Ok folks, hit me with it: for 70.3 speed over the past couple of years, I’ve concentrated my high intensity interval runs at distances around 400m, typically 10 or so in a set (increasing in number over the training period) with times in the region of 1min10 to 1min05 with a 90 second break.
Its been effective, and got my run down to 1hr 24 but wonder if the ST resource can hit me up with something equally as painful and good at building speed?
A 70.3 run is a tempo effort and done at a open marathon pace. What are you trying to gain with zone 5 intensity sprint intervals?
Better to do zone 3 tempo intervals and zone 4 threshold intervals of longer distance.
I like tempo cruise intervals that take you right up to the top of zone 3. So almost 1/2 marathon pace and about your Olympic Distance run pace. Maybe 5 minutes at that pace, then drop back to marathon pace at the bottom of zone 3 for 5 minutes and repeat maybe 4-5 times.
Thre are also negative split tempo intervals. Start at the bottom of Zone 3 tempo, then increase you pace each mile for the whole run until the last 1/2 mile you running at threshold.
Keep increasing the distance until you doing intervals for 9 miles out of a 12 mile run wth a 10 minute wu& cd. Do this as one of you medium distance runs each week, then still do a long run, another medium tempo run (maybe working hills) and then 2 ro 3 easy recovery runs. Get you weekly mileage up to at least 45mpw, 50-55 mpw even better.
Again, you probably don’t need speed, you need fatigue resistance. You also continue to work on your bike, so your legs are fresher on the run. I think 400M repeasts like that might be useful for Olympic distance, but not for Long course.
But what the hell do I know, my goal is a 1h25 run at this point, but we’ll see where I’m at in my training in 3 months. Just curious, which 70.3’s are you doign this year?
I would agree with motoguy, it seems there is little to no correlation between that workout and your half time, but I would need more info to tell for sure. What is your best open half marathon time? The workout you posted should yield results much faster than 1:24, I have run athletes doing workouts like that towards their peak period that run sub 1:07 and sub 1:05 with several women running much slower than those repeats running sub 1:17.
Was that a peak period workout for you? Or more a bread and butter session during build/race prep phase?
I would put more emphasis on threshold development and I think you will see considerable improvement. High intensity intervals have their place but those paces seem to be at or faster than your mile pace.
For Half training? 4x1600 at 5k pace with 800 recovery, 8x1200 at 5k pace with 600 recovery 3x2miles at tempo with 1-3 min recovery.
400s are silly for half training
For Half training? 4x1600 at 5k pace with 800 recovery, 8x1200 at 5k pace with 600 recovery 3x2miles at tempo with 1-3 min recovery.
As stated by motoguy, you’re really looking to hit your open marathon target pace (or slightly better) in a 70.3, so consider threshold your ceiling. Working significantly above threshold isn’t going to buy you much progress for the effort. The intervals suggested above comprise some good speed work for a marathon plan.
Honestly, I don’t think I’ve run 400 intervals in over 15 years, and even then it was part of a 1600 to 5000m race regimen.
You have to keep you eye on what your trying to accomplish. You’re trying to maintain a 6:15 pace at a low tempo effort. Probably about 155bpm for someone with a threshold HR of 170. I think the bulk of your cardio fitness you get form cycling. So you’re really focused on fatige resistance and overall specifity at rae pace. That’s what threshold intervals and tempo cruise intervals are for. Then you work in some easy recovery runs at a zone 1 easy effort to keep up weekly mileage. Then do a long run once a week. I like to do the last 2-3 miles of the long run at race pace once I’ve past my initial base phases.
this is a good treadmill workout, to do when it’s snowy and -128 degrees outside:
set time to 1:00
select (random) hill mode, with a challenging max elevation (say, 8%)
start treadmill at good pace (say, just less than tempo)
listen to first song on headphones
when next song starts, increase to hard pace (say, threshold++)
when that song is over, return to tempo pace to recover
repeat until time is up
at some point, you’ll be trying to correlate song lengths and # of hill dots on the treadmill display.
the end result will be about 1:1 over/under pace for an hour or however long you choose to run. the challenging part is the incline, which you won’t get on a track.
