Ironman marathon training

Hey Team~

Thought I would drop a post to introduce myself to those I haven't met.

I recently moved to the area from North Carolina and Monica and Mike have been kind enough to let me tag along on a few runs. I tend not to be a regular on purpose...as a long course triathlete (Ironman distance), too much speedy training rips me up, so I drop in generally only when I'm reasonably fresh.

Monica asked me on one of the prior runs about the structure of my long runs while training for Ironman. As nothing we do at the Ironman distance is truly "fast" in a runner's sense, a lot of my training is done very aerobically (read SLOW). Speedy in ironman terms is really about endurance strength, and the ability to hold your pace after swimming for 2.4 miles and cycling for 112 miles. So in that sense, interval or speed training doesn't have a huge role until you are a pro or elite triathlete. That said, you can become very competitive in age group racing with a very solid base. My fastest runs at the 5k/10k distance in triathlons are the result of a large volume of aerobic training instead of track work. I think this applies age group athletes training for marathons as well. So, here is a typical long training session for me as I end my last build period before tapering for IM Lake Placid on July 20th.

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2 1/2 hour run session:
30 minutes done very easy
45 minutes 2-3 beats below race goal hr
45 minutes right on race goal hr
30 minutes above race goal hr

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I consider my fitness to be in line with my race goal hr when I'm able to average the last 30 minute session with the highest avg. hr for the day WITH a concomitant increase in pace. In other words, if I'm able to raise my hr but my pace drifts down, then my goal hr is too high or I'm too fatigued to complete the session. Sometimes it is difficult to determine which is the case, but generally you have some idea based on how you feel and your training log.

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So, for this race, my goal hr is 79% of my running max hr (184). Therefore, I would like to avg. ~145 for the entire run.
On this training session, my numbers were:
30 min 134 hr 8:05
45 min 142 hr 7:45
45 min 144 hr 7:35
30 min 145 hr 7:31

These times included my water breaks, so the averages reflect a slight decreased hr in comparison to what i was actually seeing while running. This especially holds true for the last session, where I was only under 146 during my start up after my last water break. It took nearly a mile for me to elevate my heart rate after this break, bringing down the average quite a bit. This is certainly reflective of my fatigue at that point. I'm clearly lacking the run fitness I exhibited last year before IM Canada.

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Hope to see you guys over the next few weeks,
Jeff
http://mdotdoc.blogspot.com