By Mike Tarrolly

The day before my first Ironman, I was a nervous wreck.  I’d feared the mass swim start almost every day for the previous year.  In less than 24 hours I’d be in the scrum with 2700 other swimmers and I was still searching for ways to relax.

I could hardly sleep the night before, but as stood on the cool concrete staring at the water on race morning, an extreme sense of calm washed over me.  Every ounce of fear and doubt was gone.  But why?

That experience has happened many times in my my life, especially with sports, and makes me of the saying “90% of life is just showing up.”  I’ve always liked that logic, but always wondered why that is the case?

Today, on our podcast, I learned the answer from Steve Magness, who has has a website called “The Science of Running,” and will soon release his new book, “Peak Performance” with Brad Stulberg.

Steve is the head coach for the University of Houston Cross Country team and also works with several professional runners.  His writing, philosophies, and podcasts have established him as one the most sought after minds in the endurance world.

To say Magness is passionate about sport physiology and psychology is an understatement.  He dove into our questions with childlike enthusiasm that rekindled my fire for sport, and frankly made me feel better about always wanting to know “why.”

He’s a cool guy, too.  Due to conflicts on our end we had to move the interview several times and he just rolled with the changes.  Then, 30 minutes before the podcast I was stuck in traffic, so Robbie started without me and Steve wound up recording the podcast for us.  I joined after 10 minutes.

Here are a few of the topics we cover today, but there is a lot more and we could have talked for five hours.

By Coach Robbie
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I have been strictly focused on training for the Leadville Trail 100 for about 10 full weeks now. I originally had this blog post tagged for just a typical update. Leadville this. Leadville that. Why I cannot understand everyone’s obsession with running in a flat bill trucker hat…. etc. The fact of the matter is, the only real “update” I have is that I have just been doing a ton of running. 🙂 My typical week has had 2 “recovery” runs, 2 quality sessions split between speed and hill work with 1 long run per week. I have also committed to serious strength training and injury prevention sessions to compliment my running. Ultimately what this blog is going to be about is how I was able to take off over 1:30 in my 5k in just 10 weeks by doing the old “long slow training.” I have included a lot of data/graphs/charts to hopefully better explain how I was able to achieve this. It is a lengthier blog so I put this carrot at the front in hopes you will read the entire article and apply it to your training.

Test results (10 week span)

Jan 10 – 5k test – 20:58 (6:46 pace) Avg HR – 178 , Max 185

Mar 13 – 5k Test – 19:22 (6:15 pace) Avg HR – 174, Max 184

If you have listened to our podcast called “Running slow to get faster” (embedded below) you already know why I am such a huge fan of this approach. It might not be “fancy” and FB worthy every day but it works and getting faster is the only thing I am concerned with. The chart below will show you some good data on how I have sprinkled in my runs the last 90 days. Even before signing up for Leadville and doing my initial 5k run test  I was already accumulating some pretty good frequency. As shown in the chart you can see that outside of a few “recovery” gaps my runs have all stayed quite frequent but have just gotten longer in both duration and time. Before taking my first big recovery cycle this last week I had built up to a long run duration of 2:40 and a long run distance of 19 miles. You will see in the early March block that immediately preceded my recovery cycle I had 2 really long runs fairly close together. For the record, I do not recommend placing them so close together but I gambled and did it because of family obligations that weekend. I ended up accumulating a little over 54 miles in a 5 day span so my recovery block was a welcome rest period.

Overall Run Summary for last 90 days:

Established HR Zones for chart below:

Z1- 118-151 – Recovery 

Z2 – 152- 161 – Endurance 

Z3- 162 – 170 – Tempo

Z4 – 171- 177 – Threshold 

Z5- 178 + – Aerobic Capacity

As you can see I spent the majority of my time in both Zone 1 and 2. To be exact I spent 39.5% in my recovery zone and 43.6% in my endurance zone for a total of 83.1% of overall training. That came out to about 54 hours of the 58 hours I spent running strictly focused on my Z1 and Z2 work. 

Established Pace Ranges for chart below:

Z1 – 8:44 and slower – Recovery

Z2 – 7:43-8:43 – Endurance 

Z3 -7:10- 7:42 – Tempo

Z4 – 6:46- 7:09 – Threshold 

Z5 – 6:45 – faster  – Aerobic Capacity 

Again, as you can see here as well, most of my time in pace zones was directed towards Z1 and Z2 totaling about 86.1% of my overall training. There will always be some discrepancy in time allotted to each specific HR and corresponding Pace zone due to wind, temp, terrain, etc. 

Ultimately, what I hope you take from the pace/speed graph is that while I was able to go from running a 6:47 to a 6:15 pace for my 5k test I only spent a VERY small percentage of time even below or at threshold (less than 6% under 6:45 pace). In order to run fast, or run FASTER you do NOT need to spend all of your time running fast and doing endless amounts of interval work. Too much fast doesn’t beget fast. FAST BE GETS YOU INJURED! The right dose of easy and endurance running combined with the appropriate amount of speed work can really produce some solid benefits. So far I have been able to perform better, for longer in my endurance runs AND as shown, I am also increasing my top end speed. It is a delicate balance but incredibly important.

