So, I ran my first triathlon this past weekend at St. Anthony’s. I did well considering my goals. Now, I went out on the bike and did my race. I ended up getting 17th in my age group on the bike (1:04:50). However, I ended up getting 55th on the run (48:13). Now, I know that I’m a much better biker than a runner and I’m actually quite happy with the run time.
My questions is how much slower are you during a 10K at the end of an Oly race versus a regular 10K where you are fresh? I’m wondering because I ran 7:47min/mile at St. A’s, but I don’t think I could go faster than 7:15min/mile at a fresh 10K anyways. Is 30 seconds per mile slower a decent drop in speed or did I push myself too hard on the bike?
I’m interested to hear some of the input on this thread… It’s funny… I run a 38 min 10 k as of a few years ago and am still flirting with breaking 40 in a tri. I really don’t know what my standing 10 k is right now.
What I have done that has helped me is run at least a 10-15 min. transition run after pretty much every bike (unless i’m really gassed).
But there are more variables that come into this such as bike setup… background… conditioning… threshold, etc.
Well, for me it varies based on my race fitness. When my race fitness is low, I run about 10-12% slower in triathlon than a current standalone race. But when my race fitness is high, it’s much closer, only 5-6% slower.
If your run volume is high enough and your doing the proper training the spread can be quite small. I’ve seen athletes consistently run +/- :10-15 sec difference between tris and open 10k’s.
The better your fitness level is across the board the closer you will be to your standalone PR. 2-3% off is realistic. With less fitness, 5-10% is more likely.
That’s typical. For me, its two to three minutes or 20 to 30 sec. slower per mile. 10K PR is in the mid 36-range and I run 38-40 at the end of a triathlon. I can muster sub 6 miles in an open 10K but cannot (yet) pull that off after biking hard for more than an hour.
IMHO, no one should be more than 1 min./mile slower on the run, open race v. triathlon (long distance excepted). If you are, you are not training or racing right.
Your first Tri experience was pretty similar to mine. I found (limited sample size: N=me, R=5 races so far) that I was 20-30 secs/mi slower on a Tri split vs. fresh. So, I would do 7:20-7:30 for a 10k in an Oly vs. approx 7:0X for stand alone ‘race pace’ back then, and 7:0X for a Sprint vs. say 6:3X or so.
I’m going with the 20-30 sec differential in planning for my Olys this season too, even tho the per mile times for both will be much improved. I tend to hammer the bike pretty hard to attempt to make up for an atrocious swim, so at least for me, I don’t think I’ll see the reduction of the differential to less than 5% like the other posters mentioned is possible. (although I can certainly dream about it!)
Good work on yer first Tri. Sounds like you paced yerself pretty well. With your bike strength, you should be able to improve on yer run just by doing it more often, and doing technique work (it worked for me)
I find that the difference can be a low as 15-20 second per mile, but is really dependant on bike volume. When my bike volume is high, I can really run fast. When bike volume is low, you have to ride slow on the bike or ride fast and run slow.
Some people like to practice running off the bike, but I found it made no difference for me, so I almost never do bike/run bricks. Everyone’s different.
I’m faster in triathlons than I am in standalone road races. I think it has to do with my lack of warmup for most standalone running races. My 5k PR is 1min slower than my Sprint Tri 5k PR, and my 10k PR is 3min slower than my Oly 10k PR. None of my times are fast, but my tri-run times are faster than my normal runs. I seem to get stronger as time goes by in running and riding, so by the end of a tri I’m actually warmed up and ready to go.
A couple of things to consider. Triathlon courses are notoriously innacurate in terms of measurement, and quite often much tougher in terms of terrain than regular road 10Ks.
Wildflower for example is a hilly cross country course.
Mine were actually pretty similar. I could put out a 10K run leg of a tri that was only about 30 seconds slower than my stand-alone 10K. I guess I attribute it to having to start the run off a little easier and keeping a more steady pace than the normal sprint along with everyone else and try to hang on of a stand-alone 10K. And the funny thing is that my legs actually felt BETTER after a tri than after a stand-alone 10K.
10% or so if you are not as trained for running off the bike or if your bike fitness is not where it could be. If your bike fitness and run fitness are both high and you have a smart race, 5% or less is realistic.
I 33:40 on a very hilly 10k a few weeks ago, and should be right there to 34-mid, so that’s about a 3% difference.
Again, I think that your bike fitness has a lot to do with how well you will run off the bike.
If your run volume is high enough and your doing the proper training the spread can be quite small. I’ve seen athletes consistently run +/- :10-15 sec difference between tris and open 10k’s.
I know you have much more experience than I do, but that sounds crazy. Does it hold for 10,000 on the track versus a 10K (more likely 9.5-9.8K) on the road at the end of an Olympic Tri? Anything less than a minute would make me think they aren’t hurting enough in the track 10,000/open 10K. It’s impressive to say the least though, and I guess points to how little the bike and the run are actually related.
If a road course is accurately measured according to USATF rules it will actually be slightly longer than 10K…I think a course has to be 0.5% long in order to be certified.