both have been qualified for a long time
so they're going to have an equally well planned out build
that they can focus on Kona over the next three months.
But it comes down to, I think freshness off the bike.
Daniela will have had to fight off Mel,
but she will have had a rest in the swim.
Whereas, Mel would've had to work
on the swim and work on the bike.
So I think the edge probably goes to Daniela,
but it comes down to how much grit
and out right greasy fast speed does Mel have?
And that, we're gonna I think have to find out
because when they're going like this
you're only going to know what happens and how well
they can mentally battle each other once it comes down to it
because we've never really seen either
of them go toe to toe with any other athlete.
My pick, Daniela.
If I'm betting, and looking at getting the best odds
that I can, I think I gotta go with Mel Hauschildt
because everyone is underestimating her
and that week there are gonna be a lot more media events
that Daniela's gonna have to go to.
Mel Huaschildt can come in as a dark horse sleeper.
Now internet, fight amongst yourselves
in the comments below about how ridiculous this is,
or if you think that it could be very legitimate.
While you're doing that, here's a lovely montage
from the bike this morning and a run
that I'm about to do right now.
(pop music)
(construction tools ringing)
So, after that bike this morning, follow that up
in the afternoon with a hill running workout
gradually progressing up to four degrees incline
at 8.6 miles an hour for the last few minutes.
Basically every two and a half minutes
of that 20 minute run,
I was either ramping up speed or incline.
I feel terrific.
Alright Trainiacs, there you go,
comment below with who you think
is gonna win the Iron Man World Championship.
Daniela Ryf, Melissa Hauschildt.
I can just picture the Taren,
you are crazy comments happening right now.