I have always heard runners getting great results from following the Jack Daniels running programs. I was thinking of following one of the marathon programs for my run training for triathlons. I race mainly OLY to 1/2 Iron distance races. I would modify it a bit to fit in swimming and biking workouts, but follow his basic principles. Has anyone ever followed his program while training for triathlons?
Any help is much appreciated
Mike
I’ve used the general guidelines and all of his pacing charts and workouts. I kind of worked them into my tri training as best I could, never followed one of the plans he has laid out though.
I will say my tri and non-tri running improved a lot.
I have been using his principles for about a year.
I modify it this way:
Since I get a workout in on the bike each week I substitute his 20 minute T pace runs for a 30 - 35 min. MP run.
I stick to his principles for the other 2 key running workouts of the week:
I base my interval training on his I paces, 4 - 5 miles of work on the track, and throw in 4 x 200 @ R pace at the end.
I do a long run every week b/n 90 & 135 min. @ LR/E.
My recovery runs, I might do one/week, are always slower than LR/E.
N=1: I get in b/n 40 & 55 mpw. I PR’d at every distance I have run since I started JD.
It’s a great idea, as long as you remember that unlike runners, you have to do a lot of hours of other “stuff” too. I followed his 10K plan a few years ago. Usually, I’d drop 1 high intensity workout from his plan every 2 weeks.
It got my 10K PR down from 35 to 32 minutes (amazing what training right can do!), but really helped my half ironman times for the end of that season. That said, by September I was massively overtrained and sick for at least a month.
Be careful, but I say do it (I really miss some of those track workouts).
I thought about following the 10k-1/2 marathon plan but thought following the marathon plan made more sense because time wise doing an OLY distance tri or 1/2 is similiar time wise as a stand alone marathon. Like you mentioned it seemed like there was a lot more speedwork in the 10k program than most people would need in a triathlon 10k or 1/2 marathon. In reality if you are able to run 5:30 pace in a triathlon then you will do OK.
Mike
I started using his marathon program last winter. It was a bit too much for me then but now I feel I could do it. I’m not much of a runner and then I was running approx 40 miles a week.
I like the reasoning that different levels of effort and duration stress different systems in your body. He has figured that out for you for different distances.
With the extra training stress from swimming and biking I would only use the long workout and filled the rest of the week with brick runs and easy running. I also held my peak milage to 35 a week and longest run to 14 miles since I train for HIM distances.
I’ve been working with a coach since June (Mike Plumb) that prescribes to similar ideas. It has been working well for me.
jaretj
I’ve used his designated training paces as well. CDANRUN’s program looks too intense and speed heavy for me (YMMV).
I would say drop the I and R workouts all together unless you are trying to peak for an A Oly race. (Then maybe a handful of those in your Peak phase) My experience has been that if you have accurately determined your VDOT number then you won’t even come close to touching those paces in HIM’s or Oly’s. Properly paced HIM run splits are <= MP pace and OLY’s are roughly T Pace. (That was my experience anyway)
I’ve been doing 70-80% of my running at LR/EZ pace and then throwing in 1-2 MP or T Pace runs a week. That has worked well for me.
Mike,
Instead of following the plan, take the principles of his formula and apply them to your training. You have more to do than just run (that being said most triathletes run way to little)
Couldn’t agree more. I am using one of Foe friel’s plans and he prescribes running on some weeks 5-6 times. Although a couple of those runs are for 15 minutes. But my running is really starting to come along nicely. 3 times a week isn’t enough.
Is Landis on that program?
I am a firm believer of Jim Beam
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Mike,
I’ve been using Daniels’ Formula since the first edition of the book came out. Read the book and get the principles and the basic workouts from it, not the training plans. If you figure the “formula” out, you’ll be on your way to building a successful running training program.
Ditto what swmbkrn44, Desert Dude, and Paulo said.
I’ve used Daniel’s actual plans (the last section of white, and all of the red and blue plans) as I’ve geared up for a HIM this fall. But, the approach I took was kind of the single-sport one. In other words, several folks here wisely recommend you specialize off-season in one particular sport, and when you come back to the other two, you’ll pick them back up, and have your specialization still from the emphasis sport. So I had 2-3 hard days with the daniels plans, and a long day, and then the recovery days sprinkled in; and then just did easy stuff swimming and biking. I mostly avoided hard days on the bike, except for a rare few here or there when I was feeling undertrained (which was rarely.)
The reson I took this apprach was because I felt very strong on the bike, but felt like I had a weak run (which was further made obvious by my FOP bike times, and BOP run times.) So it was no biggie to me to focus mostly on the run and simply maintain on the bike using large low-intensity bike volume.
In this year, I’ve PR’ed all of my distances. I even PR’ed my 5k-run time by three minutes (off the run section of a sprint tri, no less, coming off a very hard bike section.) And that is what makes Daniels valuable to me.
I’ll tell you how it worked out for Half Iron in a month.
gentleman jacks is a good drop
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