After reviewing my race results over the passed 4-5 races there is one common thread, and it goes like this:
When i have a good swim for me, I am competitive, usually top 20 - 25 in my age (around 3-5 mins behind the age group winner)
With my cycling, I am in the top couple in my age, anywhere from 3rd fastest (Shep 2008 to 8th Fastest Huskisson 2009) sometimes less than a minute behind the fastest and at worst 3-4 minutes.
Now this is where the Challenge comes into it:
THE RUN
Well, my run, even though it has been improving from just under 5min km pace (shep 2007) to 4min 33sec km pace (shep 2008). So a significant improvement there. On the weekend at Jervis Bay, I got my run time to 4min 22sec km pace.
Yes my improvements have been great and I hope that they continue to do so, however this is where I am losing most of my time in the race. For the previous 1/2 Ironmans and WA Ironman where I have got of the bike anywhere from 2nd in my age (Ironman) to 10th in my age (Geelong 2009), things go backwards from there with massive time gaps occuring.
For example, at Jervis Bay, I ran 1hr 27min for the 20km, the best in my age was 1hr 8min.....A time difference of almost 20mins.
Likewise at Geelong and Shepparton, with 19min and 17min being the time differences respectively.
Bearing this in mind with my size and strengths, I am never going to run these times.
The challenge that I am setting myself for the winter is to drastically improve my run times.
Off the bike I want to run around 85 mins and for a normal 1/2 marathon sub 80mins.
You might say at 6'3 and 90+ kgs this will be hard, let me tell you, it will be very hard. But for me to start making inroads into the leading age groupers, this is where I have to be on the run.
I have earmarked a min 4 1/2 marathons this winter and will be spending alot of time on the track inproving my 1k time trials - currently can do 8 x 1km time trials on around 3 min 50 sec - yes i have to improve my top end speed to improve my longer runs.
This will ofcourse be a work in progress will small gains and lots of hard work, but it is what I am going to do.
By doing this also, I am going to continue my riding and road racing to maintain the speed I have in that. I am even going to join a swim squad over the winter months to close the starting gap that I am giving......The main losses are the run, lets get the run right!!
I will keep you updated along the way.
For now
X-Man
When i have a good swim for me, I am competitive, usually top 20 - 25 in my age (around 3-5 mins behind the age group winner)
With my cycling, I am in the top couple in my age, anywhere from 3rd fastest (Shep 2008 to 8th Fastest Huskisson 2009) sometimes less than a minute behind the fastest and at worst 3-4 minutes.
Now this is where the Challenge comes into it:
THE RUN
Well, my run, even though it has been improving from just under 5min km pace (shep 2007) to 4min 33sec km pace (shep 2008). So a significant improvement there. On the weekend at Jervis Bay, I got my run time to 4min 22sec km pace.
Yes my improvements have been great and I hope that they continue to do so, however this is where I am losing most of my time in the race. For the previous 1/2 Ironmans and WA Ironman where I have got of the bike anywhere from 2nd in my age (Ironman) to 10th in my age (Geelong 2009), things go backwards from there with massive time gaps occuring.
For example, at Jervis Bay, I ran 1hr 27min for the 20km, the best in my age was 1hr 8min.....A time difference of almost 20mins.
Likewise at Geelong and Shepparton, with 19min and 17min being the time differences respectively.
Bearing this in mind with my size and strengths, I am never going to run these times.
The challenge that I am setting myself for the winter is to drastically improve my run times.
Off the bike I want to run around 85 mins and for a normal 1/2 marathon sub 80mins.
You might say at 6'3 and 90+ kgs this will be hard, let me tell you, it will be very hard. But for me to start making inroads into the leading age groupers, this is where I have to be on the run.I have earmarked a min 4 1/2 marathons this winter and will be spending alot of time on the track inproving my 1k time trials - currently can do 8 x 1km time trials on around 3 min 50 sec - yes i have to improve my top end speed to improve my longer runs.
This will ofcourse be a work in progress will small gains and lots of hard work, but it is what I am going to do.
By doing this also, I am going to continue my riding and road racing to maintain the speed I have in that. I am even going to join a swim squad over the winter months to close the starting gap that I am giving......The main losses are the run, lets get the run right!!
I will keep you updated along the way.
For now
X-Man
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