Running off the bike

You seem to run decent distances, but how much do you bike? You might not just be up to the endurance on the bike and your body is sore from biking.

Practice bricks. I don't know the exact long term benefit from doing bricks, but at least you are practicing what you will do in the race. If you long runs are 12k and your long bike is 30k, then I wouldn't do those back to back, but try 10-20k bike, followed by a 5k run and do that every now and then.

cycling fitness and pacing.


your run training is going to set you up to run X time.

your bike training is going to determine what % of that time you are able to run.

running more will help some, but to an extent it really is about the bike. it doesnt matter if you can run a 15min 5k, if you come off the bike trashed, your day is over. the more you can bike and bike at the speeds you want and not be fried, the faster you will run afterward.

I never thought to include bike info in my post.  I only ride 2 or 3 times per week - long ride is 40-50km, I do a 15km time trial (all out) ride once per week with the cycling club, and usually some other kind of tempo/interval ride. 

Total bike distance per week is somewhere around 65-75 km.

My bike splits are definitely slower than my time trial (all out) efforts.  About 4 km/h slower, so I thought this pacing would be adequate for helping me run better....?

Any tips on how to pace yourself on the bike??If I race hard and feel like I had a good bike, I'm also struggling on the run. Increased bike fitness will lead me to a faster bike split but still a struggle on the run if I'm still working at the same 80% or whatever on the bike. Do I pace myself for the entire ride. Avoid certain things like grinding up hills, etc. Do I take it easy or ride differently for a certain amount of time prior to T2, or the entire race? Any help appreciated.

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Glad to hear it. Trying to work on the bike fitness and counting on that to be true. Haven't spent a lot of time studying and the training theory which is one of the reasons I like this site. I knew I needed help ever since I realized my wife was right and I needed to slow down on the run in order to get better. Just didn't seem logical.

it works like this, in simple terms;

the better your cycling fitness, and the more training you have done geared (he he), at your race distance, the less that will take out of you, or the harder you can push % wise and not be tanked afterwards, and the quicker you will recover.

as a personal example, through my last two years of racing, i have gone from being able to hold 88% of my threshold power on the bike (and still run well), to sitting at or just over my threshold power, and still running well (in sprint races, with threshold being hour TT pace).

run times have gotten faster off the bike through this time even with open runs not getting much faster.

the better trained you are, the harder you can push and not have it kill you. pacing wise in a sprint tri for me now looks someehting like a cross between drooling down my chin, and wanting to puke.
i do up the cadence and shift into a gear or two easier in the last half mile just to spin the legs out a bit and this helps some.

I've had a similar experience so far, and I agree with the posters who've said more time on the bike.  Its not fast by any means, but I usually have no problem holding around 8 min pace for a 5 mile training run, but come 5K sprint I'm lucky to pace at 8 min miles.  I bust my arse on the bike portion, but my legs are junk after.  I found this site, and realized that it is definitely due to lack of time on the bike. 

Once I found this site I realized I need to do more of everything.....thank you for that.  I think. 


Edited by jammers 2009-07-09 7:53 AM

newbz and others have already covered it really well.  Pacing well on the bike will give you a better opportunity to run well off of it.  But having low bike fitness means that you are going to expend a lot in a race.  Riding more definitely helps.

1. run more (easy, short, hard, long)
2. cycle more (steady/tempo, hard, long)
3. pace better during the bike when racing
4. do a few bricks/race rehearsals before race day
5. have fun.

There, that's the secret; don't go around telling everyone!