Sometimes the hardest thing is to not change when others are changing around you. I made this mistake a few years ago when “high intensity – HIIT” became trendy. Combine that with Strava and Garmin Connect and you have a recipe for disaster. The daily training temptations are always there and it can be hard to convince yourself that running slower is both safe AND beneficial in becoming a faster runner. So next time you are tempted to go out for a home-run workout ask yourself “is it worth it?”

RUNNING SLOW TO GET FAST (Subscribe on iTunes)

We are very unexcited to announce our first Dog Cast.  It’s basically Mike droning on about some of his dog’s quirky habits.  There’s already been positive feedback, but hopefully this is a one-time event.

In fact, since the release of this Dog Cast we have hit our listener email goal, so we may be releasing an actual triathlon podcast later today or tomorrow morning.  Thanks for listening to the Crushing Iron podcast . . . and Dog Cast!

By Mike Tarrolly

My first Ironman experience was as a spectator at Ironman Louisville. Aside from how nuts I thought everyone doing the race was, the most pressing issue on my mind was the mind boggling logistics of such an event.

Nearly 3,000 athletes, bikes and timing chips.  65 miles of closed roads for the bike, thousands of volunteers, and 3 sets gear bags for each athlete.  Cops everywhere, endless streams of water, ice and fruit and pretzels and on and on and on.  My head was about to explode.

I made a silent vow to never criticize a race director and that lasted about one race.  It was probably something to do with scheduling something too early in the morning or something stupid, but I think it had more to do with the fact that I was just generally unhappy or stressed about the race.

I’ve done four full Ironman races now and am still fascinated with race production.  As a generally unorganized person, the whole race directing thing seems like a recipe for disaster.  I’d surely have nightmares about forgetting to order water.

That’s why it was so cool to talk with Stephen Del Monte, race director for Ironman 70.3 Atlantic City, along with several other races.  It took about two minutes before I realized why so many people told us he’d be a great get.

I mean, how many race directors do you know that make videos by paddling out into the water to show you sighting points on your way back to shore?  Or walk you through the layout of transition?  Or visually show you changes or tricky parts of the bike or run course?  Really cool stuff you can check out on his video channel.

He is very transparent with his customers and promptly admits when he makes a mistake (often in his video series “Confessions of a Race Director”). He told a story of a race he produced where there was a 4 inch lip in the road that caused 42 flat tires.  He immediately admitted fault and gave each of the athletes free entry to the next year’s race.

I was kind of blown away by that and asked how he handles bad weather that cancels a swim or bike and his answer was fascinatingly logical.

We could have talked for a couple more hours, but we hit on a lot of cool stuff and it’s listed below. His passion for triathlon is contagious and I really hope it catches on in the sport.

Here are some of the topics we cover in our interview (embedded below) with Stephen Del Monte:

• The secrets to producing a great race
• The one thing that upsets triathletes most.
• He addresses the Ironman critics and explains why Ironman is the best event company there is.
• He also explains how the Ironman relationship works with local race directors.
• Why many triathletes are intimidated by Ironman Branded Races and why they shouldn’t be.
• What he thinks is the best Half
• The ONE THING Race Directors cannot get away with
• Your number one concern as an athlete entering any race.
• Why Ironman gets so many volunteers
• How he deals with weather cancellations and shortened courses
• How Ironman is putting pressure on grass roots races and why that’s a good thing.

I swim with a pull buoy all the time.  It’s like a little safety net in the uncomfortable world of swimming.  You just stick it between your legs and everything seems just a little easier.  But, “making it easier” isn’t the real benefit, a pull buoy allows you to focus on improving your stroke without the complications of waggly and sagging legs.

In our podcast, How Not To Suck At Swimming podcast (posted below), Coach Robbie said something that I think is great advice:  “If you’re struggling in the water, stick a pull buoy between your legs, swim 3-4 times a week and call us in a month.”

That’s exactly what I’ve been doing lately and the results are undeniable.  I’m getting stronger and incrementally faster, all while re-learning to relax in the water.

If you’re out of swim shape it will seem a little harder at first, but in a few short pool sessions you will start to find a rhythm and build enough strength to turn a 2,000 meter swim into a piece of cake.

I never like to exhaust myself in the water because it tends to deter my enthusiasm for the next swim.  As I re-build, I go to the edge of my fitness, and stop.  That may be something as simple as doing a 1,000 meters in the beginning (of re-discovering swim-shape).  Then building by doing 1,500 as 3 x 500.  The next time I may try to do 1,500 straight.  Then 4 x 500, then 2,000 straight, etc.

I’m not a great swimmer by any means, but I’ve had my moments, and they are always related to confidence and my ability to relax in the water.  As far as I know there’s only one way to make that happen: swim a lot.

For my money, the pull buoy is the best way to make swimming more manageable, frequent, and enjoyable.  This is especially true if you’re doing a wetsuit race because it simulates your body position.

I’ll admit that back in 2014, when I did Louisville in the summer, I was a little concerned.  I’d mainly swam with a pull buoy but wouldn’t have the buoyancy of a wetsuit in my pocket.  It turned out to be my fastest Ironman swim (1:06) and the one thing I remember most was how relaxed I was.

Triathlon is so much about figuring out ways to help you enjoy the training.  For swimming, the pull buoy is my Holy Grail.

Check out one of our most popular podcasts: How To Not Suck At Swimming.