In yesterday’s blog post, I wrote in detail about my successful 10K time trial ‘race’. 

In that 10K workout, I ran my fastest ever 5K, 5 Mile and 10K.  My paces were significantly better than my previous best results. 

To achieve such results, it is easy to assume that I practiced running fast and that I ran fast a lot.  Nothing could be further from the truth, as the data below shows.

A metatarsal stress fracture, sustained at the end of last year, meant I didn’t run at all in January, February and half of March.  Since starting to run again, I did the following:

• I ran an average of 4 times a week.
• I ran an average of 165 minutes a week, which means my average time for each run length, was about 41 minutes.
• 20% of the time that I ran, I did so at a pace slower than 9:45/mile.
• 80% of the time that I ran, I did so at a pace slower than 8:45/mile.
• Only 4% of the time that I ran, did I run at a pace that was equal to or faster than yesterday’s race pace of 7:13/mile.

What does this mean?  It means that you don’t need to do a lot of speed running, to be able to run fast in a race.  Running consistently and running at a comfortable, conversational pace or slower does work.  “Track Tuesdays” are not necessary; they probably don’t hurt but you can get fast without them.

Now to be fair, you have to remember that I have also been riding my bike, and riding it  a lot.  That, most definitely, helped my run yesterday too.  Strength on the bike translates to strength on the run in triathlon.

So it all comes back to being consistent.   I am absolutely convinced, it is the number one trait that leads to being a successful triathlete.