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Jesse Kropelnicki: Ironman Durability
By Jesse Kropelnicki
7/22/2009 |
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These thoughts present my opinion on the process of system breakdown, particularly, during the run in Ironman. Most people that have not met critical volume (covered in my last writing HERE) for their event will experience system failure at some point during their race. In Ironman, this usually means walking and/or significant time loss during the marathon. When you look at what has occurred to an athlete that is walking, you will see that it is usually due to a peripheral system failure; meaning legs, versus a core system failure, such as respiratory/cardiovascular. I’ll even include the head (mind) in the peripheral category since mental toughness is required to force the legs to continually stimulate the core. When you see people walking during the marathon, typically their peripheral system has failed so badly that they cannot effectively stimulate their core (i.e., although they cannot move any faster the athlete’s heart rate remains much below their typical lowest training zone). For most athletes I believe this lack of peripheral system toughness or durability is due to lack of aerobic training volume, which ultimately provides aerobic system robustness. That is, they are not meeting critical volume for their event. In races such as the 5k, critical volume is extremely low and therefore is met by most participants. The limiter in such a race is typically respiratory/cardiovascular (core system) and is therefore best trained with higher intensity training, or repeats that stimulate the core system.
Due to these realizations, it becomes intuitively clear that IM run training should be focused on training the peripheral system (leg durability and mental toughness) first. Working the core systems (respiratory/cardiovascular) should be of secondary importance since for most age groupers the major limiter is peripheral (i.e. they don’t have the ability to use their core systems to their potential). Furthermore, core system training through speed work is very risky stuff and has the potential to undermine consistency (due to injury) which is the very limiter most folks have.
How does one train their peripheral system? Here are some major distinctions to train the peripheral system in order of importance:
1. Do your best to meet critical volume for your event. Note that critical volume could take years of consistency to build up to safely for the Ironman.
2. Do some “real” strength training for a period of at least 8-12 weeks each year. When I say real, I mean weight lifter-style heavy focused lifting. Not this new breed of fluffy sport specific, bounce on an exercise ball type stuff (although that does have its time and place).
3. Do your long run the day after your long bike. This targets training of the peripheral system since your legs are already somewhat shelled from the previous day’s long bike ride. Don’t underestimate the value of this concept to increase leg durability and mental toughness (both peripheral systems). The key to making these two-day training blocks beneficial is a solid recovery on the third day. The argument to train these long sessions on non-consecutive days holds water for athletes where peripheral system failure is not the limiter, and running on fresher legs will result in better core system stimulation (faster pace). This is typically only the case for shorter distance racers where critical volume is easily met and core systems are the limiter.
4. Use big week run training once or twice a year at a 10-20% increase over what is sustainable for you.
5. Run frequency does wonders to improve leg durability. 6 day a week running is the way to go even if half of these are at an almost walking pace with just 20-25 minutes duration.
6. As I’ve said many times and have practiced in the past, long day hikes improve mental toughness and overall durability in ways swimming, biking and running can’t.
7. The tradition of running a focused period of hills in your run training is also very beneficial. This also includes running hilly terrain during long runs.
For folks that cannot meet critical volume for their event, they should make the realization that system failure will occur (if not walking, then sudden reduction of pace). Understanding that this will occur should result in a modification of race strategy. In these cases, attempting to run the entire distance at one’s speed potential (assuming they did have the durability) will almost certainly result in system failure. Therefore, it’s best that the athlete take walking breaks before they are needed. The idea is that you will lose less time if you take walking breaks before you need them versus waiting until you are forced to. These walking breaks are not total rest, but focused periods of fast walking to refresh the running legs. Below is a rough equation that I like to use based on critical volume to determine the length of the walk breaks for my athletes:
Walk Break Length = 120 - 120 X (CVR) (in seconds)
Where, CVR (Critical Volume Ratio) = The average of your two highest run volume training weeks during pervious six weeks before the race divided by critical volume for the event
Reduce this calculated value by 5 second for each year of experience at the particular goal race distance up to a total reduction of 25 seconds.
These walk breaks should be taken every 15 minutes during the run segment of your race from the beginning of the segment for as long as calculated above. It’s worth noting again that these are not rest breaks, but focused fast walking with high cadence to refresh the mind, running legs, and run form.
To determine your goal running pace between walk break segments, consider using my triathlon calculator to estimate your running pace. This pace will include walk breaks and therefore have to be corrected (increased) to determine your goal pace between breaks to achieve the calculated time. Believe it or not, I’ve successfully used this walk concept with 2:50 marathoners who did not meet critical volume in training.
It should also be noted that bike durability plays just as important of a roll in the ability to run well in Ironman. Even with the greatest run durability, the lack of such on the bike will undermine the run just as significantly as if there was lack of run durability. This can be seen at many Ironmans where you see a 2:30 marathoner walking the run due to lack of bike volume (among other things). Based on that, although run durability is important to run well, so is bike durability (important to meet critical volume on the bike).
These concepts form the basis of my triathlon and run calculators (www.triathloncalculator.com). In these models, the point at which system failure is assumed to occur is based on critical volume for the event. However, when an athlete has significant race experience, peripheral system toughness is typically higher than what their training volume may suggest. This is the primary reason for the addition of race experience to these calculators.
It’s a LONG race, train for it!
Jesse Kropelnicki is an elite/pro level triathlon coach who founded QT2 Systems, LLC; a leading provider of personal triathlon and run coaching/nutrition. Besides his primary focus of coaching, Jesse is a veteran age group triathlete, and member of the QT2 Elite Triathlon Team. He is the triathlon coach of Caitlin Snow and Tim Snow among others; Nutrition advisor for professional triathletes Dede Griesbauer, Alex McDonald, and Ethan Brown; as well as nutrition/cardio advisor for professional UFC fighter Kenny Florian. His interests lie in coaching professional triathletes using quantitative training and nutrition protocols. You can track his other coaching comments/ideas via his blog at www.kropelnicki.com.
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