I’m trying to BQ at the Portland Marathon.
I’m running 70 miles a week, as well as swimming 10k a week, and occasionally biking.
I’m feeling tired, and thinking I should cut out all biking and swim just as recovery from running.
So here is my question: When you make a single sport effort (such as trying to BQ), do you completely drop the other two sports? How do you balance the three? I’m afraid if I drop biking for five weeks my bike fitness will go to pot. But at least I’ll be a faster runner! Is there any harm to the other two disciplines by just focusing on one?
I’m thinking I can still swim as recovery, but the biking seems a bit much.
Personal experience. I started from a running background before I went into triathlons. I stayed injury free AND ran faster because of the cross training. The key for me was not the quantity of the miles I ran, but the quality.
As weird as it may sound to you, you might be running too many miles. That might explain your fatigue. Dropping the other two sports will only make you think about how much your bike and swim fitness will suffer (not necessarily true, but you’ll think about it.) Assuming you have a job and/or family responsibilities, going at your current pace may leave you fried for the marathon.
You run 280 miles a month. You don’t need to run that much to qualify for Boston IF you are putting in QUALITY miles. Rely on the cardiovascular and strength training benefits of the biking and swimming and you’ll be fine. Good luck!
Portland is now a little over four weeks away. From what I gather, you recommend lowering run mileage and keeping up with the bike and swimming? Right now I don’t feel like the swimming is hurting the run, but the biking leaves more fatigue, so my inclination is to cut off the bike these next four weeks and pick it up again after the race.
Have you qualified for Boston? If so, how many miles/week were you running? Did you swim/bike during that time?
I am also trying to BQ but @ the Prince Edward County here in Ontario, Canada in a month 1/2.
I swim “only” 2 times a week (about 40 mins each time). Mostly to try to maintain whatever I have gained.
I am currently running between 7h/8h a week & I still bike ~6h/8h a week (commute of ~1h each way).
If I was not biking/swimming, I would probably not run much more than that.
So we will see if I will be able to go sub 3:15:59!
70 miles/week running with biking and swimming is quite a lot. For my marathon prep last fall to BQ (Columbus - also pretty easy), I swam once/week on my recovery days and biked once/week as well. I then did a 100 mile tour a couple weeks before thinking I would then start my taper (but still biked some).
I ran a lot slower than I anticipated, but who knows why. Still BQ at 3:07 (age 37), but also had that lethargic feeling during my big run weeks (although 63 miles was my peak week compared with your 70). Doing it again, I would drop the bike entirely for the last month up to the mary if it was important to you or you think a BQ time will be hard for you. Bike fitness is regained pretty quickly.
However, another guy I occasionally train with only ran about 35-40 miles/week (yes, quality runs) and used his biking 3 times/week to run a 2:58 on a harder course. He felt the biking actually helped him (but note the lower run volume on purpose). Since I usually out run him, it definitely worked for him.
70 miles a week seems like an awful lot to do in training.
Personally, I only run 3 times a week but I do have a very big running base. I’m also running Portland (as I live here and I’ve done it each of the last 12 years). I’m currently doing one hard hill run, one tempo run and one long run each week. I’ve cut out the swimming (because I’m crap at it, my local pool just closed for rennovation and I completed my goal of finishing IM Canada). I’m still riding though… but as I’m a roadie I guess I have to eh?
As far as the race course goes… The course is pretty boring. I think the race director’s idea was to make the course ugly to stop people moving here. Saying that, it is pretty falat and fast. I’ve qualified from Boston at it. There’s one short steep hill at mile 3 and then the climb up to the St Johns bridge is a slog for a mile (at 17). The website does contain a course profile and photos from along the course
Im swimming 5-6 times a week and biking 3-4 times, run every day. My bq race isnt until the end of the year and once i get peaking for my run training ill drop the volume down a little for my other sports but i dont think the frequency will change. Whenever i take time off of any sport, especially swimming, it takes a little while(too long) go get back to where i was. Why not just do your shorter runs as a brick following a shorter bike ride? You can still get your mileage in and keep your bike fitness reasonable.
Portland is a fast course. The st johns bridge is the only climb. Lots of entertainment along the course. If you notice this though you aren’t running hard enough. I got run over by a car last week, but I think I am still running it. Though it may turn out more like walking. Good luck!
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I qualified with a few minutes to spare running 25-30 miles a week. I biked twice a week and swam three times a week. My legs and mind were fresh for the race and I enjoyed myself.
