Speed, or endurance what's more beneficial to focus on?

[1yeartoironman]

Hi, I am completely new to this forum, and I've been looking around at various posts but I figure I'll ask around to see what people think. So here is my history I used to compete in long distance running and triathlons as a kid, up until grade 7.( I've got boxes of medals and trophies from 11-12 year old kid) I have not run since and to be completely honest I am not the healthiest guy in the world and even have smoked for 15 years.... I am 30 now. I have decided to come full circle and try to sort my life out and be healthy and compete again. To be honest my goal is to finish an ironman in exactly 1 year from the day, with no training up until now. My question is... What kind of training is most suitable do you think.. Should I focus on speed more or endurance, right now both are hard. I did my first run I'm 20 years today, it was a brutal 32 degrees outside and humid. 10k in 1:03 mins. (42km run is needed) Would it be smarter to work on extending that distance or should I work on trying to get my time sub 40ish? I feel both would be beneficial but not sure what to focus on more.... Or both equally? I feel my pacing is way off as my fastest kms were 1, 8, 9 with some brutally slow kms in the middle. Just looking for a little guidance as I really want to complete this goal for myself, family and friends... My family believes in me but my friends think I'm crazy haha. ANY input is appreciated! 365 day challenge to ironman!

[MichaelMc]

Welcome to the forum, and congratulations on your new commitment!

The key to making this a success in the long term will be consistency, and that means staying healthy and motivated. Given time and dicipline either of your approaches COULD work, but in practice working mostly on endurance is where the long term benefits are. My suggestion would be to primarily concentrate on gradually building a base with a very small component of "harder" running.

Build a running routine where the vast majority of your mileage is at VERY moderate pace. Not just "pretty easy", but conversational: so you can hold a NORMAL converstation while you are running with a partner. For most people this seems entirely too slow, "brutally slow" one might say: that is fine because the object is to allow your body to adapt to the volume of training. Build up the amount of running you do per week gradually, at an average rate of 5-8% per week. This will seem too slow too, probably, but again the object is to stay healthy and allow your body to adapt while steadily increasing the workload. "Compound interest" on the weekly mileage will still make this "modest" increase a challenge over time.

To keep things interesting you can run with others if that works for you. Try it, because it can be really motivating. Aside from that I would suggest you can choose ONE day per week where you allow yourself to run a more challenging run. This can be a hilly route, doing a few "strides", or doing a steady faster run but it is essential you don't push too hard or you'll undo all the benefits of being sensible the rest of the week. Stay healthy, gradually increase volume.

I could go into detail on what workouts to do etc, but really the basic program above will get you there: everything else is just icing on the cake. In a couple of months you'll make astonishing gains if you are consistent, stay healthy and gradually build. Gains in endurance AND speed, btw.

Good Luck!

[Mark.AU]

I'd concentrate on the bike.

Sure there's a run in an IM but it's bike fitness that's going to get you around the course, not run fitness.

Run two or three times a week following a plan like Michael suggests. Ride as much as you can though, at least three times a week, four if you can fit it in. Do one long ride, one hard ride, one intervals ride and another hard ride . Happy to expand on that if you want.

Being able to run an open marathon is fine, but you need to run a marathon after riding 180km and if you want to run the IM marathon, you need to ride first - and ride strong.

[La]

Endurance first, then speed.

Bike, bike, bike, bike, bike....

If you can, do a run (even 10-20 minutes is fine) after every bike ride. That's called a "brick" workout.

[jonovision_man]

To be honest my goal is to finish an ironman in exactly 1 year from the day, with no training up until now.

Hopefully you already know how to swim...

Here's my anecdotal evidence to support what the others have said. I just did my second Ironman, I'm a mid-packer (almost exactly mid-pack in fact). My training was focused almost entirely on bike mileage... I did a few long runs, but overall my run mileage was very low. And surprise, I placed higher on the run than on the bike (921st vs 998th of about 2300).

Being a fast runner is useless if you come off the bike already wasted. And assuming your goal is "to finish" then you'll be doing some serious walking on the run... I didn't hear many people around me in the ~13hour finisher pack complaining they wish they'd done more run speedwork.

(Oh incidentally - that 921st place on the run was a 4 hour 30 minute marathon... more than half the pack took even longer..... that's Ironman, it's a survival lurch, not a race, for most finishers!)

jono

[dgrant]

Agree with the comments already, and just would add that it is also much easier to get fast quickly than increase endurance quickly.

If you put together many, many months of long slow jogging now, you can usually ramp up your speed quickly by focusing on that in just the last month or two before your race. But the reverse is much harder... it's tougher to make yourself a fast 10km runner now and then quickly ramp up to enduring 3 or 4 hour runs right before your goal race.

[Spirit Unleashed]

I suppose you should pick your event and enter it since some races sell out.

[1yeartoironman]

Thank you for the advice, the bike comment is very interesting.... Makes a lot of sense, far easier to drop behind/catch up on an area that long. I know I probably sound a little crazy but, I am really trying a lifestyle change rather than just run a race. Focusing on something so huge has to change ones lifestyle, and I'm actually enjoying it. I was excited to try and shave some time off my 1st run, so I ran again today even though I was sore. I managed a 49:16 and found I had a decent pace (40 seconds between slowest and fastest.. Including my final 4 k as the fastest 4. I am sore now, and will spend the next couple days on the biking, just mellow and try for a decent distance to open the lungs. I like the idea of cruising at a slow slow pace (still jogging) but barely and just try to add 5-10k to it, or whatever depending how it feels. Thanks all for the advice

Sore guy

[La]

Being a fast runner is useless if you come off the bike already wasted.

Very true! I know many people who've gone into IM with really great running backgrounds only to be completely humbled on race day because the bike ride killed them.

One other thing that many people don't consider is the overall effect of a long race (12-17 hours for most people) and what that does to your digestive system. Many, MANY people have been completely sidelined on the run by stomach issues (coming up one end or out the other), which caused them to not be able to take in any hydration or nutrition, essentially ending their day.

Training for IM is an incredible journey (I found it to be life-changing). Everyone will have a different experience depending on what your goals are. One quote I remember hearing is, "Ironman doesn't make you who you are; it shows you who you are."

[CinC]

my recommendation is to consult a training guide or plan (just google '12 months to Ironman training or something like that) - for example:
http://www.ironman.com/triathlon/news/a ... z3BnESTYex

You aren't going to get back to your teen speeds overnight (the whole shaving off 13min on a 10k run over the course of 2 runs is very impressive, mind you a bit questionable, but whatever). It's going to take some time - and you don't need to be doing really long workouts right now anyhow. You're just base building.

From the sounds of it, you're totally new to this. Take some time and do some research. And plan your approach. Especially if you truly want to make this a lifestyle change.

[RayMan.2]

Well your 10 k times after not running for so many years are pretty good, so you still have the genes and body type that made you a success in your childhood.

My advice is don't overdo the speed training, as it is going fast that does things like pull muscles and strain joints. I pulled a hamstring doing speed work on an icy track one cold February and it bothered me for at least 3 years afterwards. I have never done that kind of lingering damage going for a long run.

And have fun with your lifestyle change!

[canalrunner]

With Ironman as the goal, it would seem that endurance and stretching the miles should be the focus. As others have indicated, speed work has a reward but also has the injury risk. I'd play with different paces on your run but I would maintain a goal of building miles. Will be interesting to see how you do.

[jonovision_man]

Might want to learn to swim. Drowning is bad for run times.

jono