Slornow's and Wannabefaster's Summer Mentor Group - CLOSED (Page 64)

Jamie-good....but tough question. A general rule I have heard is using your time/pace in running events to calculate a pace for the run leg of a tri. Basically in a sprint you would want to run the pace you might keep in a 10K run only race. In an olympic you would use your HM pace and in a 70.3 you would want to use your marathon pace. For IM......?????? I would say that is an approximation depending on weather conditions and how well the bike leg was paced. For instance, in Milwaukee with nice temps I was shooting for 6:50-6:55 pace in the olympic run. Yesterday with temps approaching 90 I was trying to keep it between 7:05-7:15.

In general we are able to sustain a harder/faster pace in a race than we do regularly in training. On my "hard" run days my intervals will typically be at anticipated race pace. So, for an olympic my interval day might be 2 mile easy warm up then 6-8 sets of 1/2 mile intervals @ 6:50-55 on 1/4 mile super easy recovery followed by a short cool down.  I don't jump right into this workout and will build up to that pace and number of intervals over several weeks. When I do these workouts I always wonder how in the hell I'll be able to maintain my interval pace for a whole race. Sometimes I can't but often the workout paces end up being very close to my pace on race day. For a sprint it would be similar but 1/4 mile intervals @ 6:25-30 pace on 1/4 easy.

Leading into AG Nationals the hardest and most unusual workout I had was an alternating bike/run brick. 25 min bike warm up building into some hard 2 minute intervals toward the end. Then main set was 6 repetitions of 10 min bike @255 watts followed by 1 mile run @ 7 min pace. Of course you could adapt the bike to use HR or RPE. That workout essentially gave me 60 minutes of hard biking at watts a bit higher than I would shoot for on race day and 6 miles of hard running. Very similar to an olympic race for the bike/run. Those types of workouts are brutal but go a long way in preparing you physically and mentally for how you will feel come race day.

I always try to build into the run leg of a race. Ideally my first mile will be my slowest. This allows me to get composed, get my legs moving, shift focus to what is in front of me and to hopefully begin dropping the pace. This also keeps me from blasting out of T2 and paying for it later. Yesterday, I actually stopped at the 1st mile aid station to take in a gel, get some water and pour some over my head. I know that walking of jogging and doing that saves time but in the heat I think taking that short break....maybe 10-20 seconds paid dividends over the remaining miles.  I needed to take the time to make sure I was hydrated and fueled for what lay ahead.

Probably more info than you were looking for but hope it helps.           

In most all races I am able to push harder at the end. Guess the lure of the finish line or the challenge of catching someone allows us to dig deeper. Not always the case as I have had a couple, particularly HIM distance events, where I seriously considered walking when I was in sight of the finish line.....there was nothing left.