Conflicting training goals
2687
Member
1266 days
Anton posted 26 weeks ago.
Running longer builds endurance and is a great base for any distance of tri. You'll find other athletes who regularly run 10 to 13 every weekend and only race sprints. You are also building fitness that will have positive effects across the spectrum of your racing. Most runners consider the "10 miler" every weekend the standard long run on which to build.
Your current sprint training program doesen't have you logging enough miles as it's designed to get you through a sprint not a half.
I vote for staying with your sprint program but increasing your long run to get you through the Half Mary. The problem is you only have three weeks to your half. If you are only running 5 to 6 right now cranking it up to a 10 to 13 is risking injury, as the 10% increase per week rule doesn't like to be broken! I think you should give it a shot, but be careful and don't set a time goal for the half...use it as a long run, not a race.
Let us know how it goes.
"What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?" - Vincent Van Gogh
My Blog: http://anton.trifuel.net
622
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462 days
Iron Dan posted 26 weeks ago.
I fully agree with what Anton. said.
There is not a ton of time to increase your mileage to get yourself fully prepared for the half. Just approach it as a long run and don't try to race it, "racing" it could lead to injury. I would never worry about increasing the distances of a sprint program. I would treat the distances in the plan more as minimums for distances. Just listen to your body and be conscience not to overtrain and you should be good to go.
5
Member
260 days
oldrunner posted 26 weeks ago.
Hi,
I had about the same problem and I skipped the HM. It's worth to spend more time in cycling than running if you want to become a triathlete. However, if you have enough time to train increase your running. But make sure to go into your bike training with "fresh" legs.
2333
Member
1229 days
Triguy98 posted 26 weeks ago.
There is no conflict. You dont need a ton of running days to complete a half. I think it would be in your best interest all around to have a more focused approach to the run, and log more ride days.
People will contest this all they want- but you only need to run three days a week. Everything else is just filler, otherwise known as recovery days. Those recovery days would be better spent on the bike, where the work is less stressful on the body. Does it work? Yes. I've been running three days a week for a few years now. I can run a half mary without any issues. This type of plan was discussed in Runner's Wrold for a marathon as well.
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-244-255-8257-0,00.html
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-244--11816-0,00.html
Life is short. Play hard and get dirty doing it.
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190 days
SG001 posted 26 weeks ago.
Thank you for the responses. I will stay my current course and run the half with the idea of a decent showing but not a race effort. Since I have been running 9-13 miles on my runs days instead of the 5-6 miles the sprint plan would have me run I should be ok for the half. The good news is if I run with my wife I will not be tempted to push too hard.
4404
Member
1624 days
beads1985 posted 26 weeks ago.
I do several marathon a year so I am usually in a cycle of recovery, then base building, then tapering, then race day. My swim and bike training is great cross training. I try to mix up my weekends with different activities.
''Nothing to it, but to do it''
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I am training for my first sprint tri in May. Currently I am following a sprint training plan. On March 30th I will complete a mini indoor tri to see how I do and as prep the actual sprint tri. The problem I have is that the running in the training program is very short (i.e. 30-40 minutes). Since I plan to run a half-marathon on March 9 (with my wife) I don't think my current tri plan has me logging enough running miles. I'm curious if anyone could give me some advice on how to balance my longer runs while training for a sprint which calls for much shorter runs. Are these completely uncompatible? Will my sprint training suffer if I changed the planned runs into to longer runs? The half is not far away and it seems like I should be putting in 10-13 mile runs on my long days instead of 5-6 miles.