yep, 11,000 feet.
hmm, “enjoying the loneliness,” i guess i thought of it as “solitude.”
Google Chrome suggested this link so I had to read it this morning.
Basically a summary of the interval sessions that Alex Yee did prior to his latest ITU win in Stellenbosch. Don’t really have to much to add, but basically he was doing 1-2 really hard interval sessions per week leading up to his race. Also covers tapering strategy. Something I’ve noticed is that you can’t back off of your running too soon, as it seems to really wane quickly if you don’t keep up with some hard stuff (similar to the TR running plans… There’s a longish tempo run during the 1st taper week). Crazy fast!
https://triathlonworld.com/szene/alex-yees-training-vor-seinem-kapstadt-erfolg-analyse-147236
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I guess sort of the point is really also ignoring set paces, and just going hard when it is part of the plan. I am overall training a bit slower than last year, but so far my interval paces are much better. Interested to see how well I can get them up to by the first tempo run in my plan, I wouldn’t mind getting as close as possible (or under) a 40min 10k as part of the OLY race I have planned in April.
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Started as a casual runner, then dabbled into triathlon and then got a bit more serious with running… Focused on running last year and had a bit of a breakthrough year… PR’d marathon and BQ’d, smashed HM distance with a time of 1:21 (almost 10 min PR from prior year), ran a 38 min 10k and 58 min 15k (both as part of my HM run)… Taking a break from running for the first half of this year and focusing on riding. Hoping to get into crit racing this spring. Will be a first for me so should be interesting.
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Agree completely. The top end seems to evaporate rather quickly. The endurance, and the ability to suffer, does not seem to fall away with the same speed.
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Soooo, I haven’t ran since June 3, 2018, and my friend just convinced me this would be our one crazy thing this year…
On June 3 of last year it was a half Ironman. The year before that it was a 50k trail run with over 2k elevation.
I’m scared. And maybe should start running a tiny bit again.
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Looks supercool. Quite high up in the mountains. Still decent time till September. Get your shoes but don‘t overdo it in the first trainings…
That’s a huge relative difference between easy and hard paces. Imagine how pedestrian 4:50/k must feel when you’re capable of running the paces he does!
I’ve also been running by duration this season instead of by distance. I think it takes the incentive off the table to run faster at times since that just means you’ll have to run further.
My last few months have been a very consistent but boring period of just zone 2. These next 8 weeks will be very polarized for me, 2 short power style interval sessions on the bike and 1 billat up to 1min interval duration for the run.
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I think that generally works better and can take terrain out of the question when training.
It’ll be interesting to see how that goes. Is it new to you or is it a strategy you’ve tried before?
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Most training plans do that - duration is prime, distance is only used for (some) intervals.
The main difference to, say, TR-style power-based cycling training is that you need a lot of Zone 2 training when running, otherwise you’re going straight to injury city (at least at my age). This volume is slow, HR-based only, pace irrelevant, and you learn to just let your brain wander away… That’s something you don’t get on a bike, because you need to be more focused just to stay on the road.
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Earlier last year started with TR and was training for Sprint and for the first time ended up with a knee injured. Took a few weeks off and got back to SBLVI in Sept but continued with 80/20 ish running, knee started to bother again. Finally decided to do only HR Zone 2 running since Dec. Going into month 3, no pain, gaining fitness on the bike and Jan 1 did a last minute unprepared 5K and was 3 sec shy of my PR. I am really buying into the Z2 for running and starting to see my pace pick up for the same HR. This year targeting a Sprint in September, but will sprinkle a couple 5Ks and 1-mile open water swim race prior as gauges.
I ran it once before in 2007. It was truly an awesome experience and the crowds definitely helped push me along.
This is the 3rd iteration of trying to meld short power build and XCO specialty with the prescribed intervals from the Mid volume OLY tri plan. First year… I just said I couldn’t do the running intervals since I wasn’t used to doing that sort of indoor work on the bike, so most of my intensity from the run was progression runs on some of the long runs I did, but I did do a few of the prescribed sessions if I felt good. Last year I tried to focus more on getting my run up to speed, and committed more to doing the run intervals, and the rest were just zone 2 runs, except bricks which I usually did at race pace 2-4 miles. I do almost all of my runs with my dog, and I was too stubborn to think he might be holding me back, but there were a few times where I just couldn’t get up to speed. More of the change this year is on the bike, instead of hammering it on the weekends, doing more z2 endurance rides with maybe a single strava segment attempt, instead of trying to PR all the segments I came across. I circled the workouts I thought were most important, and converted all the rest to z2 endurance work. We’ll see how it goes, just started build.
@GregH Nice running and a great time 
@JulianM, thanks!
I’m very chuffed with 2:39. Just shows that even after running marathons for nearly twenty years, hard work, smart training and patience can still pay off with new PBs!
Now for a few days off before starting Ironman training in earnest…
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It’s always good when a plan comes together!
IM training can be pretty time consuming but training for a marathon, especially at that pace, is brutal on the body so it might feel a bit easier in a way for a while! If you don’t mind sharing what sort of distance were you running and what kind of sessions did you focus on?
I think Ironman training will feel easier in some ways! And I’m itching to get that FTP inching upwards again.
I tried to do good intervals every week, say 6x800s, or 5x1k, using Daniels running formula as my target pace guide.
Other than that, since the start of the year I tried to alternate weekly long runs, say 28 to 32k at easy pace, with weekly long runs including a substantial time at marathon pace. The longest such workout I did was 30k with 18k at marathon pace.
Most weeks I tried to do a midweek easy medium long run of 18k to 22k. Other runs were just short and easy, treadmill or the odd trail run.
My maximum weekly volume was 90k - not that much really, but past experience tells me I start to break down if I stay consistently close to 100k.
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Thanks for sharing. Much appreciated.
I find those type of long runs tough. Lots of time at race pace and especially fast finish type long runs ruin my legs and take a good bit of recovery. They tend to compromise the rest of my training week so I use them judiciously!
Hi all!
Currently in training for my Staffordshire 70.3. Last weekend i did the Leicestershire half marathon and ran a PB time of 1:40:54. My previous PB was 1:50 so very happy with that!
I have a 20 mile race in 4 weeks time so continuing to build distance for that
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