TR 2020 Running Thread

Yea I actually looked forward to the workout today

Just got back from my second group run this year, easy pace in the sweltering London heat.

I think Im looking forward to a run block. Short distances though.

Yes… I think I want a 10k to 1/2 run build block.
I want to see if i can get back to 1:22 half…

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My take on it is that while inflammation has been linked to the cellular adaptation process, it is not super clearcut, as far as I know is a realm of research still in its infancy. So I’d rather put my money on increasing the amount and quality of training, and anecdotally, whenever we can accomplish that with an athlete (often through either better sleep, nutrition, or time management/planning) that’s one of the safest ways I know of to improve performance. So when foam rolling is a tool that potentially can do this for an athlete (placebo effect or not), I would choose to use this. That’s just my opinion though, and I don’t think there’s any clearcut answer either way.

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How would you guys structure a run focused block for the triathlons/ironman. Struggling to find any examples. Any guidance from anyone who has done one ?

Essentially I moved all the intensity to running - three hard days per week tempo, interval and long (not slow). Three or four easy days swim or bike, either 1-1.5h easy or an hour session with intervals maximum at threshold. Moderate strength work.

A fourth hard day with say bike vo2 intervals affected my run quality too much, not necessarily the next session but usually the long run. I tried doubling up vo2 intervals run and bike same day, which I could do but still felt it come long run day.

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Thank you very much for your help. How long of a block did you do ?

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Think it was twelve weeks, then Covid distracted me from training. I’m a weak runner, so I would likely see gains from any focus and consistency, but this protocol got my half marathon PB down from 1h57 to 1h50 about 8 weeks in along the way and was on track to give me a 3h45 marathon a month later off 4-5h weekly running.

I’m considering adjusting this for Q1 next year into an Ironman run focussed plan, given that TR has given me a bike focussed plan for many years now.

Personally I think the better a runner you are, the more you need to focus on swim/bike. Sadly, I’m a terrible runner :laughing:

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yeah i am not a great runner either. Looking to dramatically bring my run up. I might do a run block now. Then short bike block over christmas and run block feb 21

Does running has a more positive impact on cycling then the other way around?

I agree avoiding anything above threshold on the bike during a run focused block is a good idea. The exception being if you are a short course athlete. Then I would keep some work above thresh but keep it shorter and schedule carefully around the run work.

I would avoid this unless you are doing a micro-block to bust a plateau, but the cumulative stress would be hard to cope with if you try maintaining this long term. Particularly given the additional toll run VO2 work takes on the body, adding bike VO2 on top of that will lengthen recovery time as you mentioned. One option though is to shift bike intensity over to the swim. Especially if you are a weak swimmer.

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In my experience, yes. A good runner can be a decent cyclist…maybe not the most powerful, but if you can run a sub 3hr marathon with light bike adjustment and runner can do a half century no problem…

I will look at what I was doing, but I think I was doing a Olympic build when I was getting ready to Boston… Not sure if that was the best of choice. I was riding 3x a week and running 4…

In 2019 I was doing a similar plan but all the rides were were outdoors all for a marathon in April (Toledo) I did ok, but much slower that I would have wanted… Ended with 3:04:xx, while the goal was 2:57

I would reset back to base for bike work during a run focused block. Potentially a good time to do a sweet spot progression as well. That lets you limit intensity and emphasize TTE so you can boost your endurance, while still maintaining bike fitness, before getting back into heavy bike work.

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We started with ss as we were ramping running miles… One we got the the final 16 weeks we didn’t want to affect the running wo… And we were trying to hit 50 miles per week plus bike wo… So we did based Olympic low volume… Then covid happen and we stopped

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Seeing some promising results already in week 2 of adding in the ILTHR work - - did 2x20’ at 4:10/4:14 per km at 151/152 AVG HR vs 4:16/4:20 per km at 152 AVG HR for both 2x15’ intervals last week (also had a second 1x25’ session last week, will do 1x35’ later this week). Definitely feels more challenging than it should at that HR, but all my Easy build up and other Easy runs are at around 135 HR or less - - feels good to run a little faster though. :grinning:

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To follow up with what @JoeX said, just shifting your quality session focus to running should get you in the right direction. This week has me on the bike for 2 days as we are coming to the end of season on want need my bike fitness to be sharp anymore so I like to increase run volume in the fall with better temps.
May do 3 rides/week later but with segment hunting on a century that would be hard to recover with.
This is my week for example, 2 running workouts backed up by E pace volume.

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IMO, if you want to do a true run block you’ll want to bring everything else back quite a bit into basically just maintenance mode and be running at least 6 days a week. A popular plan for triathletes is the “Barry P” plan which has been brought up on this forum at various points, but originated and has most of the information stored on the Slowtwitch forums. I haven’t used it myself, but it’s a pretty easy plan to follow if you’re looking for something straight forward. It pushes more towards high frequency vs. high volume (at least starting out) so it does lend itself well to triathlon in that regard, but I’d still suggest if you want to focus on the run to really focus on it until you get to a point where you’re comfortable and can adequately recover from bringing other stuff back in later–this is with the assumption that you have quite a bit of time before you’re going to be racing of course. :slight_smile:

ETA: there was a post from former pro Jordan Rapp on a recent “6 month focus” ST thread and he found that his run focused blocks seemed to “stick” the most - - everyone’s different of course, but something to consider. :wink:
https://forum.slowtwitch.com/forum/?post=7310542#p7310542

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Don’t mean to sidetrack the thread… but…

Any recommendations for a road / easy trail, neutral shoe sub £110 ~ $160? Under 8-9 ozs if possible?

Ive been running road and dry trail in Nike Pegasus 35 and 36 this year. Zoom Structure as well for variety.

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