Faster IM than 1/2 IM

I normally do an IM faster than I would a half if you doubled the half. I think this is a bit strange. I have been told that it is because I start at one pace and stay at that pace. What are your thoughts?

G'day Julie,

What were your times for an IM and HIM and which courses?

Can you share some more details about your training?

What does a typical training week entail?

fluro

Julie, there's nothing "right" or "wrong" (or otherwise!) about your performance results. In many ways it's remarkable that you're able to be so consistent from 1/2 to full IM.

I think that unless you'd prefer to go faster at either / both, or over shorter distances, then I'd say keep on enjoying it. All power to you!!

If this is the same Julie H that I think it is, I am ppretty sure yoour Olympic distance stuff is pretty close to your IM pace as well. Seems to be working don't you think? How was Hawaii this year?



But to answer the question, I am guessing it is related to threshold and where your various speeds fit in with it. Withoout knowing, perhaps your 5 min/km pace is 70% of max, 4:55 is 80% of max and 4:40 is 90% of max. Did you wear your Garmin for IMNZ? If so were the km splits in the run pretty constant? Marty Rees' were amazing to see. There was all of 5 seconds across 40 of them with two in the mmiddle a little slower in a bad patch.

Hi Alex, yes it is me, Hawaii was tough but so much fun, am addicted

Here are some of my times, Yeppon 08 5.21, Gold Coast 08 5.35, NZ IM 10.37, Yeppoon, 5.35.

I was wearing my Garmin for NZ, 3.47 with an average of 5.24/km. I started at 5.00/km and slowly got slower. I don't have the slits but I was pretty constant.

Leading up to IMNZ I was probably training about 25 hrs a week and 20 hrs a week for the halfs. Long bike on Saturday with run off (45mins). Brick on Sunday with about 60km and then 2 hr run. Weights Wed and Fri PM, swim Mon, Wed and Thurs PM and w/T Tues morning and the rest runs

Here are some of my times, Yeppon 08 5.21, Gold Coast 08 5.35, NZ IM 10.37, Yeppoon, 5.35.
Smoking time over in NZ. Good job.

I was wearing my Garmin for NZ, 3.47 with an average of 5.24/km. I started at 5.00/km and slowly got slower. I don't have the slits but I was pretty constant.

It is near impossible to evenly split an IM run, in fact it is probably something athletes should not aim for ,otherwise they’ll be starting off too slow and maybe give away too much time. Minimizing the slowing down is always the goal.


“Leading up to IMNZ I was probably training about 25 hrs a week and 20 hrs a week for the halfs. Long bike on Saturday with run off (45mins). Brick on Sunday with about 60km and then 2 hr run. Weights Wed and Fri PM, swim Mon, Wed and Thurs PM and w/T Tues morning and the rest runs”

Are you IM/HIM training all year round? If so maybe look at boosting your threshold paces in the off season with some shorter events to build some power into you overall fitness. You seem to be very IM strength endurance fit, but maybe lack muscular endurance because you have focused too much on just IM speed. Eventually your IM speed won’t get any faster because you threshold paces haven’t been addressed enough, which is hard to do when training for IM’s The off season is a good time to address this.

Once you spend a few seasons doing IM specific training and building your ability to handle the distance, which is necessary, your IM speed will become harder and hard to develop without putting in some BIG miles, which looks like you are already doing. By focusing on doing some training blocks to lift your threshold power you are opening the door to keep improving your IM speed.
A strong IM athlete, which you obviously are, will lift their IM paces closer and closer to the threshold paces up to a point. For example, an elite age grouper will be able to race an IM in zone 3. I first time IM’er will race closer to zone 1. The elite age groupers need to improve their threshold power, which becomes more important and relevant to their overall performance. Your novice IM’er will still have a big window to keep focusing on and improving the IM speed and therefore the majority of their training year should reflect that.

fluro

The splits I spoke of. Not as close together as I recall but still pretty rad.

3:22 IM Marathon

5km 21m54s 4:22.8
10km 22m40s 4:32.0
15km 22m46s 4:33.2
20km 24m3s 4:48.6
25km 23m39s 4:43.8
35km 51m41s 5:10.1
40km 25m40s 5:08.0
42.2km 10m40s 4:50.9

Who is Julie?

That is smoking run time. Apart from that 1st 5km split, that is as close as you'll get to a perfect IM run execution.

fluro

P.S It would be really interesting to compare those splits with other people who run execute good IM runs according to their abilities? Would like to compare

Nah, that isn't Julie's mmaraa split but a fellla we both know. Julie ran 3:40 something.

Mmmmmm, not Glenn,

Jimmy C??

fluro

Thanks for the feedback Paul. I think you are on the right track. This year I am only do 1/2's Olympic and Sprints and am going to focus on speed. I bought a CompuTrainer and I think that will help a lot.

What are your suggestions for building my Threshold Pace.

No it is not Jimmy C.

Nah. It is kingkammartymarty. He does not post much on the internet as I don't think his triathlon monastery high in the Andes has power. LOL

Start small and build

Swim = PB's starting at 400's and then building up to 1500m

Bike = PB's starting at 5-10km and build up to 40km

Run = PB's at 3km and build up to 10km

Swim
Focus on just learning and getting used to swimming fast. So lots of 25's and 50's. One of my Favourite getting fast sets is 20-40 x 25m on a 1min cycle, aiming for sub 15sec.


Bike
Find a good group ride and ride with them twice a week. Learn to get dropped sometimes. If you not do some interval work before you meet them, take longer turns at front.

Your classic threshold sets to build threshold power
Start with 6 x 4min efforts at FT with a 2min RI. Over a number of weeks/months using the 10% rules you want to build that up to 2 x 20min effort at FT with a 2-3min recovery
Force sets are good
30sec on 30sec off for 10min max effort
3 x 5min +30sec. 5min at FT with 30sec max effort, no rest inbetween 5min efforts, so it is a continuous 16.5minute set. This would build up to 4 (3x5min +30sec)
BG and max effort for 10sec with a 50sec reovery
HR ladders on the compu trainer
build to 80% hold for 1min
build to 85% hold for 1min
build to 90% hold for 1min
build to max hold for 1min
recovery down to 60-65%

Over and unders
Build HR up and over FTHR by 5bpm and then settle back down to just below FTHR, repeat in blocks of 10-15 min build up to 40-45min of total work.

Run
Fartlek runs build to threshold effort
strides for neuromuscular gains, 6 x 30sec on with 90sec RI, max controlled pace
400-1600 repeats, total work 20-40min.
Some tempo running on the back end of your medium runs, build slowly to just under FTHR/effort
Lots of fun runs, running groups focusing on 5-12km
Run hills weekly
Downhill running for speed work and leg durability

These are just off the top of my head

Two focused swim sessions, 2 focus bike session, 1-2 focused run sessions, would be more than enough using some of those tips above. The rest of the week would be made up of your normal training sessions in terms of developing your aerobic endurance.

Thanks for that Paul, much appreciated. I will let you know how I go