The Ironman in 2019 thread

That’s pretty quick! Well done.
Most of my brick runs are at an easy pace or progressions of 9:30-7:30 pace. My interval and tempo runs are on non bike days.
I think after doing TR for a while, the legs get used to the lid of the bike rides. I sometimes find the first mile a bit heavy and then get into a rhythm afterwards.

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Do we run bricks at race-pace? I just do them at easy… :grimacing:

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At iron distance race pace is still slower than your marathon pace…but how fast will depend on what plan you’re on and what week, etc.

This is the beauty, and the struggle, of RPE based runs!

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I go by what the instructions say. In mid volume HIM base, there were a few brick runs with instructions to go out too hard. Yesterday’s brick in build said to go out faster than race pace. Like @JoeX said though, because they’re RPE based, the actual pace can vary.

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I tend to do my brick runs at the pace I want to run in the race. I’m looking to run around 3 hours in my next IM race, so I shoot for about 4:15/k pace. That’s assuming up to a 10k or so brick run. On the rare occasion I’ve done a longer brick than that, the pace would be dialled down, more like 4:30 pace.

It makes sense to me to get used to running at goal pace off the bike, both physiologically and mentally.

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For some reason…back before I got shin splints and had to start running exclusively in Z2 ( :frowning: ) I would continually set 5K PB’s after a hard 20K bike. Although, that’s back when I had no idea how to train and would go hard every workout…haha

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I rarely to brick runs at race pace unless it’s near a specific race. I do several sorts of brick run though, mainly for time convenience.

I almost always do Volunteer as a 30 minute easy warm up before my hardest interval run of the week. It serves both the warm up purpose to get the legs moving and getting an extra 30 mins endurance millage for the week.

I had been doing one other ‘speedwork’ run in the build up to the HM I ran which I’ve continued since, either strides or shorter hard intervals and that’s been of the back of the easiest hour ride in whichever plan I was following at the time.

I occasionally do a shortish easy run off my long ride of the week but again this will tend to be as races get nearer. The closest I get to race pace efforts are runs off TT’s. I rode 3 50 and 3 100 mile TT’s last year and running off those (around 5 miles usually) were the best indication of the pace I was capable of come race day.

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Pacing the run off a bike session is tricky for me. Last time i was trying to go easy but was doing a 7mm pace, since i felt good i decided to see what my desired race rpe got me to… but I did keep it short. The first mile or two in a longer distance race will be that mental challenge to go hard enough but not too hard.

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Good luck to @TheBasket and @ccftri who I believe are in the water at IM Texas!

I just caught the end of the male pro swim on FB, waters look calm so hopefully no dramas for our people before the bike.

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How many use heart rate on the run?

I note it as a factor, but it rarely guides my training runs. So if I meant to go out RPE4 and find my heart rate is staying up above what I’d expect , I’ll record it as a 5 or 6 run. Usually it’s lack of sleep, illness or alcohol that’s affected my HR rather than my pace or effort.

Racing can be affected by so much I don’t look at it. At iron distance its not been relevant so far.

Sometimes it helps to ensure you don’t go too fast on easy runs. I never use it to target specific zones or to make myself work harder though.

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Am i the only one? Started out the offseason using a maffetone style max hr for my runs of 140 bpm. Allowed me to have a fairly consistent hr throughout most of my runs without needing to slow down really later in the runs. Bpm has gone down for runs of same rpe, so i do try to make sure im not going too slow sometimes if i didn’t put in some good intervals or increasing mileage. Depends on how i feel at start of run…

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yeah I only use it afterwards to gauge if I really took it easy. it’s a good datapoint next to RPE / pace, and seeing that your HR drops over time for a similar effort is a pretty nice validation of your training.

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I’m generally with @schmidt on HR. I don’t use it at all during training or racing and use either pace or RPE depending on the type of session.

After the fact though it can be a useful metric to help indicate form, fitness and potentially illness or general chronic fatigue as well. Trends over a few runs or weeks I find to be more useful than looking at an individual session though.

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not a stud, but for your final week workouts, I’d do short 50s perhaps mixed with some 100s, all relatively easy and with short rest, 10s (no more than 15s). 20x or 30x50s (alter according if doing some, no more than half, as 100s).

when you add the OWS, if you’ll maintain your thrice-weekly pool swims, not that you asked, but I’d stop doing the long straight distances in the pool and just do them in the open water. if you can, I’d get comfortable with a 3mi open water swim. overdistance on the run isn’t great and can be a drag on the bike, but not for an OWS. get comfortable doing 3mi and 2.4mi will be easier mentally and physically.

I’m with @JulianM and @schmidt. I religiously wear a HR strap but I do not have HR on the two screens I use on my watch (a: distance, elapsed time, pace; b: time of day, elapsed time, pace). I have other screens on my Fenix5x but I just switch between these two for races (ultras to tris) and training.

It seems to me as you become a more experienced runner, you usually know where your HR is. But more importantly, you get a sense of pacing with the same experience.

Just as is often raised on the bike why power is more useful than HR, your HR on the run can fluctuate, making RPE trump HR of the moment.

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that’s about what I was thinking. For the OWS, we have a monthly Splash and Dash 750m/2mi swim/run. the run course bothers my knee, so I usually go early, swim 4 laps, then start w/ the pack, do the one lap and then keep going and try to catch the stragglers
on an additional lap. It’s way up in north Austin, tho, so don’t get up there much

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Hey, I think this training might actually be working beyond just making me tired and cranky all the time :smiley: Had a friend visiting to do a local sportive called Puncheur and did my regular Parkrun the day before. Didn’t kill myself to complete it but still got within seconds of my PB!

On the Puncheur itself I set myself a target of 0.69IF, exceeded it a bit possibly due to the hilly course and still managed a PB up the local hill after 100km! :chart_with_upwards_trend:

My club has our training camp next week. The draft plan has 340-444km of cycling in Mallorca, depending on the group you’re in. 8ish hours of swimming and oddly, not much running :man_shrugging:

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Couple of issues with run/walk you guys and gals might have overcome. In the past I’ve ignored pace which is why it’s not come up for me before. I did 22km, some inconsistency but overall still a 1 min walk break for every 9 minutes run.

  1. Analysing pacing
    Sträva and most other things, record the pace per km. How do you check back to see the graded average pace run section(s) - discounting the walk parts?

  2. Determining RPE for the session
    I was aiming for RPE 4, which I would regard as an easy aerobic pace. Because I did it as run walk though, during the run my pace and HR and perceived effort was at least 6 maybe higher.

Using the overall pace, including the 11 or 12 minutes walking, I did the half marathon only 3 or 4 mins slower than my PB at the Brighton Marathon…

So I must’ve been running too hard right?