ericlambi wrote:
mathematics wrote:
It depends on what you mean specifically by focusing on one sport. If your goal is to be a competitive runner then the best route is to stop swimming and cycling altogether.
Why do you say this? Most runners, especially amateurs, are going to be limited in how many hours they can run to probably <= 10hrs. You don't think adding cycling and/or swimming on top of that helps at all? Is a genuine question I've been grappling with as my next priority race is the London marathon, but I am also planning to do some triathlons next year. I only care about my performance in the marathon though, so I've been debating whether and how much biking/swimming to do.
mathematics wrote:
Take Lionel as an example. His swim (as extensively discussed) is bad enough to keep him from competing for wins, even though his bike and run are among the best. Surely the right move for him is not to take 6 months away from bike/run to focus solely on the swim.
I actually think it might be a worthwhile gamble for him to do 6mo+ of a very heavy swim block with only limited and easy running and biking. His bike/run will come back quickly when he resumes normal training, but the time focused on swimming might be the only chance he has of raising his level to where it needs to be to compete.
If your goal is to go as fast as you possibly can in the London Marathon then including swimming and cycling*might* help, but as the poster above said, only if you have maxed out your running potential. If it's not leading to injury a recovery run will be more specific and lead to faster marathon times than a recovery bike.
Say your body can handle 80 miles and two run workouts a week. Adding a bike or swim workout is only going to benefit if it doesn't detract from the run workouts. My advice would be maximize your running first, then when you feel you can't add any additional volume or intensity see if you can handle cycling first then swimming. Just simple specificity. The other safe move would be too keep bike/swim workouts at first but fade them out as you build run volume, keeping global volume the same. Just as a hedge against injury.
Re: Lionel--Gotta disagree here. His bike/run will come back, but it's not the same as some punter getting back to a 20 min 5k. These guys are at such a level that just maintaining fitness is 20+h/w.
The other point they gets missed in this discussion is when the swim block is over the swim volume returns to baseline or lower to bring the bike/run back up, which will be deleterious to any swim gains made in the block.