Last night was our opportunity to host Jordan Rapp here in Lexington. It turned out to be a great event for local triathletes interested in training and racing, especially for long distance triathlon.
Jordan focused his talk on Nutrition, Racing and Pacing. After going through his talk he spent almost 2 hours answering any question athletes had for him. One of the topics that came up was his thoughts on what the long run should look like during an Ironman training program.
Jordan’s thought: The long run should not be longer than 2 hours.
Athlete Question: Why should the long run not be longer than 2 hours when marathon programs have you train for 2:30, 2:45 or longer?
The response that Jordan gave was – biomechanics. The idea is that when a runner runs too long they begin to break down from a run mechanics point of view, which in turn has a negative impact on the training outcomes. The proposed benefit of running “the distance” is not of any benefit when the person can not maintain pace and form. The concept of nothing over two hours is just an observation that he’s made reviewing training habits of age groupers and their ability to remain strong towards the end of a long run workout.
Athlete Question: Isn’t that what Ironman is about, trying to be strong while you are beginning to break down?
The reply to that line of thinking was – We don’t need to practice breaking down, that is something we can all do. In training we are trying to become more fit and improve running ability. When we continue to run after breaking down in the long run, we are not providing a training stimulus that helps us become more fit. We also start to create poor habits and patterns in our running when we go “too long”.
My thoughts on the subject
If you follow my coaching and training thoughts, then it probably doesn’t come at a surprise that I agree with this training principle 100% (the idea of not running too long).
Many of the coaching principles that I use (and that take time to convince and educate athletes on) are centered around this very concept. I have found over the years that most age groupers think they can run longer then they really can and that they put too much emphasis on the value that running long has on their overall training program.
This is such an important issue in marathon and triathlon that my very first podcast was on the subject: http://www.endurancebasecamp.com/001-the-long-run-in-a-marathon-program/
Principles that I use for coaching runners and triathletes include things like:
1. Double long strategy
2. Run / Walk strategy
Both of these are used in order to provide the athlete with a quality run experience and still obtain run volumes that they may need to meet their racing objectives. This is true for marathon runners and also true for triathletes.
How this applies to other parts of triathlon training:
Don’t do all of your run training off the bike! Brick workouts are important (very important) but you also need to have runs within your training program that will improve your running fitness and your running economy/mechanics.
The mistake I see too many triathletes make (especially at half and full Ironman distances) is that they schedule the long run, they schedule some brick workouts, then they fill in their run schedule with “easy runs”. A major problem unless you already have significantly more run fitness than swim and bike fitness. But even if that is true, many triathletes would benefit from scheduled time in their week where they work on run mechanics.
How often do you do drills when you have a swim workout? Many people do swim drills 2 or 3 times a week, if not more. Why are you not working on your run technique?
Going back to the point of running while tired, it is very difficult to practice running well when you are always running tired.
Final Thoughts:
Quality of training matters! My father used to have a saying:
Practice doesn’t make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect!
At the time I wasn’t quite sure what it meant, but I tried to use that idea as I practiced my TaeKwonDo forms over and over and over. I didn’t really accept the idea that being perfect was required even in practice, but I tried use the principle as I shot 1000’s of free throws and 100’s of three pointers at the church gym or on the playground.
As a coach that tries to motivate individuals to run better and race smarter, there is a lot of value in learning how to run – and not just running to log minutes and miles. To start learning to run better, you don’t need to break yourself down first.
