Hawaii From Home: Run Workout #4

Join us for Hawaii From Home—one week, 140.6 miles. Swag, prizes, training tips from coaches, bragging rights. Get all of the details at triathlete.com/hawaiifromhome. Each week we’ll be providing four key workouts (one swim, one bike, one run, and one brick) that you can work into your overall training plan.

Before you head out to tackle the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike, and 26.2-mile run, from Oct. 5-11, Bolton has created a progressive plan that’ll identify one key run per week—alternating between one quality run and one purposeful long run. The long run on week five should be the last long run before attempting the challenge. Bolton prefers to use heart-rate zones for his run workouts, but feel free to use Rate of Perceived Exertion (on the below scale) if you don’t have a heart-rate monitor available. Each workout includes an option for a newer triathlete who has either never done a long-course event or is still building up mileage and an option for a more experienced triathlete who has a solid running mileage foundation already. Depending on the rest of your volume and where the session will fall in your training week, feel free to alternate between beginner and advanced.

The fourth week is a middle-distance progression that hits the intersection between a long run, a build run, and a tempo. Consider this more of a key session than a long run in terms of how much rest you’ll need before to be fresh and how much recovery you’ll require afterwards. Don’t expect to hit any big swim workouts on the same day, and don’t expect fireworks (the good kind, anyway) if you try to hit a strong bike ride soon after without proper recovery. The toughest part of this workout will be the fourth segment in the pyramid, as you’ll be coming off a very challenging zone 4 segment, as you’ll still be required to run quite hard in zone 3 with no rest. To help push through this section, try to visualize a race where you might start too hard or push too strong up a midrun hill but you still have lots of ground yet to cover. Stay in it mentally, and you’ll be able to stay in it physically as well. Excellent run form through the first three segments will also do wonders in delivering you to the tricky fourth segment in one piece!

Week 4: Pyramid Tempo Mid-Distance

Beginner: 1:15 total

Warm-up:
15 minutes in zones 1 and 2

Main Set:
15 minutes in steady zone 3
15 minutes in zone 4 (this is tough!)
15 minutes in zone 3. Stay very focused on the fourth segment—it’s tough coming off the zone 4 work.

Cool-down:
15 minutes in zone 1 and 2

Advanced: 1:40 total

Warm-up:
20 minutes in zone 1 and 2 

Main Set:
20 minutes in steady zone 3
20 minutes in zone 4 (this is tough!)
20 minutes in zone 3. Stay very focused on the fourth segment—it’s tough coming off the zone 4 work. 

Cool-down:
20 minutes in zone 1 and 2