Tuesday, April 5, 2011

MS Heat Tri Clinic-The Run

It has taken me a little while to get a chance to write this blog post – my apologies.  If you would like to read the first two installments – The Swim and The Bike.

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Training Plans

I did not wake up on my own the last day of the clinic.  I was snoozing hard.  I got a knock on the door and had to scramble.  I was tired from the day before. 

The first session of the day (during breakfast) was “What’s really important for Triathlon Run Training.” 

The key take away from this session was to work backwards from the run.  If you are underperforming the run during your half or full ironman it simply means that you are cooking the swim and and bike.  It is necessary to temper the swim and bike until you are able to successfully run in a triathlon.

What does this mean?  If you are a strong runner then your half ironman marathon should only be approximately 7 percent slower than your stand alone half marathon (if elite then about 3%).  For me this means 1:27:30 x 1.07 = 1:33:40).  The best that I have even run in a half is 1:45 (after blowing up – go figure).

So to achieve these time goals it is necessary to back off of the swim and the bike until the half ironman run times come down.  This is hard to do!

Everyone wants to push as hard as possible during the swim and then push even harder during the bike.  How many people have you passed on the run that tell you how they nailed the bike?  I have passed plenty.

This approach should pay dividends to the disciplined.


The sponsor support for this clinic was through the roof.  There were raffle drawings and contest throughout the weekend.  I was able to answer a question regarding the winners of Kona (yeah, a no brainer) and won an entry into the Tri-4-Life triathlon in September.  I have never done the race but it is now on the docket.  I also won the very last door prize – a new pair of K-Swiss shoes.  Now here is the cool part, the shoes were not in my size but I could exchange them for my size.  I leaned back and asked Darryl if Stinky Feet (the shoe store that donated the shoes) was open on Sunday.  He said nope but that he had the keys.  He said that he would meet me at the shop in a couple of hours because he needed to clean up.  I said, “Why don’t I help with the clean up and then we can head over to the shop?”  So after we got everything straightened up we headed over the the shop.  Let me tell you, this is a cool shop.  If you are in Flowood you should check it out.

k-swiss

After I got the shoes Darryl and I went back over to the swim sight to put away some gear.  The day earlier I had realized that I had forgot my suit after the Friday night session.  I thought I would inquire at lost and found.  As luck would have it my suit was still hanging in the locker room, drip dried.

Once again, I cannot explain how well run and how much fun I had at the event.  I will be first in line for any future Tri Clinics pout on by MS Heat.

5 comments:

Caratunk Girl said...

Hey tell them to put on a clinic in New England! It sounded awesome, thanks so much for the recap. So nice your suit was there! Dried too, how nice!

Matty O said...

Great post James.

Probably one of the most valuable pieces of information that I have taken from you to date... well, there are plenty, one being follow the plan haha, but this one about the run.

I understand how critical it is to pace yourself properly to be able to actually run the half marathon in the TRI, or even for the full.

Our goal is to stick to the 1min walk approach and that is it.

Thanks for the recap, great information!

Michael said...

That really sounds like an awesome clinic. Shoes and a race entry - that's certainly worth it even if the training was bad - but it sounds like it was great too!

Francine said...

Sounds like a great experience! Glad you enjoyed it and learned a lot. And I know how much you were in need of another pair of shoes. I've been concerned about your feet.

Kurt @ Becoming An Ironman said...

So according to that, the run of my half iron should be 1:41 (7:42 pace). We shall see how THAT goes soon enough.