Completed 1st Ironman ( goal was to finish) last year in Sweden - flat course - time 15 hours 43 minutes. Well pleased. Entered again this year, would like to do better. Just looking at the run in this post.
59 year old female, my time for the “run” last year (flat course) was 6 hours 22 mins or 14.5 min mile pace. Very slow, please don’t collapse with laughter! I walked the whole of the marathon give or take first 800m ! I had planned and trained to walk 10 min jog, 10 mins power walk - mmnnn not sure what happened!
I have always been a long slow runner ! but I am sure I can improve on 6+ hours .
Back in training for the last 2 months , just timed 1 mile TT on the track - 9 mins and 16 secs as fast as I could go in quite a strong wind on one of the straights.
6 months to Ironman, can I achieve 12.5 min mile pace.
Can anyone please give me some ideas on how to time intervals etc to achieve this. Thank you.
For better answers, it might help to add some detail about your cycling - training and results. Usually the IM third leg is more about endurance training than speed training. Meeting your expectations will also require that you have adequate cycling fitness AND that you don’t ride harder than your training and race conditions dictate.
Search BarryP - he’s written a ton of great stuff on slowly increasing your mileage
Grateful for any advice please.
Completed 1st Ironman ( goal was to finish) last year in Sweden - flat course - time 15 hours 43 minutes. Well pleased. Entered again this year, would like to do better. Just looking at the run in this post.
59 year old female, my time for the “run” last year (flat course) was 6 hours 22 mins or 14.5 min mile pace. Very slow, please don’t collapse with laughter! I walked the whole of the marathon give or take first 800m ! I had planned and trained to walk 10 min jog, 10 mins power walk - mmnnn not sure what happened!
I have always been a long slow runner ! but I am sure I can improve on 6+ hours .
Back in training for the last 2 months , just timed 1 mile TT on the track - 9 mins and 16 secs as fast as I could go in quite a strong wind on one of the straights.
6 months to Ironman, can I achieve 12.5 min mile pace.
Can anyone please give me some ideas on how to time intervals etc to achieve this. Thank you.
As a W 55-59 AG’er to another, I would suggest what worked for me in the past. Buy a watch that has 2 timers and adhere to what you planned on doing. however, the Galloway method (walk / run) is usually shorter intervals at this pace.
At IM Louisville, I slowed down to 1 minute walk, 1 minute run, but I stuck to that pace for the final 1/2 of the marathon and was able to pass a large number of people who were walking.
If I were your friend and was advising you I would tell you to forget about timed anything right now and do two things…
1: Figure out if you need to lose some weight and make a plan to that end.
2: Start thinking in term of being a stronger “runner” and that means hills. Instead of trying to hit time goals on the track just start doing hill reps,hilly run/walks and even stair repeats.Remember it is not really how fast you are right now that matters it is how fast you want to be on race day and to do that you need to firstly be strong enough to do the training to reach that goal.
As another poster said,get your biking up to scratch and do some longer training days as part of the issue with those out there for 16hrs isn’t so much the effort of the event but simply being out in the elements for so long.
I’ll second the BarryP 123 plan. Lots of info if you search on it. I’ve been using it this year and I’m up to 30 miles per week with no injuries and feeling great.
The gist of it is to increase frequency but not volume initially. Running easy, you will be able to recover easier.
Take you current weekly mileage and divide by 10…that’s your shortest run…double it for your medium run and triple it for your long run. So if you are running 10 miles per week now…
Do 3 runs of 1 mile, 2 runs of 2 miles, and 1 run of 3 miles. Increase a max of 10% per week…only when you feel you are ready for it.
If you are currently only running a few days a week, these runs will feel ridiculously short, but they will be much more enjoyable…and you will build up your weekly mileage much quicker than you think.
Just guessing but you may want to increase your cycling.
Running too much in training (especially at your age (no offense meant)) is just a recipe fro injury. Personally, I *never *run more than 2 hours in training. After that I’m just hurting myself. If I need a “long run” day I’ll do a bike sandwich (bike 1 hour, run 1 hour, bike 1 hour for example).
Swim more, bike more (easier on the body) and you won’t be so beat when it’s time to run.