4x1600 at 5k pace with 800 recovery, 8x1200 at 5k pace with 600 recovery
These are two INCREDIBLY difficult workouts. I pretty much only run these days and average 60+mpw and there is no way I could do either one of those. For reference, a classic interval workout from Daniels Running Formula would be 4-6 x 1200 at roughly 5k race pace with 3-4 minutes easy jogging recovery. Trying to do 8 of them with recovery on the short end would be pretty demanding.
**3x2miles at tempo with 1-3 min recovery. **
That’s a solid workout and very doable.
You underestimate the speed of my recovery. My 800m jog is pushing 5-6 minutes. And yeah. Maybe 8x1200 is a little much. 4-6 is probably more reasonable
Good feedback guys, thanks!
A 70.3 run is a tempo effort and done at a open marathon pace. What are you trying to gain with zone 5 intensity sprint intervals?
To be honest, I had never really thought about it that way, I just treated it as an effective speed builder. It was introduced as part of a 12 week building program. The weekly run schedule consists of:
Weekly run totals were about 40km/wk max. I’ve not done an open 1/2 marathon, so don’t really have a basis for time, and the only marathon I have done was 3hrs, but I ran it 4 weeks after the last 70.3 during which time a lot of beer was consumed, and I was noticeable f(*^d at the end of it. But the beer tasted good.
I think I still have room to improve on my run, I would like to try and get down to 3.50min/km, so it sounds like I need to focus on longer distances and dial the speed back a bit to around threshold pace.
Motoguy, I will be racing (participating…) at the Busso 70.3 in May.
Getting ready for a half-marathon should include a good deal of lactate threshold work, but it also needs to include VO2 style workouts.
The lactate threshold workouts are the tempo runs and the mile repeats with shorter breaks. The tempo runs would be four to six mile runs at somewhere around your half-marathon pace, while the mile repeats could be done a little faster but no quicker than your 10k race pace. The break should be no more than three minutes. Two minutes is preferable. You should walk away from the track or course feeling as though you could do one more mile. You should feel invigorated, not spent or beat up.
VO2 work is too often overlooked by endurance athletes but it contributes a good deal to lactate threshold. The problem with VO2 is that it has a limited range for improvement that is set primarily by genetics. (Great athletes always have incredibly high VO2s, and that is why they continue to respond to training.) But no matter where you are with your VO2, you could probably improve it some, and that means giving your heart a beating at the track or on some hills. The goal is always to get the heat rate as high as possible for as long as possible. VO2 workouts usually involve more intense efforts with longer breaks, so that you can push yourself right up to your max heart rate. I like repeat 600s where you take it out at a good clip for the first 400 and then close faster for the last 200. The break would be about three or four minutes. About four or eight hill repeats of about 600 to 1200 meters are also great VO2 workouts and contribute to running economy.
The lactate threshold work should make up the primary focus of your more intense running days, but the VO2 should be brought in during the last six weeks.
Wait, you run 24 miles a week in 3 runs? An long run of 12-15 miles at 6:45 min/mile. A 400minterval workout and a brick run at sub 7 min per mile pace? And you ran a 3 hour marathon?
I think you should just run more
Wait, you run 24 miles a week in 3 runs? An long run of 12-15 miles at 6:45 min/mile. A 400minterval workout and a brick run at sub 7 min per mile pace? And you ran a 3 hour marathon?
I think you should just run more
+1. Add 2 easy runs a week and get to 60km. You should see a nice improvement in run fitness and overall fitness.
However, if you doing a minimal training approach and only ride 3 times a week and swim twice, then you probably don’t want to change anything.
For Half training? 4x1600 at 5k pace with 800 recovery, 8x1200 at 5k pace with 600 recovery 3x2miles at tempo with 1-3 min recovery.
