Canada on August 26th.

When I asked her about using a run/walk strategy both for racing and my LSD runs, she basically said "No one has ever come to me and asked me to coach them to walk the marathon." Which, of course, is not really what I'm asking. Her philosophy is that one should train slooooow enough that the run is entirely aerobic, thus allowing you to run farther and more consistently. And I *do* complete my long runs like that now. Very slow at very low heart rates. When I finish, I usually feel like I could just keep right on trucking, even after running for a few hours. Which is great, and works really well on days where I'm just running (or swimming and running).

But, I don't run well off the bike. I do lots of long bricks and they are really hard for me. By which I mean I can't stay in that same low HR mode, no matter how slowly I run. My HR is always 20-30 beats higher at the same pace on my brick runs. And during a race, it's a wonder I don't have a coronary on the run. So, realistically, I *know* I will have to run/walk, but I don't feel like I have her support for that strategy.

I wonder, did you and your coach refer to a good published source material that I might be able to use as a starting point for a conversation on the topic? For the record, I generally like my coach, but on this one point, I feel like we don't have a meeting of the minds.

_____

Good to see you have a swim race scheduled before your IM. I'd bet it will do wonders for your confidence level. Like you, I'm more nervous about the (mass start) IM swim than anything else. I did a 2000M swim race at the lake a few weeks ago and it was a real confidence booster. Plus, I've volunteered to be the swimmer on TWO tri relay teams during July. I figure I need all the OWS practice I can get (I go to the lake twice a week right now, plus do pool swims) and if I can get more *race* OWS practice, all the better! Let us know how your swim race goes!!

Really looking forward to your IM race report! Sounds like you're very well prepared. Is it your first?

Susan