Emails released by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) show that Lance Armstrong discussed his participation in Ironman with Michele and Stefano Ferrari.
In one email, from February 2008, Lance says:
"how hard would it be to win the ironman? How much training hourly per day?"
And Stefano Ferrari replies:
"Schumi defines it as one of those events where you really have to scrape the bottom of the barrel, even just to finish it.
"As for training, usually the average weekly volume would be about 30 hours in peak volume period. Olivier Bernhard used to do about 25-30km of swimming, 600-700km of riding and 80-90km of running per week.
"Have you been running? Did you follow Schumi's schedule that he sent you a while ago?"
'Schumi' is the name used for Michele Ferrari, stemming from Michael Schumacher, who drove for the Ferrari Formula One team.
In another email exchange, earlier that day, Armstrong said:
"I've had lots of advice and apparently =he swim is super critical [sic]. If u lose minutes in the swim then the =peleton" leaves without you..."
To which Stefano Ferrari replied:
"Yes, surely it's critical, but not as much as in shorter triathlons =here drafting is legal on the bike leg. They do tend to form groups of =iders, "drafting" 10m from each other, so it's important to get out of =he water with minimal delay.
"The first thing you'll have to do =i once the Tour is over is recover a bit, then start working on =efining your swimming technique: do you know a good instructor? Also, 'chumi advises doing shorter triathlons to get used to swimming among many =eople..."
And in another exchage, Ferrari explicity discusses planning together for Ironman. Stefano Ferrari wrote:
"Schumi says we have to discuss and plan =or the Ironman events, as it's no easy joke, of course. The main issue =ould be the running, we'll have to restart carefully and purposefully. =lso check your swimming efficiency in open sea =ater. But yea, he says it's possible! I say it's =rreaking cool..."
The reason that certain letter are missing from the correspondence is that the emails have been recovered.
To read the emails in full, go here. The ones referring to triathlon start on page 'USADA00058' and are part of 'Jack Robertson, Exhibit A.pdf'.
Note: This email exchange does not, in itself, prove anything other than the fact that Armstrong continuted to have correspondance and coaching advice as late as 2010 from a doctor with whom he claimed to have severed professional ties in 2004. To understand the emails in context, read the full document here.
