Comments on: Sprint Triathlon Training – How Far Do I Need to Run in Training?

By: admin

admin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:49:14 +0000

Breathing while swimming in a triathlon, or even just in the pool is one of the most challenging parts of the swim for most triathletes. Without seeing you in person (or a video), it’s hard to give tips…but for starters these should help.
1) Don’t hold your breath – slowly exhale underwater as if vocalizing an “ahhhhh” sound. This keeps your glottis open allowing air to escape as needed and preventing carbon dioxide buildup.
2) Exhale all your air before turning to breath – there is not enough time to inhale and exhale while your mouth is above water. Before you are ready to take a breath, be sure all your air is exhaled below water. This will make the effort of taking in air even easier.
3) Don’t turn your head to breath. huh? I’ll say it again…don’t turn your head. When you are ready to breath, your head stays still in relation to the shoulder that is rotating out of the water. If your body rotation is good (rotating to 40-70 degrees on your side) and you keep your chin aligned with the shoulder that is recovering, your face will naturally clear the water to take a breath. quickly rotate your head back into the water without disrupting your stroke rhythm.
It’s all easier to demonstrate in person. Consider taking a few lessons from a qualified coach near you, or post a video for me on youtube.

By: Erin

Erin — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:23:15 +0000

I am training with some other friends of mine for a sprint triathlon. Our biggest hurdle seems to be the swimming. The breathing is the hardest part to get a hold on. Do you have any advice or suggestions? Thanks!!

By: Coach Suzanne

Coach Suzanne — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 11:08:26 +0000

Hi Lena, yes there is, just use the RSS feed from my site. I’ve pasted it below. You will need to use a “feed reader” like Google Reader, bloglines or a similar newsreader. Just paste in this address:

http://www.sprinttriathlontraining.org/feed/

By: Coach Suzanne

Coach Suzanne — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 06:09:04 +0000

Thanks jason…sorry it took me awhile to approve your comment. I thought I’d done so already, but apparently not. THanks for reading.

By: Coach Suzanne

Coach Suzanne — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 06:07:06 +0000

Hi Tracy, First of all, congratulations on losing so much weight! Your current training will depend on what your goals are. It sounds like right now, your goals are pretty clear…train for the half, using biking as cross training, then begin focusing on sprint tris. So I would give you this advice for each of these goals:
1) During your half-mary training, do not worry about your bike fitness, just get out and bike 30-90 minutes (or whatever your current fitness level is) as cross training. it will give you good basic bike fitness without interfering with your half training.
2) Dropping 15-30 seconds/mile is fairly ambitious depending on how much time you have to train. if you can do a 15 mile long run at 12:20 or less, you should be OK on race day due to the extra adrenaline. Not all Half Mary plans call for a long run of 15 miles, so if you can run your goal pace plus 10-15 seconds/mile on a training run, you shoudl do well. But measure your success by improvement, not by an arbitrary goal time
3) Once you are ready to focus on tris, the long runs will actually keep you slower than you could be. Sprint tris are only 5k runs, sometimes up to 4 miles, which is a significantly different type of training than half marathon training. My basic plan only shows one pace…an endurance pace. You would likely be ready for a intermediate run component for the sprint tri. Stay tuned for my updates and emails and blog posts for mroe info on intermediate and advanced training.

By: Lena

Lena — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 02:11:26 +0000

is there a way to read all your blogs without waiting to get email updates?

By: Tracy

Tracy — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:38:07 +0000

Suzanne – I enjoy reading your coaching and look forward to your blogs. I’m very excited for my first sprint tri in October. I have been activetly running to loose weight (40 so far)and improve my health for the last three years (female/40/215). I’m a goal oriented person and I’ve completed 8 half marathons and numerous 5 and 10ks along the way. I’m training for my next half which is Labor Day so I’m building milage. I enjoy the endurance aspect of the event and think that the sprint tri will be a good next step. My swim skills are good but my biking needs focus so I’m using it as my xtraining during my half marathon training. My running pace is 12:15 – 12:30 with a goal of doing my next half at 12:00. Should I continue longer runs after my half? I feel that by keeping my running endurance high I will be able to perform in the sprint tri better. I’ve been following your schedule but with increased milage on the long runs. Do you have any thoughts or recommendations for me.

By: Jason W. Womack

Jason W. Womack — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 01:02:23 +0000

“Can you see how even if you can only run 20 minutes continuously, the workout above should be easily doable? I say make this your long day, because the above workout will take about 45 minutes when you include warming up and stretching.”

This is an AWEsome paragraph…when someone asks me “how much” I train each day, I say “about an hour.” With warm-up/cool-down, some stretching, etc.

Some days, shorter, some days longer…my completion/competition is based on that. About 5 hours of training one day at a time, and a long day on the weekend. (Yeah, I take a day off per week…Or so.)