A little background.
I’ve only been into tri for just about three years now. I had hoped to finish my first tri before I turned 50. First was to be Rage in Las Vegas, April of 2020. Then the covid hit. That put me back to October of 2021, Las Vegas Triathlon. Since then I’ve completed just over a dozen from Miami to Santa Barbara.
A little more background.
Back in the early 90s I was in the military. I got into running quite a bit then. I was never fast, but I had good endurance. I could hold a ~8min/mile pace for 15-20 miles. I never attempted a marathon although I don’t believe I would have had any difficulty completing one at that point in my life.
After I got out of the military, I won’t say I ever got in really bad shape, but I certainly did not maintain the level of fitness I had while in. I got serious about getting fit again in the mid twenty teens, starting off with running local 5K and 10Ks.
But despite only putting on about 6-8 pounds since my military days, my run times have taken a significant hit. I now struggle just to break a 10min/mile on a stand-alone run. In a sprint tri, I consider myself lucky to average a sub 12min/mile. Anything over a sprint and the best I can hope for is something in the 15 minute neighborhood. That’s really only a little better than a brisk walking pace.
The reason this is all relevant is I want to complete IMAZ, hopefully this year. By my calculation, if I can maintain a 15min/mile, that’s still going to require just about 6.5 hours for the “run” segment. Now, on the swim and bike, I am a middle-of-the-pack competitor on my best day. My hope is to be out of T2 by 5:30, giving me 7.5 hours to finish. But that’s an if-everything-goes-to-plan, and as the saying goes, no battle plan survives the first shot. Really not a lot of margin for error.
I’ve tried to diagnose what went wrong with my run over the years and the only thing I can identify is I have no “spring” in my step. Literally. When I run, when my foot hits, it’s like mush. Almost like running in sand. I have even reviewed pictures from previous runs and hardly ever see a foot more than just a couple inches off the ground.
So I’m working on the endurance. I already have a strategy in place for the run to “run” (jog) about four miles, then walk one, jog four, walk one… But I would really like to figure out a way to get some of that spring back in my step. I do a mix of distance and shorter runs between 4 and 6 miles, and occasionally do wind sprints. But I would appreciate any suggestions on improving that run technique.