An incident last week occasioned an opportunity to rethink my historic relationship with food. The adjoining thumbnail says it all. Mine is the Great American eating disorder: overfull plates, overfull stomachs.

Reigning Kona three-peater Chrissie Wellington weighs in with a thoughtful, thorough response on Ironman’s proposal to overhaul its prize money and World Championship qualification system.

Ironman has clearly been frustrated by the lack of quality athletes toeing the starting lines of many of its events.  The new proposed framework attempts to address this.

If you took an Emma to win, that would be a crafty bet; but this oddsmaker fool had to pick one and it’s Snowy. Daniela, Barbara, Andrea, Helen, two Sarahs and Laura will hotly dispute.

Can Simon Whitfield repeat? Will Jan Frodeno put down his Olympic sprint hammer? Will Bevan Docherty break out of his runner-up rut? Can Courtney Atkinson ride his hot streak?

Ask longtime top triathletes, 8 of 10 will tell you the low hanging improvement fruit is to be plucked in the swim. This Saturday, SoCal-based Slowtwitchers have a chance to improve their open water skills.

Timothy Carlson sez: Michael Raelert slight edge over Eneko Llanos, Rasmus Henning; Julie Dibens over Virginia Berasategui, Samantha McGlone, Lesley Paterson at Wildflower long course.

Timothy Carlson’s thoughts about the USAT Collegiate Nationals – CU’s Jessica Broderick over West Point’s Ashley Morgan and CU’s Cedric Wane over UC Berkeley’s Kenneth Rakestraw at Lubbock, Texas.

Rohto Ironman 70.3 at Oceanside always has cold water and hot fields because it’s the start of the season and it’s held in tri-industry haven Southern California. Timothy Carlson sets the odds and it’s up to the pros to prove he’s an idiot

Tony Kornheiser of ESPN recently made some statements which had cyclists extremely upset and asking for the “head” of Kornheiser. After Lance Armstrong appeared on the Kornheiser radio show, the man apologized, but sports writer Sal Ruibal does not accept the apology.

Triathlon in general and Slowtwitch in particular are, thankfully, Islands of Détente. What should you expect to read on Slowtwitch, and, how politics-free will our words here be?

With $250,000 prize money on the line , the inaugural Abu Dhabi International Triathlon has attracted as great pre-Kona field. Here’s a guide to the men’s contenders.