Hi, I have been asked by a friend to help get into running. He is a solid solid roadie , mtb-er, and community member. He helped me a ton when I first got to NJ , to learn the trails and the area. Now he moved to Virginia and he wants to train for the Du Nationals. Overall fitness is not a problem. He just never ran before.
He asked me this in October and I told him to start with the infamous “couch to 5k” program. He has completed that and is feeling good. Now what? I originally said it was time to start breaking his run time into more focused segments…a shorter more intense run, a brick, a long run that will steadily increase. My other friend, who only runs, says not to do that, he should just keep evenly increasing his runs and keep them all at a low intensity. ( Really? zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz)
I came into tri from a running background so I wanted to get opinions. I would think being a guy and being a mtb-er, he’s going to want some action, not just do the same bland workout all the time. Any thoughts? I want him to stay healthy so please let me know if I’m missing something obvious. Thanks.
Does your friend live in the Richmond area? We are going to do a 10 week Duathlon Training Program beginning on February 15th. If your friend is interested, they should check out www.sportsbackers.org in the coming week for more details and online registration.
We’ll help your friend get ready for DuNats.
Sean Cusack
Richmond, VA
Home of 2009 National DuFest
Hi Sean, thanks for your reply. I know that the Monument 10k is on his schedule. Sounds fun. Your website is really great. It looks like it is pretty easy to find an athletic community in your area.
I have also recommended to him that he hook up with a group. I will send him your link.
I am just a little rusty at the topic of building tolerance for running. Do you think it’s an OK time for him to start varying his training and doing bricks? Or do you think he should be staying with the low level base building for a while longer?
if you look at almost all successful training programs, they tend to boil down to a roughly equal mix (using some metric like TSS) of:
speed work (V02max or above) (e.g 400m/800m efforts)
tempo work (LT or close to it) (e.g. 3-7miles at LT)
longer, endurance building work (e.g. 7-20 miles in zone 3)
it doesn’t matter whether its for running, swimming or cycling. your friend should be mixing it up. however, if he’s only runing 5k at present, build the longer runs slowly. if he’s in good shape, he doesn’t need to be super-cautious about this, but i’d guess a 3 step build to get from 3.1 to 7 miles (for example). if it hurts, stop. if it keeps hurting, back off to a 5% increase per week. if he can run on trails for longer workouts, all the better.
he should make sure his longest runs are at least 10% longer than his longest expected race distance for anything up to about 20 miles. you have to get used to the impact of a given distance.
bricks are a good idea, but the consensus seems to be that he should consider a brick as a technique workout that is focused on the transition and its immediate aftermath - the run does not need to be long. 10-15 mins after a solid bike is fine. run fitness is better built by just running. remember for duathlon to do RB bricks as well as BR bricks.
however, if you friend is in the 45-50M age group, tell him that none of above advice applies. age does strange things to a body and he should run no more than 5k at a time, and slowly. he should also spend at least 2 hours a day recovering on a sofa or similar. this is very important.
Dawhead, I’m moving up to 45-50 this year, and have been incorporating the sofa sessions in my training, combined with beer-based carbo loading. I’m not sure they work, as I look like I’m 8 months pregnant.
Keep in mind your friend has a body that is adapted to spinning circles, not doing a mini-plyometric jump thousands of times/run. In other words, the limiter here is the ability to tolerate impact for high intensity and high volume running. Doing some of the intensity on a grass field or doing some of the tempo stuff up hill may allow for a larger work load without literally breaking your friend. Also spend TONS of time getting the technique spot on. Most running injuries come from biomechanical flaws that cause stress concentrations in the body. Good cyclists tend to have tighter quads and hips and more flexible hamstrings relative to runners. Make sure he is doing some work to get the hips to open up some. And as much core stuff as tolerable. Another good training program can be found here http://www.racingunderground.com/training.html
or get in touch with Josh here:http://www.joshmerrick.com/np/index.cfm?SID=1190891950812
Both are good. I’d say have him stick to one of those plans, except do the quality work on a soft surface and replace one of the recovery runs/wk with a spin. Best of luck!!
While you will undoubtedly find good reason for your friend to include intensity in his running at some point, the question I always start with is what is needed to get him faster right now. Will a bit more volume work? Will a continuation of basic pattern of running get him faster. For those new to running, almost anything will work so long as it does not get the athlete hurt. I always start with the most cautious of steps until those are no longer producing results.