Learning From Experience - RUNNING

Since my run hasn’t changed much, I’ll share a little history before stepping into this one =) 

Running was my only background prior to triathlon. I ran in high school and learned various training methods from my coaches. After graduating, I quit running to focus on weight lifting. A year later, my friend got a stress fracture 2 weeks before her marathon and I took her registration. I hadn’t run that entire time and trained 12 days for the race. I ran a 3:13, and that has remained my PR… Completing the marathon was my first big step towards an Ironman.

12 vs. 24 Year Old Matt

When I started my official Ironman training 4 years later, I had 2 specific run goals. Run a 20-miler 3 weeks before the race and average under 8:00/mile on every training run.  After gaining some experience, I will hit 20 miles multiple times and no longer target a minimum average pace. My easy runs are usually under 7:30 but heartrate now dictates easy pace.

So what has actually changed?

Multiple Long Runs – For my first triathlon season, I started at zero mileage. This is why I took 8 months to slowly ramp up to one 20 mile run before the race. Now that I have a strong base, I can work up to 20 miles quickly and sustain the higher mileage. While I’m in peak training for Tulsa, I will be running a marathon. This marathon will be treated as another training run without much of a taper. I would like to break 3:00 as a confidence boost and gauge my Ironman run pace, but my main objective is to KQ at Tulsa.

Not Setting an Arbitrary “Slowest” Pace – Why I told myself to not train slower than 8:00/mile is beyond me. I was focused on counting the miles rather than making the miles count! I’ve said it in my last 2 posts and I’ll say it again. Intervals make a huge difference. For running I do: fartleks, mile repeats, tempo/threshold runs, long runs and ACTUAL easy runs. Logging the miles is relatively easy; the real work is done through structured workouts.

Heartrate Training – That first year of training, my body struggled with recovery. This was partly due to starting from scratch, but I also learned something else. A common mistake (guilty) is making easy runs too hard and hard runs too easy. The training gets blurred together and the body isn’t recovering well or being worked enough. When I actually focus on running in Zone 2 (under 155BPM for me), it’s slow but I can hold that pace forever. On the other end, I held an average heartrate of 170bpm in a recent half marathon. This tells me that I should target at least that high when training at threshold pace.

Key Takeaways:

My first Ironman run was a 3:47 (respectable I thought). That time dropped to a 3:15 after increasing mileage and becoming more diligent with my workouts.

Easy runs need to be EASY so the body can recover properly.

For those high intensity workouts, the body needs to be strained enough so it can adapt to the high stress.

Running is my strongest of the 3 disciplines, and I’d love to share more if there are any questions. If you’ve made it this far in my blog post, you may be interested in a book plug. Daniels’ Running Formula is an AWESOME resource for runners. It goes above and beyond anything I could try to teach and dives into doing the minimum work with maximum payoff. Highly recommend. If you’re local, I’d be happy to lend my copy!

Next week will focus on more general changes I have made to my training as races. Nutrition, Transitions, etc… Till next week!