Also, specifically for run training search BarryP (as others have mentioned). A good “run/walk” program will do wonders as well.
Thank you for all your help.
Just to answer a couple of points. My swim is ok, and finish the swim not too fatigued. My bike time was 7hrs 38 mins ( did not trash myself on the bike by any means) and there is room for improvement which I am working on. The run I had trained and planned to do was 10mins walk and 10 mins run, no idea why but I just walked it all.
I think I did not really do enough running, and the long walking intervals in training possibly made me revert to walking the lot in IM. I followed the FINK intermediate plan which worked well apart from the running. I have every facility to train and don’t work so no excuse.
Thank you, I think that my 10:10 might have been the problem, not used to enough running in training. As you say the Galloway method uses shorter intervals. Hence I was thinking that running repeat intervals with fast shorter walk recoveries might be the answer.
The Ironman run really starts with the bike, if you are walking the marathon within the first six miles then your bike fitness isn’t where it should be.
Thank you eve.ryone for all your response, really helpful. Going to work more on the bike as suggested, also possibly adopt 8 min run 2 min walk for the marathon - trying this in training now. I have every opportunity to train as in Lanzarote training until June - sunshine and hills. I loved Kalmar last year.
My bike was 7hrs 38 mins for 180k.
Here’s something else to consider: you may be over thinking all of this.
10X10 run strategy, 8X2 run strategy… etc. Galloway method, this method, that method.
My simple advice: Swim more, bike more and run more. When you go out for a run, go out for a run. If it’s a little bit shorter than what you could do otherwise (run/walk strategies), confront that and learn to grow mileage gradually.
The best way for you to be ready for you next IM is to be the strongest, most fit you can be… in all three disciplines.
Have you considered finding a running coach to consult about your form? Having someone experienced look at how you run might dramatically improve your efficiency level. Maybe find a local run club and find out if there are any experienced distance coaches that can take a look at how you run. Good luck.
I’m in my 50s. Play around with run/walk intervals to see what works for you. 8/2 is the same is 4/1 and that may work better for you or even 3/1 or 2/1. When you train you need to train yourself to start running on a certain interval. Longer the intervals I find it harder to start running again. Learning ratio that works well for you and makes it easier to execute on race day. Like Sally shared getting a watch or GPS that beeps makes it so you just change from run to walk or walk to run when you hear the beep. Looking at your watch waiting until xxx time has passed doesn’t work well when tired in an IM.
I’m a slow runner as well and have had similar experience in my first IM. Weather was miserable, cold and rainy all day. At mile 6 I had asthma attack like nothing I had before and was unsure how to handle it. I ended up just walking because I could breath better.
My best IM run was when I ran 4-5x a week but still that was just over 6 hours with first and second half being withing 5-6 minutes of each other.
I’d say just focus on swimming and most importantly, cycling, and run a few times a week for fun. There is a lot of time to make up on the bike, and you’re not going to be able to run/walk any faster until the bike strength becomes greater. Any run intervals or even run training in general can be fairly mute until adequate bike strength is achieved. Then, when raceday comes, run/walk by what feels right. Trying to stick to a plan is a recipe for disaster.
Completed 1st Ironman ( goal was to finish) last year in Sweden - flat course - time 15 hours 43 minutes. Well pleased. Entered again this year, would like to do better. Just looking at the run in this post.
59 year old female, my time for the “run” last year (flat course) was 6 hours 22 mins or 14.5 min mile pace. Very slow, please don’t collapse with laughter! I walked the whole of the marathon give or take first 800m ! I had planned and trained to walk 10 min jog, 10 mins power walk - mmnnn not sure what happened!
I have always been a long slow runner ! but I am sure I can improve on 6+ hours .
Back in training for the last 2 months , just timed 1 mile TT on the track - 9 mins and 16 secs as fast as I could go in quite a strong wind on one of the straights.
6 months to Ironman, can I achieve 12.5 min mile pace.
Can anyone please give me some ideas on how to time intervals etc to achieve this. Thank you.
No intervals, just steady running. Perhaps a walk/run program but no need for any interval training or tempo training, not in your case.
