I’m a runner looking into doing a sprint-tri next year. I sometimes read about people going under 3hrs in an IM Marathon or hitting sub 1:20 in a HIM run. Did these athletes usually build up their run fitness before entering Tri? Or did all the s/b cross training help get their aerobic engine to that level, allowing them to run those times in a Half/full IM?
without getting specific
45,000m week of swimming
or
200km week of running
Is something that most of us cannot handle if we want to get good at swimming or running. Its just not in the wheelhouse of the average person to withstand that volume of week in a single sport and do it over and over and over.
This looks like a big week, but it really is not.
Both are 15 hrs training weeks. That’s two sessions per day of an hour every day all week. Its really not much training but most of us will break doing it single sport.
Meanwhile a 15 hrs week in triathlon is not a big deal…6 hrs running 6 hrs biking, 3 hrs swimming.
At the end of the week, the heart and lungs are the primary parts of the body that we need to get trained for endurance sport.
So yes, a 15 hrs per week triathlete doing 6 hrs running, 6 hrs biking and 3 hrs swimming it probably going to run faster than someone who is running 7-8 hrs per week assuming both guys have the same body composition and similar running abilities. One guy just has way more aerobic load in the week.
Everyone is different, but I have been a single sport cyclist and runner in the past, and I cannot reach my previous bests in either sport while doing a balanced year round 12hrs/wk of tri training, let alone continuing to improve.
Meanwhile a 15 hrs week in triathlon is not a big deal…6 hrs running 6 hrs biking, 3 hrs swimming.
If I ever hit a 15 hour week, which is double my biggest week so far, you best believe im making that into a big deal! haha
From my personal experience I’ve been able to drop my running times through tri training more comfortably than when I only trained running. Being a bigger guy, running beats me up quite a bit and the extra cardio from the swim/bike has definitely carried over to the run for me and made me more durable all round, which has slowly meant I can up my average hours over the last year or two with better consistency, which seems to be key in this endurance game.
Meanwhile a 15 hrs week in triathlon is not a big deal…6 hrs running 6 hrs biking, 3 hrs swimming.
If I ever hit a 15 hour week, which is double my biggest week so far, you best believe im making that into a big deal! haha
From my personal experience I’ve been able to drop my running times through tri training more comfortably than when I only trained running. Being a bigger guy, running beats me up quite a bit and the extra cardio from the swim/bike has definitely carried over to the run for me and made me more durable all round, which has slowly meant I can up my average hours over the last year or two with better consistency, which seems to be key in this endurance game.
That is great that the mix of three sports allows you to do more. But note that 45,000m swim week or a 200km run week is not insanely huge for a single sport athletes, however, most of us would struggle to get there (I can do 45,000m swim weeks and for my entire running life I woudl break if I went above 90km running…but really good runners, 160km or 100 miles is not a big deal). But a 15 hrs tri week is not a big deal for ME. Many years I have averaged a bit more than that. No way I could do it on just swim or just run. No problem doing that just biking.
I started out as a runner and then transitioned to triathlon.
The paradox is that I’m absolutely a faster runner as a triathlete, but now if I want to make more rapid gains I need to focus just on running.
Part of it is that I can get up to 15hrs of cardio as a triathlete through most of the summer, but 10hrs will kill you as a pure runner. The trick is low intensity cycling (e.g. my commute). If you want more volume, turn down the intensity and give it a few years for the gains to really click. I’m now much faster off the bike than I ever was as a stand alone runner.
I’ve done 1:26 HIM run on a tri-focussed plan, but I’m usually doing either a spring marathon to start the season (to keep me going in winter) or as a bonus end of season fall race. (Though previous marathon was 18 months prior to this race however). As a pure runner I had a PB 1:38HM.
I’m a runner looking into doing a sprint-tri next year. I sometimes read about people going under 3hrs in an IM Marathon or hitting sub 1:20 in a HIM run. Did these athletes usually build up their run fitness before entering Tri? Or did all the s/b cross training help get their aerobic engine to that level, allowing them to run those times in a Half/full IM?
I ran a 1:08 half marathon last year on 35 miles a week. I give a lot of credit to the cycling I was doing at the time. Same race is coming up next weekend and I am prepared to best that.
I did come from a running background but that was nearly a 4 minute PR over my last HM. also only the 3rd HM I’ve ever done.
I am a better runner than triathlete but I know the days of 100 mile weeks are 10 years behind me. you can get faster while training for Tri but you my not be the fastest you could be if you were just running.
Meanwhile a 15 hrs week in triathlon is not a big deal…6 hrs running 6 hrs biking, 3 hrs swimming.
If I ever hit a 15 hour week, which is double my biggest week so far, you best believe im making that into a big deal! haha
Cycling is the answer for high volume weeks (well I guess swimming too). With an emphasis on cycling, you could hit 20, no prob. Just getting the time in on the seat in cycling will benefit you.
