Just finished IMFL and my marathon time was crazy slow- but the bike and swim were strong and fun! I want to do a run focus for a few months in order to get my run time down 2 hours.
Question:
If I did the run focus for the winter months, how much should I stay up with the bike and swim? Meaning, how many workouts a week just to keep them in maintenance? And would it be wise to run perhaps 8 times a week? Or is that too much with out enough recovery time (I am not a strong runner)
Does anyone else do a single sport focus? Maybe running that much would not be good due to the injury factor? Thoughts?
A couple of thoughts - a crazy slow run in an Ironman does not necessarily mean you need to focus on your running in the off season. The question is why was it a crazy slow run. Was it because you lack run speed or run endurance. Or was it because of poor pacing or nutrition on the bike. I had a crazy slow run @ IM Couer d’Alene this summer, but it was not because I lack running speed or endurance. I ran a crazy slow marathon because I was not strong enough on the bike to ride the pace I rode and then get off and run the type of marathon I wanted to run. I also had some nutrition issues that contributed.
So I also am taking a single sport focus this winter due to a slow Ironman run this past summer, but my single sport focus will be to improve my bike strength in order to run a faster marathon at IMLP 06.
I plan to still run often, but not necessarily lots of miles, and little to no speed work. I will probably go to the pool once a week for awhile and just do an easy 2000m just to keep fresh on my technique. Not that hard to build swim fitness back up later in the Spring if swimming is not a major limiter for you.
i’ve always felt like i could ‘coast’ on my swimming a bit, assuming i put in a big push. for instance, if i go swim-specific and do mega-mileage for a week or two, i can get by for another couple of months on doing only a tiny amount of maintenance swimming (say 1-2x/week) while i focus on other stuff.
running, i tend to need to work hard to stay at the very sharp end - my base stays indefinintely but that top-end speed and strength disappears fast.
and cycling, well, i’ve always been very strong on the bike and lazy about bike training - i get away with it because i have lots of strength. but i think generally cycling’s just a function of putting in as many hours as you can in the saddle.
so: if i were going to focus on the run all winter, i’d swim maybe 2x/week, then throw in one or two crazy ‘swim clinics’ where you break through some plateaux. as for the ride, maybe just do one long one per week as a base workout, and then choose to ‘focus’ on the ride for a month in the spring.
I am in the same boat. Good swim and bike, horrible run. I started back about a month ago and only ran for three weeks to jump start my run focus. I can tell you that going to this extreme is a bad idea. I lost the feel of the water and felt terrible on the bike. The run greatly improved though! For the past few weeks I have been doing three swims, 2-3 rides depending on the weather, and running 6 days a week, 3 days with 2 runs per day. I try to keep the swims and rides pretty easy Z1-low end of Z2. On the days I run doubles, one run is at a very easy pace, just focusing on form. Once I get the running where I want it I will begin thinking of adding some intensity to the swim and bike workouts.
I have seen some folks work too hard on swimming wherein they end up with some really good swim splits only to die later in the run. IMO, - this is a mistake. Some good pals split out the swim in one hour then ended up running for 5 1/2 hours, - shows too much focus on the swim. An hour swim is not too far away from a respectable open water Masters swimmer time… Could an extra 20 minutes swimming slower shave off an hour in the run?
Tri, Mike, Orbis, and Toenail- thanks for your replies!!!
Well, IMFL was my first Ironman, Marathon and Century all in the same day. I NEED more training!
I wasn’t tired when I got off the bike and nutrition was pretty good, but the run was horrbile after mile 13. If I could keep the same swim/bike time, I would be thrilled…I just want a better run time and I believe that is in my run training, not bike
So what you are saying is that a single sport focus is good as long as the other 2 are worked maybe 1/2 x per week?
Miles per week- is there a good place to start? I am doing about 8-10 currently, but those are speed workouts. Guess I should switch to LSD???
