Matt, there's a good article in Runner's World (Feb issue) that shows how to train for your first ultra run(50 miles). That's one of my goals ro run a ultra when someday I get tired of tris. After 18 years of tris including 15 IMs I sometimes like the idea of going back to running only. Sure makes life easier.

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18x Ironman, 3x Hawaii
US Army (Ret.), Vietnam Vet ('71-'72)

I "retired" from triathlons back in 1997 for a vareity of reasons. Chief among those, was that my son was now the most important thing in my life. For the next few years I went back to just running. It was so nice going to races and not having to lug around a portable sporting goods shop with me - just throw the racing flats and my singlet in a bag and off I would go. Such simplicity!

Fleck

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I completely agree. I'm back to running after two seasons of triathlon and the simplicity is refreshing. The problem is that I'm fat now...

Matt, I'd echo what these others are saying...focus on getting faster in the 10k-1/2 marathon range and the marathon and longer distance will follow.

I got lectured to about this training for my marathon in the next 3 weeks.

Matt was probably getting ready for a marathon, just like me, and we can't go back in time to July and start then on this quest, of running every single day, during triathlons, in the fall to gradually get you up there, where 30% puts you in the 20 long, easy day amount.

I was a 5, 10, 5, 12ish runner during the week. I went from that in October to:

7.2, 13, 5, 19-22, 5. Right now.

That's about 47 miles total, if you calculated a 30% of that, you'll go under your longest run. Therefore, 30% Makes no sense, unless you are getting ready for a marathon in 2-3 months. To get to a 20 long run on the weekend, we'd have to get up to 15, 15, 15, 8, 10, something like that, during the week. That's just too much shit going down each day, if you have other things going on.

Do we risk injury?

Yeah.

Does it have to be done, for a marathon?

Its just the chance I'll have to take.

Are you guys, right?

Yeah ,probably.

Bricks, baby. And run harder and faster. ;-)

Ironhead

Matt,
Have you given any thought to your running technique?

Yes, I've given a lot of thought to it. I could certainly improve, but I found the simplest improvement was getting rid of those giant soled running shoes. They were causing my feet to pronate. Based on that, the running shoe store decided I needed stability shoes...You've heard that story before.

Anyway, yes that's something I need to work on.

Friel advocates strides, but I was never sure I was doing them correctly. I've been starting from standing still and accelerating at a medium rate to near sprint over 15" and holding it about 15" more. I'm focusing on perfect form rather than all out speed. I often do it barefoot on grass, sometimes on a very slight downhill.

Is this correct? Any suggesitons?

FWIW, this last season I went from straight training bible suggestions in 2003 to doing the same but doing fewer workouts of longer duration in 2004. I maintained the same total weekly hours, and did not change the % of time between sports, rather each workout was of longer duration. I greatly increased my endurance, and I somewhat increased my ability to hold a medium pace for a longer duration. Overall I was disappointed with my lack of improvement in my 1/2 IM time. For the 2005 season I plan on doing more frequency and a little higher intensity maintaing the same weekly total hours.

I think what people really need to do is identify clearly what there goals are and then look long term. Many triathletes look to and focus on running a marathon as part of their seasonal goals in the hope that it will improve their running both overall and for triathlon. My guess is that it does neither.

It really depends on your background. If you come from a background of years and years of running you are in a different category than someone who got into triathlons and started running at roughly the same time. I ran for 6 years at a high level before I took up triathlons in the early 80's. What I found was that I was able to reduce my total run volume and number of runs/week, but was still able to maintain run performance. However, I had been running 6 -7 days/week for six years. If you just started running when you started triathlon training, then I think the best approach is to do a 4 - 6 month running focus, doing just enough swimming and cycling to maintain a bare minimum fitness level. Your running will really go up and I think that many would be surprised how quickly the swimming and cycling would bounce back once they returned to a more balanced program.

Fleck

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I agree w/ Francois here. I still run w/ my XC coach from high school. He has run all different distances, 800 m being his favorite where I believe he was around a 1:50 and then 2:40 marathoner back in the day. Anyways, he is big on running intervals at different paces (all faster than your race pace) and fixing shorter distances first before moving up to longer ones.

I'd also add in hill repeats and plyos to improve form and efficiency.

I think you're doing the right thing. Increasing volume can lead to greatly improved speed. Lydiard and many others have proved this, so I'm surprised at the number of recommendations in this thread to do speedwork. Speedwork should be used only after the adaptations from volume and frequency are no longer effective. These adaptations will take several months at best - cf Lydiards' training plans, Mark Allens' ditto, etcetera.

Especially for triathletes, who typically run most workouts hard/fast, adding more hard/fast workouts is not usually the right way to get faster. As Fleck says, a long period of single-sport focus is a good idea.

Training improvements tend to go stepwise, with plateaus between sudden improvements. Expect several months at best for the plateau, and don't get discouraged.

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"It is a good feeling for old men who have begun to fear failure, any sort of failure, to set a schedule for exercise and stick to it. If an aging man can run a distance of three miles, for instance, he knows that whatever his other failures may be, he is not completely wasted away." Romain Gary, SI interview