Start running 30 minutes 3 to 4 times a week, build that to 5 to 6 runs. When you get there spend 6 weeks of doing just that.

That should take you 10 to 12 weeks. Get back to us when you reach that point.

Thanks dude, that's the kind of thing I need. I guessed it was a case of base first, just no idea how long I need to build for!

I'm in the same boat, but in a much worse way. Not particularly fast in the water, but I'm happy with where I'm at compared to the amount of time I've been swimming. When I put effort into cycling, I see the results.

But with running, I'm slow. I can never get to that point where anything faster than 10 min/mile feels easy and my HR doesn't start to skyrocket. i know what my problem is. I'm never consistent. This is after 2.5 years of pretty consistent aerobic training, just not consistent running (injuries plus mixing in swimming and running to cut back mileage)

Have a 70.3 this weekend that will turn into a walk run I'm sure. After that, I'm focussing on running with maybe a single group ride on the weekends. I can never keep consistent while training in all 3 disciplines. Plan for 30 min, 5 days a week and increase time slowly from there.

Should all those miles be really easy/Z2? At least for the first several months? That's the plan I have for now. I really want to get my easy runs down to an 8 min/mile pace one day. At least sub 9. Don't even want to touch a tri again until I get there.

Yes, Z2.

Find the Barry P thread on ST or click on this link for the summary:

http://www.jasonmcgee.me/barryp/running.html

As for staying injury free. Look up Dr Phil Mafetone and use his HR formula for all runs until you stop progressing. He basically keeps you in Z2, but read his blog / site.

Good luck!

If you're doing a 3:30 bike split i reckon the easiest place to make gains is on the bike. If you can get your bike fitness up to a level where you can hammer it reasonably hard for 56 miles and jump off with fresh (ish) legs then the run will be 100 times easier.

Give TrainerRoad a try - it got me to a 2:35 bike split in 2 years, and i'm a old guy.

To start off with, yes easy. I want my training partners to start off with frequency and run at a pace where they won't hurt themselves.

You have to make an evaluation about your situation after 8 to 12 weeks. Do you feel strong? Hurt? Tired? Ready to go? You should should have a better understanding of your situation after that many weeks of running easy. If you feel strong and ready to go then perhaps it's time to add more stress to your running. That can be either increasing miles, increasing effort, adding a day of intensity or all three. Maybe adding a bit of variety to your running such as trail running or hilly running.

Sometimes 6 to 7 days a week isn't right for someone and they are better off with 4 days. While most should be able to run 6 days of 30 min there are a few people that have hip issues with that many runs and a longer adaptation period is needed.

I think all running increases fitness (or base) but I firmly believe that easy running starts to strengthen muscles and connecting tissues that are required to run better/faster in training and racing.

What kind of timeline do people really start to see results in pace? I realize everyone is going to be different. I've just seen someone recently make a comment about knocking over a minute off of their easy pace in a year. I'd be pretty happy with that as someone who has been fairly active for a good while. I don't expect to see huge changes immediately as if I just got off the couch. But also not sure if that's a one off good result.

Might be putting the horse before the cart, but we might be expecting to have a bigger household soon and it would be a perfect time to cut back on full on tri training and get this running thing fixed. I'm tired of running at the back of the pack. Don't even want to be in the front. Just get me to the middle, haha.

I didn't respect the time required to get your easy pace faster. Endurance sports takes time and commitment over all else. I'm just starting to fully realize that. My z2 run pace is now what my HM race pace was 2.5 years ago. Still a slow pace to many, but it's a pace that I can run continuously without much HR drift above zone 2. The other thing I didn't realize is how slowly I should have progressed. Early on I was trying to do to much on not much of an aerobic background. I constantly had niggles and pops, it was very discouraging. I have been successfully training now for around 1.5 years injury free, but I pay attention to all the little things like mobility and stretching /rolling...it goes a long way. So just build up easily as you tolerate and look for the long term gain!

Depending on where you are starting I would expect to see a sedentary healthy person to be able to run 30 min 4 times a week in about 6 to 10 weeks. That person is going to see a big increase in the first 6 months of their running career. The next year will likely see big increases as well.

After that, if the person has continued to run, I would expect them increase 10 to 20 seconds a mile in the next year, not minutes.

If you've been active for a number of years I would think that taking a min off of your easy miles in a year would be very ambitious.

My best running years came after a big winter of running. Big for me is 50 miles per weeks but it'll be different for different people. In 2005, big weeks for me were 35 miles per week.

I'll give you my timeline:

November of 2002 I bought a tri bike cuz I wanted to do triathlon but I was a cyclist already so if I didn't like tri, I would ride anyway.
December 2002 I start running 1 mile every other day at 13 min/mile. I was 195 lbs and 64" tall. I hurt so bad after each run that I could barely walk the next day, that lasted about 3 weeks. I moved up to 1.5 and then 2 miles every other day after that. In about 12 weeks I was running 3 miles in just over 30 min.

June 2003 I did my first sprint tri and ran the 5K in 29:30 so basically just under 10 min/mile
Sept 2003 I did my first olympic and ran the 10K in 56 something. My goal was under 50 min but I didn't make it.

June 2004 I did my first half and ran the 13.1 in about 2 hours. It was everything I had to do that. Afterwards I had a goal to run 8 min/mile for the half.
November 2004 I did my first IM and ran 5:30 something.

2005 to 2008 I had a long string of 2 hour HIM runs because I had over-biked on all of the races. Aug of 2008 I paced the bike well but laughed off the run cuz the swim had been canceled and I wasn't happy about it. I didn't consider it to be a real HIM, I could have ran faster but decided to spend some time in the porto-jon instead. I haven't done a race from that company since, I've probably convinced about 100 people not to do at least 1 or more of their races but they didn't seem to mind.

July 2009 I finally ran my 8 min/mile (1:45)
August 2009 I backed it up.

I've done several races near that pace or better (and worse) with my best being 1:38 but that was a few years ago. I have been running my easy miles near 8:30 for quite some time. Even a few years ago my easy pace was nearly the same but my T-Pace was about 30 sec/mile faster than right now

I'd recommend running often while running for very low durations. Lot's of 15-20 min runs per week. Once you're comfortably up to 8-10 of those then reduce frequency and spread that duration out over a few other runs.


frequency to build volume, don't just build volume. It's a lot easier on your body to jump from 5.5k to 7.5k in a swim workout 4-5d per week than it is to make that jump running.


these may help

http://accelerate3.com/track-workouts-are-not-the-solution/
http://accelerate3.com/track-workouts-are-not-the-solution-part-ii/

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

desert dude knows what he's talking about. go read this thread. it changed the game for me with my running. I'm currently doing round 2 of this and I'm already seeing more progress.

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/forum/Slowtwitch_Forums_C1/Triathlon_Forum_F1/So_you_want_a_challenge%3F_-_Half_assed_or_Full_on_Ass%3F_You_choose._Alternate_title%3A_Do_it_right_or_wasting_your_time._P1051716/