More of what?

More is better...sometimes. In triathlon it seems that more is ALWAYS better, but the question is more of what? For the IMer's out there the obvious metric is distance. Riding multiple centuries each month and long run seem to be the norm for IM athletes. What I have come to realize lately is that for myself, right now, I need more speed work. I'm not going to start trying to qualify for the Olympics or anything, but I am going to cut down some miles and add in more tempo stuff and LT work. For instance, today I started out on my ride with the goal of 3 hours strong. I decided instead to do only 2 hours, but I did some very hard intervals, something I don't do often. Plus I ran off the bike doing 2x10 min. hard w/ 10 min. cruise between. I have done 9 IM's, so I know I can cover the difference, so now it is really time to up the speed. Speed is relative though, especially on the run. Doing some hard efforts on the run means that I will dip under the 6 min/mile mark. For a good distance runner, that's really not all that fast. But if you can hold 6:30 on race day, you would end up finishing the marathon in around 2:50. The hard stuff will hurt you in a different way than going for a 2 hour run or 6 hour bike. When your system is filling with lactic acid and your body is trying to clear it, it hurts! What these efforts do is teach the body how to handle the harder efforts and not be drained. It gives you the ability to bridge a gap, go hard up a hill or run someone down without totally exhausting yourself. Plus, by going harder than race pace at times in training make race pace seem a bit easier when you are out there. So if you have finished a few IM's and are looking to lower your time, try adding in more "speed work". It hurts, but it works!