19th Sept 2013
Let me start with a quote from the film 'Devil's Advocate'
"Don't get too cocky my boy. No matter how good you are don't ever let them see you coming. That's the gaffe my friend. You gotta keep yourself small. Innocuous. Be the little guy. You know, the nerd... the leper... shit-kickin' surfer. Look at me. "'
Running is natural and something which we have done since the dawn of time. Its a shame that many runners suffer with sore knees, knocks and pains as they crank up the miles. I often wondered why the Romans could easily cover 50 miles a day, perhaps its the surface, running on tarmac as we do just cant be good for the joints.
In my run training I have tried to do some off road running and vary the surfaces I run on. My run plan is very straight forward, I want to get quicker for sprint triathlons and the long distance Ironman. To achieve this in my first 3 months I have incorporated a long steady run, almost like a recovery run, actually I say long but its no more than 9 miles. I try and do a track session every week also, this is where I do my interval training and speed work, for example 8 x400 metres with a 400 metres recovery between each set, on other days I will do 800s or 1km intervals.
These sessions are great for getting your times down. I did a session this week on the track and got my 1km times down to just under 4 minutes. One of my goals is to run a sub 40 minutes 10 km and I have made some decent progress to date. I will let you know what targets I have set myself for all 3 disciplines so you can see the sort of goals I am trying to reach, you might think they are a little unrealistic, for example my 10km goal by Spring 2014 I have set at sub 38 minutes. My best ever 10km was about 5 years ago and was just under 42 minutes! but back then I didn't have any structure to my training.
I want to aim high, maybe that goes against the norm, some people say if you aim too high and you don't get there you will only suffer disappointment. That doesn't wash with me, if I don't achieve my goals but know I have given everything to get there then I will sleep nice and easy knowing that at least I tried.
My other run sessions are a tempo / fairly fast run of 5 km or 5 miles depending on the route I have chosen. For these I plot my average heart rate and times. It s a simple formula really, if my heart rate is coming down and I'm getting faster then all in the garden is rosy!
I live in a small town surrounded by pretty villages and lots of hills, so most of my routes are fairly hilly, I like that, it helps build leg strength, in fact, I think I prefer a hilly triathlon run course, I guess my heart likes the intensity and rest periods associated with hill work.
I am not too scientific in my training I like to go by feel but I do use a heart rate monitor. I don't work in zones and I don't download the data. I do however record on a spreadsheet the route, distance, time taken and my average heart rate. Being an avid football fan I still play football with some friends once a week. This is a five a side game and I count this as a run session. Its fast and furious and its very stop and start, I usually finish with my shirt soaked in sweat!
I think I spoke about some of the things which are key to achieving the goal of becoming and Ironman, I know I mentioned the swim, the cycle, the run, nutrition, rest, mental strength and planning. I guess the beauty of triathlon is you can control all of the variables, OK you might get unlucky and have a technical problem on the bike but generally you are in charge of your own destiny.
The run is where the race is often won and lost, Im convinced pacing is the key, and this is something I intend to work on. I dont know if I mentioned in an earlier post, maybe I did, but anyway I did a 9 mile off road race on Sunday. It was hills, hills and more hills, but the scenary was breathtaking, I loved every second of the pain, it was so liberating, I know some of you will know exactly what i'm talking about..see you soon
David Ed Smith
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