Endurance Nation presents the Four Keys of Race ExecutionTalk. Rich Strauss, head coach and founder of Endurance Nation, will share with you the race day execution tips and mental strategies that have created PR performances for thousands of athletes. Rich has delivered this talk, live, to over 1500 athletes at Ironman® venues since 2003. The…

Question: What are the considerations for a Half Ironman® race rehearsal? Rich Strauss: All of our long course training plans include two race rehearsal workouts, roughly at 6 and 3 weeks out from your race. These are, without a doubt, the most important individual training session in your schedule. You want to get these right,…

Doing less, or nothing at all, is most often the RIGHT thing to do. Question: If the prescribed intensity of a workout is just not happening, should I just go easy? Rich Strauss: Rather than going easy, don’t be afraid to just pull the plug, take a day off and not do anything, especially on…

* Marathon training then creates some significant opportunity costs for the triathlete looking to become a faster triathlete

1. At some point marathon training begins to compromise get-faster-on-the-bike training.
2. Marathon training, in my experience, is not the best and most time efficient tool to make someone a faster runner, to lift their VDot. Stronger, more durable, can go longer…yes…but for me that’s what we do in the last 16wks or so before an IM. Before that we focus on making you faster.
3. The net is that you don’t really get that much faster at either: your marathon training isn’t super great cuz you’ve still got your triathlete hat on = riding a bike, etc. And your bike doesn’t get much faster because you’re having to compromise your bike training because of all the marathon running you’re doing.