400s are silly for half training
Jebus… I’m no slouch (although I’m not likely to break any world records any time soon) and… man… 4xmile at 5k pace? That workout would leave me spent for a couple of days (at least) and I routinely beat on myself. That’s one hell of a workout and one I wouldn’t recommend except for perhaps once or twice at the end of a build period, just before taper.
My go to intervals for 10k and HM distances are:
8-12x800m @ 10k pace, 200m rest.
4x2km @ 10km pace, 400m rest.
5-6x1600m @ HM pace (sometimes with a positive split to close to 10k pace on the last rep).
10mile @ marathon pace with 2 min fartlek type surges to HM pace throughout (I try to do 1 surge every mile, but if I’m feeling sluggish, I’ll ease off).
Not to mention the classic tempo.
As for 400m reps, I’ve always found them useful early in the season with a focus on longer races, during base period. 12-15x400m @ somewhere between 10k and 10mile pace keeps my speed up without sacrificing the next day’s workout, or building too much lactic.
Don’t forget neuromuscular speedwork as well: strides/wind sprints/whatever; hill sprints, hill bounding, all that good stuff. I usually throw on 6-10 of these at the end of an easy or tempo run.
Good luck.
For Half training? 4x1600 at 5k pace with 800 recovery, 8x1200 at 5k pace with 600 recovery 3x2miles at tempo with 1-3 min recovery.
400s are silly for half training
Jebus indeed, I just got back from a lunchtime session of 3x1600 at 5k pace with 800 recovery - that was hard!.. however I think I’ll stick with this, along with the long endurance runs and some hill tempos for strength. Will be interesting to see how the results go over the next month or so.
Thanks for the pointers.
Mile repeats are great for halfs and with your speed from your 400 session, you just need a little bit more endurance and a 1:20 something should be easy on an fast course.
My breakdown is:
400s for 5K races
800s for 10K races
1200-1 miles for Halfs
1 miles for marathon(but tempo runs here work the best)
Good Luck…and btw nice backdoor brag on being able to bust out 65s 
for someone who runs only 3 times a week, your bloody quick! Easy run of 4:15ish pace? bloody hell! Anyway im doing busso too, you will have to let us know how your run went down. Hopefully there will be f all wind and nice and cool. Last year ended up being great, despite the hurricane the day before!
I run about 1:25 for 70.3 and I do not think I would have a shot in hell running 2:50 for a full marathon so I disagree with trying to run your open marathon pace.
I also disagree that you shouldn’t do speed. Your most efficient running is when you’re in full sprint and if you never do it your body will never comfortable running faster. Think of it this way. If you constantly lift the same weight, you will never get any stronger. You need to lift more than you can. Same idea with running. You need to run faster than you will in a race. I ran less than 20 mpw this summer and was running about 37-38 10k off the bike so I think it’s possible. I pretty much do three runs per week. One long run, one tempo run, one interval run. Usually works out about 18-22 miles. I think most people put in junk mile and those are pointless. In my personal opinion, I might even dump my long run and add another long bike for this upcoming season.
I run about 1:25 for 70.3 and I do not think I would have a shot in hell running 2:50 for a full marathon so I disagree with trying to run your open marathon pace.
I also disagree that you shouldn’t do speed. Your most efficient running is when you’re in full sprint and if you never do it your body will never comfortable running faster. Think of it this way. If you constantly lift the same weight, you will never get any stronger. You need to lift more than you can. Same idea with running. You need to run faster than you will in a race. I ran less than 20 mpw this summer and was running about 37-38 10k off the bike so I think it’s possible. I pretty much do three runs per week. One long run, one tempo run, one interval run. Usually works out about 18-22 miles. I think most people put in junk mile and those are pointless. In my personal opinion, I might even dump my long run and add another long bike for this upcoming season.
Sounds like the usual polarizing debate. Low volume high intesity with no recovery runs, vs. higher mileage wit ha mix of quality and recovery runs, but more of a focus on tempo and threshold runs, rather than above threshold efforts.
