Hi TheEd - thanks for checking in. I've been getting some more consistency this month and things are getting back to normal as you expected.
Long runs around 13/14k on Sundays. The weekly total is around 35k. The structure has had to move a bit as I'm doing an open water swim once a week and that will become an evening group activity from next month, so things are shuffling around a bit, but it's all good fun.
The runs are currently something like:
- Long run Sunday
- 4-5k tempo Monday or Weds (either just after the OW swim or earlier in the day)
- Easy 8k somewhere
- Intervals session somewhere
- The odd ROTB if I can fit one in
The challenge is that two rides a week are really quite intense. One is threshold and one is VO2. These are hard - e.g. Tuesday's ride was 8x3 mins VO2 where each interval had the HR up in the 160s or nudging 170. But the body seems to be absorbing it so I hope it is making me fitter.
Garmin's 5k prediction has come back down from 21 mins to 20:18 as of this morning.
I've been doing 1/2/3k intervals at something like 4:20/4:25 pace which I think is around my threshold. Then if I do a 400s session they are faster like 3:50.
I did 7x1k this morning with 1 min easy between the intervals. They were all around 4:20 pace (1st one 4:26, last one 4:14) and the max HR on the last one was 168 (lower 160s for the others) and the average HR was 150s). It was a solid session but felt pretty good.
So I think I'm doing ok training, and Garmin's prediction is moving in the right direction, but I *feel* I am some way from holding 4:04 pace for 4k which was what I did in the 4k test about 6 months ago.
Hi TheEd, ok so the tri on Sunday went fairly well. I came in 8th out of 56 in my age cat, which was definitely better than expected.
- The swim was choppy and tough - 7/56
- The bike felt good - 16/56 (I might get a TT bike soon which will change things...)
- The run was hard but I felt I paced it ok and didn't have much left by the end - 7/56.
The run time was 21m51s so about 4:22/km pace.
This was made harder (slower) because of:
1. I stopped to sort out my shoe (tongue was twisted). Probably didn't cost much time but felt like an eternity!
2. The way out was along a beach path and the way back was along a road which was quite a bit higher up, so there were some steps / steep hill to get up to the road.
My current target is to be able to run a sub 21 minute 5k in a tri.
Based on recent training that pace seems about right though. I feel a 5k in a tri is about a minute slower than a standalone 5k and as mentioned before, I don't feel my form has been that amazing.
Garmin says my threshold pace is 4:19 at the moment and I also feel like that's the sort of pace I end up being able to hold in a 5k in a tri.
13-12-2024, 10:03 AM (This post was last modified: 13-12-2024, 10:49 AM by GavMoon.)
Now for the training. I've been having a recovery week this week and then I have 8 weeks until the next one so quite a good chunk of time. The weekly load will be:
- 1 swim
- 1 strength session
- 3 rides (1 VO2 intervals, 1 threshold intervals, 1 easy)
- 4 runs
I'm planning to try to get more rest / sleep as well as I wonder if that has been holding me back a bit.
In terms of the running, what I had in mind for the 4 sessions was:
- 1 easy long (13-15k)
- 1 intervals 400s, 1k, 2k, 3k intervals etc (7-10k)
- 1 easy (8k)
- 1 easy or maybe slightly faster like "steady" or tempo or threshold (7-10k)
So 35-40k a week.
That's what I was thinking, but I would love some guidance please. Any suggestions on the overall structure or some individual sessions you'd recommend? Would you like me to do another 4k?
08-01-2025, 12:33 PM (This post was last modified: 08-01-2025, 12:41 PM by GavMoon.)
Hi TheEd, two updates from my side.
First, the current training approach. I've been trying a few new angles:
1. Consistently close to 40k per week with every 4th week easier/less. (If I'm honest with myself I was up and down a bit week to week.)
2. Longer intervals sessions (not faster though). I've been doing more stuff like 2 mile and 1 mile reps (around 4:15 pace), for a total of around 8k of intervals. So these runs are 10-12k now.
3. Strength work after 3 of the runs - just some calf raises, lunges and hamstring work for a few mins.
4. Trying to rest and recover more - food, sleep, foam rolling, stretching. This is a challenge with work and kids but let's see.
So the typical week is now something like:
- Sunday - Easy long 14-15k
- Tuesday - Intervals as described above. Might be 400s or 1k intervals sometimes too.
- Wednesday - easy 8k
- Friday - easy with some "steady" which might be 2x10 mins or 4k steady, around 4:40 pace.
The second update is that I did a 4k test this morning and it came in at 15:52. I was happy and surprised with this. Looks like we're in business!
A quick run down of how it went:
- This was a full effort - mentally I had all the nerves and anticipation of a race.
- Didn't think I could beat the 16:16 from last time (was it May?)
- First 500m were close to 4:00 pace and I didn't feel too bad and suddenly thought it might be possible - maybe a 4:02 overall.
- 1st km was about 4:03
- 2nd km I concentrated on running efficiently and pushing on. Brought the average down to about 4:00
- 3rd km I didn't want to fade, so pushed harder. Average came down to 3:59. It was starting to get really hard now, but seeing I might break 16 mins was a big motivator.
- 4th km was super hard. I wanted to stop, I wanted to cry. I felt I wasn't getting enough air in my lungs. Brought the average down to 3:58.
I was surprised because it seems that despite mostly training at 4:15 pace, I've become better at running 4:00 pace.
It was also important for me mentally to see that 4:00 is not a ceiling. I've been aiming for a 20-min 5k for so long now I almost started to believe I'd never go under 4:00 pace.
Any comments or advice welcome!
ETA: HR was above 180 for a good chunk of the 4k. Peaked at 185. This is a new max. Garmin's auto detection had put my max HR in the mid-170s over the last month or so.
this is nice to read GM .. you have well and truly got the interval distance up, if going onto the 5 x 2k try to organise someone who can at least run 3 of the 2000's with you
nice to be in sub 16 shape for 4km .. quite well paced
try to set-up a 2 week schedule so you don't push hard each week
