I’m wanting to focus on my run training during the off season to improve my 10K up to marathon. My goal is to produce better run splits off the bike during next years tri season. I first want to understand how I am performing on the run in my triathlons by comparing my road race times with my triathlon run times. Are there any standards for how much slower in pace or time one should expect the run leg of a triathlon to be when compared to a similar terrain run only road race? Assume an efficient swim and bike effort in the appropriate target zones for my triathlons. Any help would be appreciated.
I can’t give you a numerical answer, but the best triathletes seem to run pretty close to their run only times. The problem is that many tri courses aren’t measures accurately. I remember the results for a recent ITU race where a few of the men were 29 minutes for 10K others are won by guys going 34 minutes.
That said for shorter distances I consider 20 seconds a mile to be very good.
When you are discussing your run times in triathlon I think it is impossible to separate your cycling effort from your run effort. Even using a heart rate monitor is not a foolproof way to pace yourself on the bike because it may not account for muscle fatigue over time.
The key to a good run split is finding that happy medium between too hard and too easy an effort. I believe there is a range of effort level that will produce the best ride/run combo, i.e. if you ride too easy then you can still only run so fast, or if you ride too hard, you will lose more time on the run than you gained on the bike.
If you can afford one of the power measuring devices I think it would be a great help, because you could see when you are going too hard. The longer the distance, the more this applies.
Over time I have simply developed a feel for the right effort level. I spin a very high rpm and always try to keep the spin going by shifting as soon as I feel my effort to maintain rpm has become too great. I don’t ever want to feel like I am working very hard on the bike.Since it is so hard to simulate race conditions, then the early season is the best time to experiment with this.