I think if you ran 6 days a week you’d realize that your capable of probably a 2:45-2:50 open marathon. I bet you knees feel fatigued after jsut a 10 mile run. For those than consistently run 40+mpw, a 10 mile run is a medium distance you can do twice a week without much soreness and still put in a longer run as well. When I used to run only 20mpw, a 9-10 miler was a major effort. Pretty soon the thought of holding 26 miles at a tempo pace seems pretty manageable.
However, to run more, you have to either increase overall training volume or bike less. That’s a individual decision to make.
I would prefer to do a single easy spin per week, but 2 recovery runs instead, rather than no recovery runs and 2 or 3 easy spins.
I also was at 20-25mpw most of last season and ran in the 37’s. I too usually did 1 or 2 interval runs and 1 longer run and maybe 1 short recovery run on occassion. But I think with my higher volume this year for IM training I can get to the 36’s maybe even break 36 and get under 1:25 on the 70.3 run. I will still have 2 tempo or interval runs and 1 long run or long brick, but will also 3 easy recovery runs as well with 1 day off running each week for 40-55mpw.
I run about 1:25 for 70.3 and I do not think I would have a shot in hell running 2:50 for a full marathon so I disagree with trying to run your open marathon pace.
I also disagree that you shouldn’t do speed. Your most efficient running is when you’re in full sprint and if you never do it your body will never comfortable running faster. Think of it this way. If you constantly lift the same weight, you will never get any stronger. You need to lift more than you can. Same idea with running. You need to run faster than you will in a race. I ran less than 20 mpw this summer and was running about 37-38 10k off the bike so I think it’s possible. I pretty much do three runs per week. One long run, one tempo run, one interval run. Usually works out about 18-22 miles. I think most people put in junk mile and those are pointless. In my personal opinion, I might even dump my long run and add another long bike for this upcoming season.
Sounds like the usual polarizing debate. Low volume high intesity with no recovery runs, vs. higher mileage wit ha mix of quality and recovery runs, but more of a focus on tempo and threshold runs, rather than above threshold efforts.
I think if you ran 6 days a week you’d realize that your capable of probably a 2:45-2:50 open marathon. I bet you knees feel fatigued after jsut a 10 mile run. For those than consistently run 40+mpw, a 10 mile run is a medium distance you can do twice a week without much soreness and still put in a longer run as well. When I used to run only 20mpw, a 9-10 miler was a major effort. Pretty soon the thought of holding 26 miles at a tempo pace seems pretty manageable.
However, to run more, you have to either increase overall training volume or bike less. That’s a individual decision to make.
I would prefer to do a single easy spin per week, but 2 recovery runs instead, rather than no recovery runs and 2 or 3 easy spins.
I also was at 20-25mpw most of last season and ran in the 37’s. I too usually did 1 or 2 interval runs and 1 longer run and maybe 1 short recovery run on occassion. But I think with my higher volume this year for IM training I can get to the 36’s maybe even break 36 and get under 1:25 on the 70.3 run. I will still have 2 tempo or interval runs and 1 long run or long brick, but will also 3 easy recovery runs as well with 1 day off running each week for 40-55mpw.
Just curious, how old are you?
Also, this is the beginning of my second year doing triathlon. I switched over from a varsity cross country program at a D3 college. I was running around 90 mpw, peaking once at 105. Biggest week of singles was 69 so I know all about big mileage. When I was solely running I ran 4:28, 10:20, 16:36, never ran a 10k and tempo’d a 1:23/4ish half marathon. Can’t remember exactly. Long runs were usually 13-16.
Once I switched over to triathlon, I had to learn how to swim and start biking so that’s when I dropped my mileage to 30. Eventually bringing it down more to 20-25. Now I run the same times for opens as I did when I ran 90 mpw, but feel much better and am not always injured.
I am still trying to figure out how to run off the bike correctly.
I usually incorporate an easy run or two per week during my base phase which I’m still in right now.