Doing mostly easy runs...

rexcoltrain - 2011-01-22 10:16 PM I was in the same boat with my achilles last year.  10 miles at a slower pace felt better than 1 mile at tempo.  I added a lot of volume through frequency and still made great gains in my pace.  Look at the other forum for a guy named barryp and check out his runnng plan...I think there's a link in his signature.

JoshKaptur - 2011-01-25 4:18 PMAdd me to the list of BarryP apostles.

I followed his advice as closely as I could, and had a fantastic long course debut.  You'll note BarryP is a huge fan of the weekly 4-6 mile tempo run (after you have built a big base)... but the marathon-pace 8-10 mile run is a favorite alternative for long-course athletes.

If it causes pain (not oh this is hard pain, but rather I'm afraid I'm about to get injured pain), don't do it.  You're far better off toeing the line injury-free on lots of LSD runs than injured with some speedwork on your resume.

tbcoffee - 2011-01-22 6:07 PM Hey everyone!  I'm signed up for my first HIM in May in Orlando and am using the 20week HIM plan here on BT.  It does call for a tempo run every week or two, but I am thinking of doing these at my goal race pace.  Reason is my ankles and Achilles have been hurting for a while but they feel a lot better when I keep it on the easier side.  Distance/duration doesn't bother them half as much as harder runs do and I usually can tell by the next morning.  I'm just wondering if I still have a chance to hit my goal pace during the race if I keep all my runs at or slightly faster than race pace.

Also, the plan seem to not have enough frequency for runs and I thinking of adding some 1-2 runs per week and keeping them at an easy pace...30-45min maybe.  What does everyone think?   

My logs are current...well except for the past 5 days or so but I'll put them in...so feel free.  Not sure if you need more info, but please ask!   Thanks!

tasr - 2011-01-26 8:42 PM

A few things;
 
Adjusting a plan is alright on in my book.  You find what works for you.  For me tempo and fast runs are the bomb, long runs tear me up.  I ignore pain but not injury.  Pain for more than a few days tends to be injury.  Maybe you need to look at something in post run recovery.
 
Good luck, oh btw that JoshK guy did great on his IMLP run this past year.

JoshKaptur - 2011-01-28 1:16 PM Thanks for the kudos.  I attribute my run success to a few things:

1) the BarryP training philosophy... I ran a lot more than most IMers in my prep (and took a bit of grief for it from well-meaning armchair coaches), but never any really long runs.  I was running everyday, sometimes with doubles.
2) proper bike pacing.  I really stayed within myself on race day... my splits were almost identical.
3) HARD bike training.  Unlike the running plan, I killed it on the bike.
4) weight loss - this was a huge factor for me... I was at an all time low as an adult... by almost 60 pounds.

If training stress (necessary for improvement) = duration x effort, with injury being the wild card that determines how I train, that looks like this for me:

1) bike = leaning heavily towards HARD effort... often just 2 short rides and one longer ride a week.
2) run = leaning heavily towards duration (broken into 7-9 weekly runs)... almost all of it easy.  I generally did one "workout" (tempo or marathon pace run) per week, and it was not long.
3) swim = I do not suggest following my swim plan... I swam as little as possible for the sake of run/bike training.

Some people's bodies seem to tolerate/recover from shorter/harder run volumes (for approximately the same workload) than me... YMMV.  That's exactly how I train on the bike, but something I can't take on the run.

And just for some perspective... my previous open marathon PR was 3:46 (no biking or swimming that year)... so a debut IM marathon of 3:32 was really a breakthrough performance for me.  Barry doesn't know it, but I owe him a night of beers if we ever meet.