What are some landmark/key workouts one should be able to do on their way to training to a sub 5 HIM?
Run 5-7 days/week for 6 months …
Landmark workouts:
Sub-15-min 1000y TT swim
24mph 40k TT bike
1:30 open half marathon
That should get you comfortably under 5 with transitions.
Agreed. You have to be able to run well when tired. Also, some tough 2 hour rides. Pretty obviously. You have to be able to go pretty darn fast on the bike for a couple hours to break 5 hours at the line.
What are some landmark/key workouts one should be able to do on their way to training to a sub 5 HIM?
Don’t worry I’ll be there, if you follow me on the race course I’ll show you how to cut the course short and finish under 5 
For me it happened when I was training for an ironman. I did longer workouts, especially longer bike rides, as running was always a strong point, and the time naturally dropped off.
My strategy has basically been to brick most workouts. I feel like doing a nice long ride but having nothing in the tank after isn’t helpful. Likewise, putting up a fast run on fresh legs isn’t informative. Plus I feel like bricking is going to help me figure out and train my stomach.
M-F swim 2-3K in the morning(Run MWF prior to swim)
TR-Trainer ride followed by run, both at speed
S-Long ride, shorter run
U-Shorter ride, long run
Any comments or suggestions other than what’s said so far?
I’ll look for the DA with this on it.
http://www.tollakson.com/ruster/ruster.htm
Thanks. This is kind of what I was looking for other than some great general advice. Some goals to try and hit on the way.
Sully,
Muncie was my first HIM last year, and I was able to crush 5 hours. So here is my suggestion:
Swim in 40:33
T1 in 2:10
Bike in 2:19:56
T2 in 2:14
Run in 1:55:04
This will give you a total time that “crushes” 5 hours…4:59:59
Uh, I think I was a little heavy in one area, and I pretty much sucked it up in the other two. If you can go sub 15min. for a 1000yd swim, average 24 MPH for a 40K TT, and run a sub 1:30:00 half marathon, I am pretty sure you will finish under 4:45:00. See you in Muncie! It’s a great race!
IndyRider
I’ll look for the DA with this on it.
http://www.tollakson.com/ruster/ruster.htm
I think this will fit in there nicely!
I vote for hammering the bike training. Two things boosted my FTP materially… 1) 4-5 hour tempo rides. Yes, nearly all Z3, and with some Z4 (approx 30 mins) in there. Once every week or two. 2) 30 mins total of Z5, spread out in 5-10 min chunks. Hurts like a mofo. Once per week.
Some of the things I have done that I think help 1/2 iron performance… year-to-year-to-year consistency is probably the biggest performance enhancer lots of 2hr + workouts, at least once a week, more if you can swing it over-time workouts fairly frequently, and by this I mean bike rides, or brick workouts that exceed your target time by 30-60 minutes, I would say 6-8 of these leading up to your race tempo brick efforts, after your long ride execute threshold runs (or faster) of 4k-6k. There is dispute about brick running on this forum, but I think they help me, and these kinds of runs give me great confidence of being able to execute a target pace on race day as the season wears on and during taper I also incoroporate into the tempo brick a 40 mile ride at 90%-95% race effort along with the threshold run a 3 or 4 week taper
I am not an advocate of frequent running because running will rip you up, or at least rip me up. Last year I ran 3x a week, averaging right around 20mpw and I had very favorable runs in both of my HIM races.
This (running every day) is the real deal for getting faster at half and higher distances. Worked for me last year. That and some insanely long bikes.
find a flat course.
My strategy has basically been to brick most workouts. I feel like doing a nice long ride but having nothing in the tank after isn’t helpful. Likewise, putting up a fast run on fresh legs isn’t informative. Plus I feel like bricking is going to help me figure out and train my stomach.
M-F swim 2-3K in the morning(Run MWF prior to swim)
TR-Trainer ride followed by run, both at speed
S-Long ride, shorter run
U-Shorter ride, long run
Any comments or suggestions other than what’s said so far?