I estimate, based on reading articles and race results, that less than 5% of all people who have run a marathon (standalone) have broken 3 hours. I would guess that it’s a higher percentage for IM because people doing IMs (or HIMs) are athletes looking for even more challenges, and therefore, probably better athletes.
IM participants who break 3 hours are great athletes. Maybe not “elites” even in their own minds, but definitely “elite” compared to “regular” marathon participants.
Here are some of the higher qualifying percentages so far for races this year.
http://www.marathonguide.com/races/BostonMarathonQualifyingRaces.cfm
RankMarathon
Qualifying
Percent*
1.Jacksonville Marathon (1/5/20 - Jacksonville, FL)
22.4%
2.Phoenix Marathon (2/8/20 - Mesa, AZ)
19.7%
3.Town of Celebration Marathon (1/26/20 - Celebration, FL)
14.2%
4.Ft. Lauderdale A1A Marathon (1/26/20 - Ft. Lauderdale, FL)
14.0%
5.Mercedes Marathon (2/16/20 - Birmingham, AL)
11.7%
6.Louisiana Marathon (1/19/20 - Baton Rouge, LA)
10.1%
7.Houston Marathon (1/19/20 - Houston, TX)
9.1%
8.Carlsbad Marathon (1/19/20 - Carlsbad, CA)
8.6%
9.Surf City Marathon (prev. Pacific Shoreline Marathon) (2/2/20 - Huntington Beach, CA)
8.5%
Hmm, by qualifying percentages, are you referring to BQ?
Everyone is different, but I have been a single sport cyclist and runner in the past, and I cannot reach my previous bests in either sport while doing a balanced year round 12hrs/wk of tri training, let alone continuing to improve.
I quess the OPs question has different answers depending on what person you are talking about.
An unfit person with no background in sports what-so-ever will 100% see gains in single-sport performance (S-B-R) if he/she takes up tri.
An world-class athlete in either S, B og R will most guaranteed drop single-sport-fitness if transitioning to tri (case in point - i bet you Cam Wurf - even still one hell of a cyclist - is less primed to to a 45k ITT now than he was in cycling prime).
And then there are all the cases in between the two above. The better you are at your single sport going into tri, the less chances are that single sport will improve doing tri. But I bet for most of us non-professional athletes - Tri-training will also improve our single sport performance.
Ask Gwen 
.
I wasn’t a great stand-alone runner before starting triathlon, with a PR of 1:36 in an open half. Over the past ten years I’ve improved my fitness and have run an open half in 1:20 and 1:27 in a 70.3. I probably could have gotten faster with stand-alone run training, but the cost of an injury is greater with more run volume. When I put in a run focus a few years ago I was able to get down to a low 17 5k time, but speed can lead to injuries, so have not gone that route recently.
was a runner, moved to tri but training hours similar, 5-7 hrs/week.
No improvement to run of course. The bike improved considerably, went from lousy cyclist to mediocre, but that was off a base of no bike racing experience at all.
Generally I would not expect any improvement in single sport from tri training. In exercise physiology the principle of training specificity is well established…
Steven Seiler presented that his data shows a roughly 2/3 crossover effect between cycling and running. Eg 3 hours cycling = 2 hours running and vice versa. He goes on to say that is most true for aerobic development, versus neuromuscular specificity, and mechanical efficiency.
Some good responses here already. I am similar to a few in here, where I started as a runner, and transitioned into Triathlon training. In my n=1, I got faster at running, due to 2 reasons I think. 1: I was able to get in much more low intensity aerobic development while keeping the miles off of my feet. 2: I was able to do high intensity VO2 max related workouts on the bike, to make gains in Lactate threshold and VO2max, and keep that heavy intensity off of my legs, so that I did not get injured. But basically, when I was a pure runner, I think I hit a 1:36 open HM, and as a Triathlete, I have hit a 1:29, and still improving.
I’m a runner looking into doing a sprint-tri next year. I sometimes read about people going under 3hrs in an IM Marathon or hitting sub 1:20 in a HIM run. Did these athletes usually build up their run fitness before entering Tri? Or did all the s/b cross training help get their aerobic engine to that level, allowing them to run those times in a Half/full IM?
My philosophy – also as mostly a runner who also does triathlon – is to train for the mix of pure run and multisport by roughly blending 50% marathon training and 50% olympic triathlon training. So instead of 0/0/100 or 20/50/30 S/B/R allocations, I’m trying to shoot for something like 10/25/65 S/B/R.
I ran my marathon PR, 2:42:xx last fall, with this sort of mix, and will shift back to more swim/bike after 100/100 and spring running races finish this year (have been more like 5/15/80 S/B/R since start of 100/100). In terms of running performance alone, I think the added volume in swim/bike helps some physiologically, but it is also immensely valuable psychologically to have cycling, swimming (and other activities) on the back burner at a low but nonzero level of fitness so they can be rapidly bumped to take up more volume in case of a running injury.