Saturday, I was watching the TV coverage of the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon and they interviewed Simon Lessing after his win. He said something to the effect of “I wasn’t sure how well I would do because I have been doing “Ironman” training” and nothing really focused on short course races.
By Ironman training, I would assume he means the high-volume aerobic training necessary to a race that lasts (for him) about eight to nine hours. And yet, he was still able to beat all the other short-course racers.
I have personally found that high-volume, aerobic heart rate training made me faster at all distances down to four miles without doing speedwork. It was even more noticeable when I ran a 25K ride/ 4-mile run brick that I used as a monthly test this spring. My speed off the bike was beginning to approach my former open 4-mile race speed.
I have read a similar comment to the above from Simon Lessing when Mark Allen was racing an Olympic Distance race off lots of miles with no speed.
In my small realm of observation, I have noticed that triathletes with a large, low-intensity training base are very flexible in races from Olympic distance to Ironman.
A good friend of mine rarely goes hard except in races, but his mileage base from years of training makes him very competitive at all distance. In the four years I’ve know him, I beat him in two short duathlons where leg-speed was important, but once the event passed about an hour 20, he clearly held a huge aerobic edge and could keep it up forever at that pace.
We can all take a page from the Simon Lessing win and go aerobic.
On the bike my first efforts at going hard this year were the 2 duathlons and 1 TT I did. For short course I’ll do long rides up to about 100 miles and long runs about 1.5 - 2 hrs. People don’t realize how fast and fit they can become by just doing volume.
Some of my fastest running times have come after 4-6 months of running 50-60 miles per week every week at a cruising along telling jokes pace.
Chad,
Macca is another guy who’s still plenty fast even though he’s an IM athlete now. He can still crush probably 98% of the short course pros out there.
Agreed, my best short course races are when I have a huge base from Ironman training. Funny thing though, I don’t have my best Ironmans on large volume of training. My best Ironmans are when I have been doing 12-15 hours per week with lots of rest and weight training, likely because I am never on the verge of being overtrained !
I’m training for IM Austria in less than 2 weeks. On Saturday me and the group I’m going to IM with did an Oly, we all had the best results ever.
I think the base phase early in the season really builds up your aerobic capacity. In my case tests show that my LT moved from 155bpm to 169bpm, this with the fact that I am stronger produce faster times than ever.
Sure. I don’t see why not. but you might…I repeat might not be as fast. But this is all relative. Last season I trained primarily for Sprint and Oly’s. I built a lot more speed work into my short course training. This season, I am noticing that my RUN is signifigantly slower than last season. So far, I have done a few sprints and one Half Iron Man. Buike and swim are still solid, but my run slacked off a bit. I can go forever, but I just can’t seem to get my run together like last season. Primarily because I only did very few speed oriented workouts.
I am finishing the second haf of my seaosn with short stuff, so I imagine that the base I built from Half Iron Man training will come in handy when I start to mix in hard fartlek runs and repeat 800’s on the track.
My experience mirrors yours Chad. The folks I know who train exclusively for the longer distance tend to have it all over the short course folks for the most part. Oh, sure, there are always a few super fast people who top the podium, but by and large the long course athletes tend to be right up there with them. At least until you get to a race that draws the short course specialists. . .regional or national championships and the like.
I think my experience tends to support your argument as well. My last IM race was Oct '97. That ended a streak of 3 years straight with an IM. I rode that fitness out for about 2 years after that while doing training designed for shorter distances (due, as you are aware, to the demands of our chosen profession). It wasn’t really until about the 2000 season that I really noticed that I had to start working harder to get to the speed in the shorter races. I began to sense that I didn’t have that super deep base anymore that allowed me to just go out and run or bike for hours. The three hour group rides started feeling like real work again. My race times were the same, but I had to work at it and really do the speed work. Good thing I had Dave McCombs to drag me around the Lejeune track at 5:00 miles! Anyway. . .I know of whom you are speaking, and I think you are spot on. There is a female triathlete I know in Charleston who’s the same type of racer. Always at the top of any race she’s in, but rarely trains for the short stuff.
Thanks for reminding me of the REAL reason I wanted to do an IM last year. . .
you and I had an offline discussion related to this after the Odyssey Half last year, I believe. since then I think I’ve come around more to your position. I still value the speedwork my coach gives me, but he parcels it out in smaller doses than before and I’ve since learned that I shouldn’t approach those intervals at race effort but rather something a little less…so as to avoid all the bad things that come with “overspeed”.
my abortive run-up to IM-Moo '02 ended up being a big aerobic base for the next season of short-course racing where I did better than I ever had before…so there’s a little more fuel for your hypothesis. this year I’m focusing on 1/2IM (see ya at KC…that’s my A-race too) for training purposes but all my 2004 racing to date has been sprint or OD and I’m faster even than last year - at lower HRs too.
Bottom line: I think you’re right. Bring it in Sept.
