A delicate balance
Yesterday I missed my bike ride but today I will more than compensate with a 1 mile lake swim followed by quick transition into a one hour trail run.
I could feel bad about missing my ride but I was actually busy doing triathlon related work so it really was just a refocus. No I was not reading blogs, well I peeked at a few.
Thursday through Tuesday is really my peak of the week though. Thursday are 1 mile swims, now were adding trail runs. Fridays are 25 mile hill rides and 5-6 mile run, Saturdays 1 mile swims and short run, Sunday 45-65 mile rides which are getting longer. Monday is or is not a pool swim based on work and Tuesday is long runs, 18 miles next week. As each week progress I will be adding distance.
Most training books have a training pattern of long runs Saturday and long bikes Sunday, even Going Long, though it breaks the days up. I decided to stick to a more race day program. Saturday swim, Sunday bike, Tuesday run. Just like a real race.
If your program has you running long one day and biking long the next, does that make race sense? Neuro-muscularly you should train your body to react to events like those in a race; swim, bike, run. When you brick do you run then bike? No. So why do that on a macro scale.
Just my two cents on training.
posted by Comm's @ 5:05 AM
11 comments
11 Comments:
Just out of curiousity, what are all of the long runs for? Are you training for a marathon as well ... Perhaps I missed something? Or perhaps you just enjoy running long. I've always hear to keep runs consistent and frequent, but that anything over 12-15 miles was doing more harm than good. Putting that energy into biking long miles seems to be the thing everyone suggests. Again, just curious ...
Brett
Oh, I just went back and looked. Marathon in January. Very cool. Your run should be very solid come IMFLA!
Good point Commodore, I will keep that in mind for my next training.
I would perfer doing less long runs and more long bikes, brick and swim.
Hadn't though of it that way, Comm, but it makes sense!
I have PF Chang Rock n Roll marathon coming up in January with Tri-mama and Vertical Man joining in. Come on down Nancy!
My macro plan for IMFL is build my runs up earlly using Chang as a short term focus. Once thats done, mid-January, I will pick up the time on the bike and drop my run training to 3 runs a weeks, the longest runs a 4 week cycle of 12-13-15-10. The ten is a back off week. The other two runs will be bricks off the bike and average about 6 miles. That should be right until August when I will do a short ramp up before my 1/2 IM early October then taper for Florida.
Funny you brought up "Going Long" since you inspired me to go out and get the book last night. I've only read the first chapter, but it recommends breaking up all your long workouts, for example: Long Run - Wed, Long Swim - Fri, and Long Bike - Sun. I think that is the model I am going to work by in trying to build my plan.
As far as the long runs go, I know from experience that if I can keep a low heart rate for 15 miles, I can do 26.2. But I won't make a final judgement on that until I read the book!
By the way, Brett... I am doing a 47 mile ride Saturday leaving early in the AM... interested?
If time allows, this summer I will be mixing up the training days like Going Long suggests.
Melanie McQuaid talked about always running on tired legs and the benefit that had on her racing. Weird, but it kind makes sense.
Check out her EnduranceRadio.com Porcast here.
That's a really good point about doing the workouts in race order. Since I'm still tweaking my plan for next year I'll have to consider this. I think the standard schedule probably has a lot to do with people's time. Most people have more time to train on the weekends. But then you could just swap the days?????
When I trained for IM CdA earlier this year I always did my long rides (4-7 hours) on Saturday (and short T-run, too) followed by my long run on Sunday (1.25 - 2.5 hours.)
The thinking being that I would be running long on Sunday on tired legs - just like an Ironman.
FWIW, I finished my first IM in 11:29 and the run was 3:46.
I'll follow the same plan for my next one.
Later.
I do the Saturday long run/ Sunday long bike because:
1. Most supported rides around here are on Sunday and I don't want to do a long run on a work day.
2. My DH and his friends are roadies, so if there's no supported ride going on, that's my training group. It takes at least 45 minutes to get to a safe place to ride and once I'm 20 or 30 miles from there on my bike, I figure I better be with friends in case I run into problems.
3. Tradition
I can't do much about #'s 1 and 2, but you've got me thinking about #3.
Thanks for the perspective!
wow Comm... you've really done well with your swimming and running... i got plenty of catch up to do... thanks for the motivation... keep it up!
Post a Comment
<< Home