Dan,
You have given away the big secret - if you want to run faster, guess what? You have to train faster!
You have also hinted at the other big secret - if you want to run faster, ditch the HRM. It’s about running faster, not keeping it in some special zone for X-period of time.
Brilliant!
Fleck
it’s good to hear you about the HRM and running…personally, if I had to stay within a HR zone while running, I would be walking! I don’t know if it’s right in theory or what, but at my fastest I trained with a “high” heart rate all the time, with no monitor…it’s been so confusing now because that’s def not the message for tri training. kitty
I was at the pool the other night and the coach of the high school team that practises there had written on the white board by the pool:
“The only way to swim fast is to swim fast.”
This sums it up for any of the 3 tri sports.
True for cycling.
True for running.
However, only partially true for swimming. The swim-faster-to-swim-faster folks are the ones who already have perfected their technique. Many triathletes have less than perfect swim technique.
I guess it would be fair to point out the high school swim team in question was ranked in the top 20 in the country last year. These girls are well beyond worrying about the basics of technique!
But - I know my way around a pool and I have never seen a single slow swimmer who could not benefit from harder training. Too many triathletes in general and swimmers in particular are looking for a magic bullet. If you want to go faster, swim bike or run faster.
I read it - I am a believer!
I started my revised training with speed work this morning on the treadmill. I ran just 3 miles but with 4 sections of 1/4 mile surges. My relaxed pace was like 9:30 mile and during the surges I bumped it up to 7:30 miles. Good times!
Good for you.
As I think I said over on the similar thread going on - it’s amazing what even the injection of a little bit of “faster” paced running will do for the performance of runners who tend to do ALL of their running and racing, regardless of the distance at more or less the same speed and intensity.
Note that distance running is not all about running fast - there needs to be a good balance of slower running to build up fitness and durability and then faster running to further improve fitness and performance.
it helps to learn to swim first.
Its been fun reading the various post this morning on the train faster to go faster article. Coincidentally, I just started training with a coached roadie racing group here in Vancouver which contains some Cat ½ elite level riders and then MOP tri heads like me.
Having bought into the long slow endurance system it has been a major shock to see the hrt hit over 95% on various occasions for sustained periods of time, I dont think my hrt has got that high in 5 years of IM training.
The coach is always looking at our hrt data for signs that we are going easy enough and then hard enough, there is little middle ground. It seems like its either no more than 70% of max or 95% of max. I suspect its very road racing specific.
But I would not be able to do the training/group rides without a fairly large base of aerobic training, I suspect Slowman’s article holds true for everyone but the % of hard running in relation to total volume is going to be determined by aerobic base (and in running biomechanical and body composition considerations)
I have no complaint with Slowman’s plan.
I’ll see about trying it out, NEXT year!!!
For now I’ll just be putting in the miles (with HRM to make sure I am not going too hard) untill spring.
Till then, pass the wine and ice cream.
I always liked the comment I read from the Norwegian XC ski coach. It went something like ‘The only reason we make sure they run easy on the easy days is so on the hard days they can run hard.’
I’ve never tried “faster” paced running but this summer I started throwing in faster cycling intervals into my rides. My cycling improvement was quite dramatic with a relatively small amount of interval training on top of my regular rides. I have been riding for several years and I was able to make a 15% improvement in my average time trial pace.
I know with cycling one of my big limiters was actually being able to accelerate myself to speed. Once there it was not that hard to hold it. I had plenty of endurance but no power. Once I developed the power to go X, even for a short amount of time, the ability to hold that speed longer and longer came fairly quickly. The only way to develop that power is to do intervals above the speed you want to hold in a race.
I think this is where people mistakenly get mislead on the effectiveness of training with short intervals at greater than race speed. They don’t comprehend how running (or cycling or swimming) for a short time at a higher speed can help them in a race that is much much longer than any interval set they might do. By training at greater than race speed, you are developing power that will allow you to run (or ride or swim) easier at a slightly slower speed. That slower speed will be higher than the speed you could hold before. And as Slowman points out in his good form article - you are also develpoing the specifc strength and conditioning you need to hold good technique at a faster speed. Training for a relativiely small amount of time at X speed will make it a lot easier to hold 90% of x in a race that is much longer than any amount of time you could hold X speed.
I’ve been attending Velodrome classes for 12 weeks and my biking has gotten much faster!
When eveything turns to rubber and you get tunnel vision, you are going fast enough. Fast enough in a set is when the first interval feels like moderate work, but by the 8th eveything feels like its rubber, you can’t breath and you want to fall off the track :-).
A good way to start out is start your run on the track for 2 or 3 laps to establish pace then head off and come back 3 or 4 miles later and run a couple of more laps to see if you slowed down. After a while you can keep a good fast pace without a track. You’ll find that when running fast, even holding the same pace takes an ever increasing level of effort. Fast depends on how far you’re going. A fast 3-4 mile tempo run is not the same as a fast 800. The book ‘Jack Daniels running formula’ has some great pace tables that lay all this out for you.
I found it interesting when I was in Eldoret Kenya, where many of the top Kenyans trained, that I never saw any of them wearing HRM’s or even wrist watchs for that matter, when they trained.
I agree that those training tools can be helpful, but I don’t think that they are as essential as people seem to insist.
Again, people can either make this as complicated or as simple as they like:
Long run pace - A pace that you can hold for 1 - 2 hours and at the same time carry on a conversation with who you are running with.
Tempo run pace - Where you start top breath heavily, but the legs are still feeling good for extended periods of time. You can hold this pace for 20 - 30 minutes. If you can’t you are going too fast. The pace corresponds nicely with your race pace for a one hour time trial run. So for a 60 minute 10 mile racer, that would be 6:00 min/mile. Talking starts to become a challenge. This is perhaps the most important training pace for experienced triathletes looking to improve performance. Typical workout. Jog easy for 10 - 15 minutes. Crank it up to tempo pace, hold it there for 20 - 30 minutes. warm down for 10 minutes.
Hard/“fast” Interval pace: corresponds nicely with 5K race pace. A pace that you can maintain for 10 min. tops. You are going “fast”, breathing hard and the legs will feel very fatigued at the 10 min mark. Talking is almost immpossible. A great workout that I would often do was on/off’s: set the countdown timer on my watch for 1, 2,3 ,4 or 5 minutes and run “hard” for one time interval, say 3 minutes, and then jog easy for 3 minutes. Repeat the cycle 6 or 7 times. You can do this workout any where - trail, road, hilly or flat, or even a track if you like.
There you go. I hope this helps.
What is the distance of a High School track? I assume they are standard? Theres one down the street from me, I should start using it.
Track = 400m / 440 yards. 4 laps = 1 mile.
it’s damn boring to run around a track unless you are doing 400 / 800 repeaters. For longer intervals (mile, etc.) i think it’s better to mark off a one mile section of a running path in a park or something like that then run 4 times around the track (again and again…)
Most outdoor running tracks are either 440 years(older tracks) or 400 metres( newer tracks). Best to check with the school to see what exactly their track is. I have encountered some odd lengthed older tracks out there.
Note to other poster about where to do intervals: A track is great, because you will know exactly how far you have run and can time things exactly. However, you can also do intervals on the road or trail using your watch. I will set the alarm to go off after 1, 2, 3, 4 or whatever minutes for the hard/fast part of the interval, then jog easy for the recovery and repeat. However, it’s best if you have some idea of what the paces you need to run are first. Therefore, for newbies, I would reccomend the track to know waht it feels like to run an 80 sec 400 feels like.