I think you just revealed the key. 8-10 MPW is not enough for a full ironman. I was doing about 20-25 a week last year in prep for 1/2 iron races, and that wasn’t enough. I am up to 40 MPW now and average paces per mile in training have gone down almost 30 seconds. I would suggest slowly building your miles. Use the 10% rule and listen to your body. Good luck!
Besides what was noted in the above post—8-10 miles per week running—I would add that you must remember though triathlon is three disciplines, it is one sport…focusing on one aspect of it at the expense of the other two won’t do you much good on race day.
In other words, if you focus primarily on your run…it won’t do you a damn bit of good if you’re toast by the time you get into T2. If IMFL was your first century bike ride, there’s a clue as to what you should be working on. But certainly it sounds as though your training in general could be upped, presuming it fits into the rest of your life, in all three disciplines—or at least bike and run—for the best overall effect on your time.
Congrats on IMFL! That was my second IM. I came to the sport with a marathoning background, so I’m in the “love to run” camp (a very lonely camp, mind you). I improved my IM run from the first one, but still had some trouble. I definitely have the endurance and even some speed, but as we all know, triathlon isn’t about running… it’s about running off the bike. Like tri_antelope said, it could be about pacing or nutrition on the bike. Biking more, and running as often as possible off the bike will help you dial in the right pace and nutrition for a great run off the bike.
You say you’re not a strong runner. What sort of weekly running mileage do you typically do? How many long runs do you do in prep for a marathon or IM? How do you feel after them (i.e. what’s your recovery)? Adding more miles might help, but you want to keep the weekly increase small (10-15% per week), and step back every few weeks or so. As for running 8 times per week, consistency is important, but so is rest and recovery. I build up to 70 miles per week, but do it in 6 sessions. I like having one full day off per week. I also don’t really train for distances shorter than the marathon, so I like to keep my average daily run somewhere between 7-10 miles.
My best IM was at IMFL in 2003, and I spent from November through April of the year leading up to it doing pretty much only running (I wanted to do well at Boston that year). I swam about 6 times TOTAL during that time, and cycled once a week for no more than an hour. I averaged 60 miles of running a week (which is a little light for a marathoner, but I had work issues). At any rate, I PRed at Boston, then hit the bike and swim hard in the summer and early fall, and dropped my run miles down to 30/week. As it turns out, I had my best swim split at IMFL that year by 8 minutes (1:08) my best bike split by 7 minutes (5:10) and my best run split by almost 10 minutes (3:28). I think it depends on your physiology, but my cycling plays off my running MUCH better than my running plays off my cycling.
I’m entered in IMFL for next year, and I haven’t been in the pool or on my bike in 7 weeks. However, I’m running 70-85 miles a week right now, and I’m running the best I ever have. I just PRed in the 5K with no speed work at all. I’m running the California International Marathon on Sunday. I’ll start swimming a riding a little after this race on Sunday, but only for the month I’ll be recovering. I’ll ramp my run miles back up in January preparing for Boston. I’ll worry about the swim and the bike next summer.
I tend to disagree with the majority of the ST faithful who think IM racing is all about the bike. I think it’s all about the run. For me, and it may be different for others, a lot of bike work does NOTHING for my run. It’s just the opposite. I tried hitting the bike harder last year, at the expense of my run miles, with terrible results.
At any rate, that’s my story, and I felt like I should throw it out there to combat the inevitable posts that it’s “all about the bike”. I would urge you to ramp up your miles by maybe 20% a week until you hit 35 miles per week, then keep going up by 10% a week and level off at 50-60. It’s really not that hard. You’ll probably have to back off the pace once you hit 40 or so, but don’t sweat it. Your body will adjust and the efficiencies you gain by running more miles will start to show on the clock. GO FOR IT!!!
You can run 8 times a week, but the key is low-intensity and low-volume until your body adapts to the frequency. Then you can increase intensity/time. Especially with running, it is important to build into it.