Should I Go Long?
That is always the question of many newbie triathletes after their first season of triathlon or even after their first sprint. Well…… It depends…….. on a lot of things.
If you are looking to get faster in a sprint distance triathlon then the answer is no and yes!
If your main goal is to get faster for a sprint triathlon riding over 50 miles and running over 8-9 miles is kind of over kill and can actually lead to undue fatigue so that you are unable to get the speed work that is necessary to actually get faster at the sprint distance.
Every once in a while, going longer is great but there are guidelines. If you go too long too soon you can suffer and injury which will then set you back.
So, when you are not racing long it’s a is a waste of precious time and effort that could be spent on more quality training to go too long.
Shorter and faster training you can recover from quickly will get you faster, in less time. But at the same time 1 weekly long swim, bike and run at zone 1 is absolutely essential to improve your aerobic capacity and speed but too long is not appropriate when racing short.
Now, if you are training long course which is a 70.3 or IRONMAN then yes you must go longer. However, so many athletes go too long too soon and too fast without building up strength and speed first.
Many long course athletes wonder why they can’t get faster at the long course distance and it’s because they are fatigued from all the volume.
If you never train fast you are not likely to race fast at any distance.
Adding 30 min each week to a long ride and 10 minutes to your long run can be a good rule of thumb to follow. These are meant to be easy low zone 1/2 efforts to improve aerobic capacity and aerobic threshold.
Wishing you well,
Coach Erinne Guthrie
I invite you to link here and schedule a call with me today or,
text me at 786-586-6057 to request an appointment.
Erinne Guthrie is a USA Triathlon Level II Certified Coach since 1999 and Chief Motivating Officer at Full Circle Coaching, LLC since 2010. She has been training, racing and coaching triathletes since 1997 and is currently taking a recovery year after two consecutive years racing at Long and Short Course World Championships. She is also a CHEK Holistic Lifestyle Coach Level 3, USMS Master’s Swim Coach, Motivational Speaker, Mom and much much more.
