40 days to IMMT, long run?

Triathlon Forum
1

Going to be doing my first IM and have been following the same plan my wife used when she trained for it last year. She got it online somewhere, but forgot where. The last 40 days of the spreadsheet doesnt have any long runs past 13 miles (takes about 1:50). Is that okay or should i add a few more miles on the weekends? Last time I ran a 20 miler was in April when i was training for a marathon. Thanks

        http://i.imgur.com/yLpCvcK.jpg
2

Going to be doing my first IM and have been following the same plan my wife used when she trained for it last year. She got it online somewhere, but forgot where. The last 40 days of the spreadsheet doesnt have any long runs past 13 miles (takes about 1:50). Is that okay or should i add a few more miles on the weekends? Last time I ran a 20 miler was in April when i was training for a marathon. Thanks

http://i.imgur.com/yLpCvcK.jpg

I’m not going into the details of your plan, but I will reply with a number of questions:

You are not your wife, why are you following her plan. You may have other strengths and weaknesses and ability to recover from workoutsAsking about the length of long run in the last 40 days is meaningless without knowing about your base and recent historyWhat is your average run volume per week over the last 30 weeks (not your max, your average)What are your time goals and run split goals?What is your size, what is your weight, what is your body fat, what is you Vdot. These are important to know if we are going to make any statements on your ability to push long run training close to race date and absorb the workout for meaningful gain on race date.

Sorry, I think your first problem is following your wife’s plan since I am assuming you are not twins of each other.

Dev

3

At this point, ramping up the long run might just dig you a hole (or injury) as your long run is only 13 miles (~1:45). I would take it up to maybe 18 miles in the next 3 weeks, but I believe in long runs. I would bike longer than 4:30, unless you are killing it for 4:30, then that is fine. Just my opinion not knowing your background at all.

4
  1. Not sure why i followed her plan, I should have asked ST first…darn it.
  2. I am not a great runner, did my first marathon in April at 4:02. Started running 2 years ago but never more than 10 miles a week. This past 7 months i ramped it up for IM training.
  3. Average run volume is around 20-30 miles a week (this was after my April marathon, before that it was 35-40 miles)
  4. Time goal is <12 hours, my recent half, 2 weeks ago, at the toughman tinman tupper lake was 5:22.
  5. I am 5’ 9", 155lbs, average build, body fat is 14%, vdot is 39 (not too sure about this, just got this number online by plugging in my last HIM time)

I feel like a fool now following my wife’s plan. Hope 40 days is enough to correct it?

Thanks

5

A couple of things - you’ll get some very good coaching advice on this forum…I am always amazed at how much really good free help some of the experienced folks will give on all things training and racing (and personally appreciate it)…but you will also always get posts that feel like a kick in the shins (often unnecessarily). In doing a quick look at your plan and recent race times, you are doing the volume so don’t panic…I am sure you will have a fun day out there. Enjoy both the process and the event. Definitely listen to what I am sure will be some very good suggestions for your last 40 days of training but don’t let the feedback make you feel like you dropped the ball!

6

Thanks, that helps.

Does anyone else have any comments?

7
  1. Not sure why i followed her plan, I should have asked ST first…darn it.
  2. I am not a great runner, did my first marathon in April at 4:02. Started running 2 years ago but never more than 10 miles a week. This past 7 months i ramped it up for IM training.
  3. Average run volume is around 20-30 miles a week (this was after my April marathon, before that it was 35-40 miles)
  4. Time goal is <12 hours, my recent half, 2 weeks ago, at the toughman tinman tupper lake was 5:22.
  5. I am 5’ 9", 155lbs, average build, body fat is 14%, vdot is 39 (not too sure about this, just got this number online by plugging in my last HIM time)

I feel like a fool now following my wife’s plan. Hope 40 days is enough to correct it?

Thanks

Another key personal stat is age, IMO. The older you get, the harder it is to recover from those key workouts you need to do. If you were still in your 20’s or early 30’s, I’d say cautiously throw an 18-miler in ASAP (paying attention to what your body’s saying and actually listening to it), then another long one next week of 20 miles before starting to back off, keeping in mind that even with successful adaptation to these longer runs, the actual gains on race day are going to be more mental than physical. Unless you have freakish DNA, success in endurance sport is the accumulation of years of training, with each workout like a drop of water falling into a slightly leaky bucket, not something that just appears the day after a hard workout. You appear to have a good height/weight ratio to be successful, but the VDot (if accurate) is hurting you for sure. At any rate, I think you have a good shot at a smartly paced sub-12 IM with a 5h22 at Tupper Lake! Best of luck!

Dave

8

If you’ve had good steady weekly volume without major breaks, if you’ve already done a marathon build and race, then a long run isn’t that important. Odds are that marathon training put you way behind on bike training, so that should have been your focus. I’s run no more than 16-18 and focus on maintain solid weekly run mileage before taper. I think weekly mileage trumps a long run.

If you running 5 days a week, a longer run is probably more critical than if your running 6-7 days a week.

9

Thanks for your feedback. I am 30 years old, forgot to add that.

Ill tackle on a 15-18 miler this weekend and follow it up next weekend with a 18-20 miler. Thanks Dave and motoguy.