My L pace is still a bit off what it was when I was doing stand-alone running (like 15sec a rep over an 800!)..
M Pace? I won't even go there! that might leave me in a hole for a few days. :)
L & T pace though is where the bulk of the work for racing really works for me. Can I get it down? Yes but it's a painful process but what the heck? It's mostly out of pride, somebody asked me why I just don't outsplit the field everytime out a year or so ago and the answer was that I hadn't really been doing the work to run decently fast, I'd spent too much time messing around.
Needless to say after a 17.45 5k off the bike in Issaquah on totally crud surface I'm jazzed to keep this form and apply it to something more suitable.
On that note I've seen Triathletes over at Duniway doing all manner of strange workouts; most of it doesn't involve actual running, like 8/10ths of it were drills, strides and the like, seems bizarre to me since, unlike swimming where drills are helpful to fine tune mechanics the only way to get faster running is to, well, run.
Oh well. I won't give away the secrets..
O.k. maybe a little bit, but you'll have to work for it.
Find Greg Bennett's interviews on some of the Tri podcasts.. Or look at Mr. Whitfield's run sked.
They train like the local ringer 10k guy does, same for the girls. Ironman distance folks? Alexander and McCormack are doing the same thing with a long run done at tempo every couple of weeks as a "marker" workout.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
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3 comments:
The only way to swim faster is to swim fast :)
You don't think run drills improve form and efficiency?
I believe running is like swimming in that you can't go fast if unless you are efficient. Wait, let me take that back, you CAN go fast, you just won't last long.
You named some pro triathlete's that are some pretty hardcore runners, I'm sure drill were apart of their program in the beginning.
Few and far are natural badass runners, you sir just happen to be one of the fortunate few :)
McCormack, Bennett, SQW and Alexander were all high school runners.
I can't speak to whether the above do them or not, I can tell you that the athletes that Brett Sutton coaches do not do endless drills. It just doesn't happen.
As far as drills go, well I do about 350yards of drills and strides, that's a small fraction of the 5000m of intervals I run.
What I've got up there is the template for optimixing run performance, you can't roll out of bed and run fast no matter who you are.
As far as the template goes, sure you can tweak here and there.
Outside of the volume being a bit lighter it is not much different then what I did in college to get to Regional and National champs.
The absolute best thing any triathlete can do if they want to improve the run is get to the point where they can run everyday, although they may not.
You know I always default to: Ride for show, run for dough.
You asked about efficiency.
Efficiency is developed mostly internally; on celluar level, e.g. increased mitochrondia, red blood cell count elevated, LT and VO2 numbers up.
Mechanical issues for most seasoned athletes is, if anything, a minor limiter viewed from a macro level.
The Triathletes I saw out there had, in some cases, completed Ironman and had multiple seasons under their belt.
I'm not judging what they were doing, just observing.
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