RUN TO THE FINISH: BUILD SPEED, FINISH STRONG
By Amy Kuitse USA Triathlon Level I Certified Coach
recovery running in between sets. Increase the time of the effort up to
four minutes and then decrease the rest between efforts down to one minute. Progression in the time of the effort and then the rest between should be based on how your athlete is responding to workouts from week to week. I like the use of a heart rate monitor (hrM) for the run; however, it may be easier for the athlete to complete the sprint workout based on rPe initially because of the time it takes to increase the heart rate in the short efforts.
A
s triathlon coaches, we have all heard the following comments somewhere along the way with people we coach,
at local tri team meetings, or out on a long Sunday group run: “I just survive the run because I’m not a runner. I’m just going to ride as hard as I can and use whatever I have left for the run.” The run portion of triathlon does not
have to be about survival. The run is tough regardless of distance because it comes after athletes have already swam anywhere from 300 yards to 2.4 miles, and biked 12 to 112 miles, depending on the distance of the race. It does not have to be a “sufferfest” because someone has opted not to work on his or her run. It is a common challenge to help improve
our athletes’ speed, keeping times for speed work and pacing relative to them, and helping them to see gains in their fitness through their speed work. Among the three sports the run is the place where the body absorbs the most stress on the joints, tendons and ligaments. This occurs because of the fatigue placed
on the body as our athletes work their way from the swim-bike portion of training/ racing and onto the run. So, in talking about key workouts we also need to mention several other keys that allow us to perform speed work and enhance our ability to tolerate the physical burden and stress placed on our fatigued bodies once we get to our final aspect of our event — the run.
Core strength is not just for a good
looking set of abs. Through core work the athlete increases his or her strength, power, stability and flexibility to help stabilize and keep the body upright through the act of running. Core work helps the athlete save energy, and with this increased body control our running motion is more efficient. Another key element is the cadence or stride rate of our athlete. Without going into much detail, there is great benefit in having your athletes work on their running stride. We must consider the fact that higher stride turnover tends to mean less landing shock, greater efficiency and less injury potential. These factors alone ought to warrant a look at our athlete’s stride rate. When considering the different running
distances of the various triathlon events, we want our athletes to maintain a high stride rate while they are performing workouts like the ones listed below. These workouts are something the athlete progresses to, not something to start with. They should be modified for rest and pace based on the individual athlete. They could be done on the track or set-up on a road course, but must be based on our athletes pacing from a previous workout or a recent 5k or 10k. In any case, these sample workouts are ones that the athlete builds up to and has been conditioned and physically prepared to tolerate.
SPRINT 4 x (1:00 5k pace, 2:00 easy). repeat this a total of 3 times with 5 minutes of easy
OLYMPIC 4-8x800 – initially starting with equal rest following each 800. As the athletes fitness improves the number of repeats increases to 8 with the goal for 1 and 2 to be at race pace, 3-6 to be 10 seconds faster than race pace, and 7 and 8 to be max effort. The rest between the max number of repeats stage would alternate 30-60 seconds between.
HALF-IRON DISTANCE Ladder as follows – 800 on 45 seconds rest – 1,200 on 60 seconds rest – 1,600 on 2 minutes rest – 1,600 on 2 minutes rest – 1,200 on 60 seconds rest – 800. The goal is for the athletes pacing to be such that they run equal or negative splits on the backside/ descending portion of the ladder.
IRON DISTANCE 6-8 mile repeats using the most recent 10k time to determine pacing with 2-4 minutes recovery.
for any of these workouts the repeat
and interval should be established relative to the athletes pacing and fitness. getting faster means running faster; it simply means having to work on speed on the track or on the roads. As the coach, it means structuring the workouts so athletes can accomplish the workout effectively, gain confidence and experience a positive change in their fitness.
Amy Kuitse is a USA Triathlon Level I Certified Coach and coaches with D3 Multisport. You can reach her at
amy@d3multisport.com
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