after base and speed has been established for half mary run in the off season what are are two/three most important runs that i can do in the months of june and july (8 weeks) to keep that up while focusing on my biking and swimming? any thoughts, experiences, suggestions?
Can you elaborate?
1st of all, what do you mean by establishing “base and speed?” What is your plan and what have you been doing?
2nd, what do you mean by two/three most important runs? 2-3 workouts each week? Are you looking for two big workouts the entire summer? When you say “focus on bike/swim” does this mean you plan to cut the run back quite a bit? If so, what is your reasoning behind it? How much do you plan to cut back? Do you have a limit on availble training time or time you are willing to put in?
What’s your overall background? How fast can you run? How many miles a week have you/will you run?
If you give us a little more background, I can give you a fairly detailed response.
+1 b/c I am in the same boat
I am doing the same thing with my first half marathon in May and first HIM in August. Right now the plan is to just start right into the HIM training after the half marathon with less emphasis on the run if I have to cut workouts due to available time.
I’m doing the same thing. I’ve got my first half Mary the end of March then I’m either doing the Augusta 70.3 or Beach to Battle ship.
I don’t know if it is a good idea, but this is what I was thinking. My training mileage peaks out at 26 the week before my race. I was going to increase that to around 30 to 35 mpw while I keep to my other plan for SB.
I’ll look at the HIM plan for runs and incorporate anything if needed…haven’t gotten that far yet.
for me base and speed means that i can run the half mary comfortably in about 1:45:00 and goal time would be 1:40:00. My stand alone half mary is last week of may with the half IM being at end of july. that give me 8 weeks to work on biking and swimming. I would like to give running a back seat at that time by putting only 2 or 3 runs/week.
My threshold pace, as of now, is 7:48 to 8:01 min/mile with the last race being a half mary with a time of 1:45:00. Fastest mile i can run right now is 6:12 and 5K probably in about 22 min. I am focusing more on running till half mary (end of may).
I will not be abel to do devote much time between may and july because of work and school commitments but I would like to be able to keep my half mary time of 100 min when i do the half IM.
so, 2-3 key run workouts/week for 8 weeks. any suggestions? I am thinking one long run and one tempo run with one recovery/easy run hitting a mileage of about 25-30 mpw. Last half mary i did was on a training volume topping out at 25 mpw with a time of 1:45:00.
- Long run with 2nd half at goal half IM run pace/marathon pace.
- Tempo run 20-40 min at hour pace or just above if longer than 20 mon. Or longer intervals with short rest at this pace.
- 1/2 mile intervals at just at/above 5K pace with work=rest.
BUT - I think running is the best bang for your buck time-wise for training. I’ve done pretty well in IM or half IM on mainly run training. I’d advise you to try and run at least 20-30 min 5x/wk if not 6-7. Skipping the last 20 min of a bike ride and adding an easy 20 min run is well worth it in my opinion.
I also think you should just focus on getting your miles/week up until the final 8 weeks.
Its hard getting quality runs in when you add some bike/swim - esp. if you really ramp it up…hitting the above 3 run work-outs will likely not be feasible.
Dave
i will keep your training method in mind. i like the idea of next half of long run being run at race pace. oh definitely yes for upping the mileage and frequency till the half mary at the end of may and cut down a bit on my run and focus more on bike and swim.
In fact, these days and till end of may, my main focus is running and swimming workouts for recovery.
Okay, so basically what you are saying is that you will generally be in good running shape for your HM, but then want to shift your focus toward tri training leading up to the half.
- Long run of at least 90 min, pushing toward 2:00 - 2:15.
- Long tempo run of 40-60 minutes @~HIM goal race pace (15-20 sec slower than whatever you run your HM in).
- …let me give some advice here.
IF you insist on only doing one more run, I would make it a short tempo run of 20 minutes (+ w/u & c/d) @HM pace or a tad faster.
However, I honestly think you’d be better off for both your running and your cycling if you focused the rest of your training on bike/swim and insead of getting one 3rd solid run in a week, that instead you got in several 15-20 minute runs before or after your rides or swims, during lunch, when you wake up, or when ever. You’ll get in a bot more mileage during the week, which is important, but you’ll also be able to get in more Bike/swim training without trying to dance around a 3rd quality run workout.
Re: Dave’s suggesting to finish the 2nd half of your long run at HIM pace. I think you are going to get plenty of LT training with your long tempo run. I’d recommend just getting in a solid long run. If you opt for the finish hard long runs (which I think is a more advanced workout), then alternate them every other week so that you still get in solid long runs. Remember, there’s always a tradeoff. If you are capable of a 2 hour long run, then finishing the 2nd half hard with cause you to have to cut it back to…maybe 1:40.
I might be able to squeeze out a couple of more 20-30 min after my bike rides later on. But at what pace shall i run those keeping in my mind that during those 8 weeks I will be in real good running shape. Easy runs so that i don’t burn myself out for tempo or long runs? Now these bike ride will be pretty hard effort.
Have you ever even run 1:40 in an open HM? From what you’ve written it looks like it will take a max effort for you to run 1:40 in a HM. That would be coming off run focused training. Then you want to decrease your running and still have the same time off the bike in a HIM. From my perspective it doesn’t look like you currently run anywhere near enough volume for that to happen.
I agree that a 1:40 run would be too agressive for a HIM.
A realistic goal would be near 1:50 given the estimation of run fitness.
jaretj