Dear Athletes,
Today we are going to look at how you can break down the run so you are able to work towards faster overall run times. After all – who doesn’t love running fast!?
Often Developing, Junior and U23 athletes are disheartened by the speed of elite triathletes. If you find yourself wondering how you can improve your run speed into the future, you need to learn to look at elite results and compare them with your results with respect to where you are in your career.
Triathlon is an endurance sport, and while U23 racing is the first introduction to the full standard distance triathlon (1.5/40/10), you are really at least 5 years behind any senior athlete racing this distance with regard to some very key factors that lead to racing success such as actual racing age, body strength and racing IQ.
Improvements as an athlete should be approached gradually and progressively with a carefully planned personal approach to training. When it comes to running, it is very useful to break things down to build things up.
Last week’s email, we looked at how middle distance run training can be used to develop fast triathlon running skills.
This week we will look at one area as to how you can do this.
Know your run times
Below is a table illustrating 5km and 10km run times, and their equivalent 1km, 600m and 400m run times.
Breaking down the 400m, 600m and 1000m split times for 5km and 10km outcomes is a very useful training tool to enable you to start to add specific pace to your training to target a pace you want to develop the ability to race at. To run a 10km fast, rather than measure out 10km and hope for the best, your training should include sets of 400m at a target pace.
Let’s look at a scenario - You may be an U23 athlete and look at the 2019 U23 WC and decide 35minutes for 10km would be a very competitive run. This can be broken down as an 84sec or a 1min 24sec 400m which you can call your base speed. Rather than churning out 20-25 x 400m that adds up to 10km, vary your pace and work on your ability to vary your speed along with your base pace. A session you may try could be - 5 sets of 2x400m with 1min rest between and mix the pace. Aim for an effort at 84 – your target race pace, and then aim for an 80/82 which is faster than your target pace.
Some things to remember
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You do not need to run the race distance to know you can complete the race distance. Speed work is just that, it is not endurance work. Your full training program will take care of the endurance side of things. Do not stray too far from speed when speed is the key to the session.
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Practice building your pace. Often athletes exit T2 (bike to run) too fast and try to hit their run pace as soon as they exit transition. This should be avoided if possible, as a gradual build with regard to pace throughout your run will allow you to ‘negative split’ your run, meaning you will most likely be finishing faster over the closing stages of the race than other athletes.
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Speed sessions should incorporate changes in pace. Simply repeating reps of the same distance and time will do little to improve your ability to react to pace changes in a race scenario.
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Always practice good run technique. This includes –
Running Tall
This is often difficult for triathletes, due to the effect bike riding has on tightening the hip flexor muscles. Running tall requires a lightness over the ground and spending as little time on the ground as possible. High knees, open chest making breathing easier, relaxed shoulders and neck, neat arm action, and open hips so that less stress is put on the hip flexors facilitating leg swing and improving cadence.
Relax
It's natural to tighten up when running fast and this isn't useful for executing the complex series of biomechanical movements that running requires. Try to relax specific shoulders, neck, hands… focussing on just one at a time.
Arms
Drive your elbows backwards when running fast will help stabilise the trunk and engage opposing hip flexors, facilitating knee drive. Try and keep arms bent at about a 90° angle, increasing the angle slightly as the arms drive back.
Foot Placement
Different foot strikes seem to suit different runners, but when running fast almost everybody will benefit from a mid- to fore-foot strike. Focus on the ball of the foot hitting the ground first.
Rear Leg Extension
Fully extending the leg just before toe-off can help ensure you apply maximum force and propel yourself forwards better. Extend the hip, knee and ankle and deliberately push down and backwards.
Run Cadence
Often coaches use the magical 180 cadence to be ideal for fast running. It is important instead of trying to adhere to a predetermined value, experiment by picking up your stride rate a little during some warm up strides and dropping it slightly during others. Many triathletes overstride when trying to run fast. A higher cadence, and working on reducing overstriding along with the braking effect that comes with it, will reduce the time you spend in the air between each step and allow you to land with less force and experiencing less overall stress to the legs.
‘See’ it
Use mental imagery to see yourself running faster. What you believe, you can do.
As always, discuss with your coach and look at the positives in how you are progressing as an athlete.
You are probably running faster than you are giving yourself credit for.
Stay well and run fast!
Emma
