SBR Utopia - OPEN (Page 175)

Daniels has me running them at 5:50 min/mi although I usually just target a range between 5:50 and 6:00 min/mi.

I also find I run them much more efficiently if I start out about 5 seconds slower than goal, run the middle at goal, and then finish a bit faster than goal pace.  If I start too fast I get close to blowing up or do blow up .

Thanks. Interesting.

I am terrible at pacing. I did 4x(1200+400 recovery). I wanted to do them at about 6:24/mi = 4min/km

I go out, first 400m at 5:40/mi (3:30/km). Oops. So I figure, heck, try to hang on....and destroy myself

Go out the second, saying "I have to slow down". Go out, don't look at watch and I did it a about 6min/mile (3:45/lm)

Repeat 4 times, all at around 6min/mi which is too fast for me.

getting home is a very steep 2 mile climb. I walked, I was toast. I definitely overcooked it.

I have "GoOutToHardSyndrome" too.  What really helped me for these was to setup a screen on my watch that only does lap metrics.  I have Lap time, Lap pace, last lap and lap distance on there.  I pay attention to the Lap pace field the most for the first of it to try to get in the right rhythm.  This works well for the longer stuff like 1000 or miles but not so much for the 200s and 400s - it's a bit too short for the GPS and watch to figure it out in time.

I had a seriously hard swim at the pool this morning.  Some 300s at a pretty hard pace and then a set of 100s and 125s where they were both on the same pace time.  So, cruise the 100s and then have to bust a gut to make the 125s.

The coach described the full set that he got those from, it was a series where they went 100/125 then 200/250, 300/375, 400/500.  I can't imagine.

I know I've asked this before, but I'll ask again - because I simply too lazy to go back through the thread. 

How many of your runs are you doing as T or I paced runs during a week - one of each, with the rest easy?  I'm currently trying to run 5 times a week, although it's typically coming out as 4 times a week.  It also looks as though my easy pace is too fast, although my HR is relatively low.

"Do what I say, not what I do" applies here. I personally run too fast most of the time. I almost never ran easy and I rarely ran really hard so I am not the right example, BUT, if you follow BarryP on a 6x per week program, I believe the 2 medium runs are where you do Tempo or Interval work or race specific type work.

These days I am much better at doing more speed work, I am doing 1 interval type workout and I do some tempo work within my long run. The rest of my runs should be a bit easier but I have a tendency to get carried away. I am not yet sure if this is good or bad. All my runs are at the aggressive end of McMillan charts. I think I end up paying for this in recovery for other workouts, but not sure.

The tempo runs within the long runs are tough. It's something like 30min normal, then 30min tempo then 30min normal. They are tough.

I might get in two harder runs a week, depends on how I feel. I'm also running every day. I'll do around T-pace much more often than I-pace. Somehow I don't seem to start off too fast, but almost want to go a bit under what I should to make sure I get there, or complete the whole thing. But I'm able to get up to speed quickly enough.

Two hard runs in a week is the most I've done.  That would be one with some T pace and the other might be R, I or another T pace.  The rest are all easy paced runs, possibly with some 30s strides thrown in (but probably not in a week with two hard runs).

This is essentially how I break it down although I have no problem running EZ for my aerobic runs .

The 2nd part of your question: The most effective is from 20-40 minutes at T-Pace. The typical T-pace length prescribed is ~20 minutes although you can vary it. Daniels has an adjustment depending on how long the intervals is. If you want to do an interval of 30 minutes he has you back off the T-Pace something like 5 seconds/mile so that you are able to hit the interval. Or, he has you do cruise intervals which are shorter, multiple repeats (for example 10 minutes) with very short recovery (1-2 minutes) between so that you are able to run at T-pace for a longer period of time.

This is what I do as well. I usually don't run that fast for more than about 20 minutes straight, but will break it up some. The total at the harder effort will still be in the 20-40 minutes though.

Same here, I don't think I've ever had more than 20 mins straight.  I've also done the shorter intervals with a short rest in between them.

I agree with the 20-40 min.

McMillan uses Tempo and Steady State paces. At the 20min end I would use McMillan's Tempo. At the 40min I would use SS.

Just mix it up and experiment. Two weeks ago I did 90min, 45 aer, 25 tempo, 20 aer. I ended up running a good 21km. The week I was supposed to do 30 aer, 3x(10 tempo+5aer) + 15aer but I screwed it up. Next week I will be doing a 100min 50aer, 25 progressive from tempo to threshold + 25 aer. Some days I struggle to hold tempo, other days I run at threshold instead of tempo.

Stage 5 is pretty nice as well....though I hear Stage 6 will be tough!

When you use TR with Hulu, are you able to read the text they have for these rides?  They've developed a pretty nice story line to go along with the tour -- it's been kind of fun to read.  I normally watch something in the background, but for the tour, I've been just putting on music and following the story.

yup, as long as I run it in horizontal mode I get to see all the text. 

FYI, there still are about a dozen new mentor groups that are still open...so again, while I do plan to let Ron know that we will start up agin in the new group area, I'm waiting till most of the groups fill up first.

Let me know when the running conversation ends and we can start talking about power and aerodynamics. 

Well we have correlated run speed to power production before.

But races are won and lost on the run :-)

I would like to know how to best setup my bike to ensure I am getting the maximum power and aerodynamics for using the trainer.  I find I am hitting a lot of wind resistance

if this pic loads, check out how wide the bike lane is here on the cross island road!

Who said anything about winning races.  We bike for show...and last I checked, none of you were winning any prize money from your running...so you run for nothing!  HAH!

I have found that what works best for me is to put my rear wheel in the trainer and then put my trainer up on the coffee table (leaving the front wheel of the bicycle on the floor). This simulated downhill position cancels out any wind resistance you might encounter while on the trainer.

And I put that old myth to rest in my last race. I am fairly certain I lost it on the swim....

Prize money, no. Discounts and trophies, yes.