Not a fan of your training schedule…I think you’re compromising a lot of your running (and swimming) by “bricking” everything like this. Frequency, consistency and quality will get you there…you have two of the three. “Benchmark workouts” would depend on the nature of the course…tell us more, and don’t underestimate the value of knowing the course (what hills to spin, which rollers to grind, choosing the shortest racing line, etc.). FWIW I’ve never gone over 5 in a half…
I am doing Muncie second week of July. Bike course is pancake flat and run consists of rolling hills no shade.
Would you recommend moving the MWF run to the evening? All of my bikes are pre-run so I don’t think they will suffer. If I move the runs to PM, that lets me focus on swim and run separately.
How my fitness stands right now…
Swim: 1000 yards ~17:30
Bike: Probably about 1:10 for 40K
Run: Currently running 7-7:30/mile upto 10 miles, having pushed further or harder yet.
Obviously I’ve got some work to do to get in the 5 hour range in 5 months. But, I hate the idea of limping through a race just to say I finished.
I did 5:30 my first (and so far only) HIM with:
0 swim training
hardly any bike training (most rides only 10 miles, 1 30 mile ride before)
but lots and lots of running. Now the way to do it, but since I had done tons of running I did ok. I basically did this on a lark during a 1 year lead up to the houston marathon. I have some talent or the bike and a good build for swimming which helped.
You can break 5 either with an awesome > 20mph bike and decent running, or an ok 18-19mph bike and great running.
You would want to aim for being able to hold > 20mph on the bike for an hour without killing yourself to do it, and you want to be able to run a 1:40 or so standalone half marathon without killing yourself to do it.
if you suck at swimming you will need to address that of course =0
Like the other guy I did it after trainging for an IM (April IMAZ) and did Vineman 70.3 in July and finished in 4:45. After doing the IM I was still doing 80 mile hilly rides pretty much all out at least once a week. I had so much base from IM training and the race the 70.3 felt like a piece of cake.
A few of us are training for IMCDA this year and are going to do CA70.3 (April) as a “easy training day.” Currently I’m running 20+ mile during the week, biking 50+ miles during the week then today we did an 80 mile hilly ride and a 4 mile run/brick. Tomorrow will be a 13 mile run. I don’t really like swimming so I’ll start that next week. The more biking you can do the better. I personally think your long runs should be for endurance so you dont have to push the pace, I do my long runs at 8:30/8:45 and other runs at 8:00. I ran a half marathon last Sunday in 1:31 so I can pick the pace up…
My main advice for race day is to not push the swim, plan to crush the bike (at least 22mph avg), even if it “may” hurt your run and then if everything comes together hold a 7:30 pace on the run and you’ll be under 5 hours!
Just my opinion…I’m not a coach!
Train your weaknesses, not your strengths. I noticed that you do your runs at the same pace that I run my base miles, so let me use myself as a comparison. Building to 40 mpw (with a bit of faster running as well) got me a 3:32 at LP, and I can a bit faster than 1:30 in a half. However, my 40K times are below an hour so it looks like you have a lot of runway ahead of you there. You appear to be strong on the run, and are training it 5 times/week. Your bike appears to be the weak link, and are training it 1X during the week and 3 times in total. If time is an issue, I’d dump a bit of the 5X per week swimming and/or one of the 6 runs (your strength) and put your butt in the saddle a bit more.
I am doing Muncie second week of July. Bike course is pancake flat and run consists of rolling hills no shade.
Would you recommend moving the MWF run to the evening? All of my bikes are pre-run so I don’t think they will suffer. If I move the runs to PM, that lets me focus on swim and run separately.
How my fitness stands right now…
Swim: 1000 yards ~17:30
Bike: Probably about 1:10 for 40K
Run: Currently running 7-7:30/mile upto 10 miles, having pushed further or harder yet.
Obviously I’ve got some work to do to get in the 5 hour range in 5 months. But, I hate the idea of limping through a race just to say I finished.