Heart Rate Training per Mark Allen

So I stole this post from another thread so as not to hijack...

"Read what Mark Allen says: 

Here is a quote from the article:http://www.markallenonline.com/maoArticles.aspx?AID=2

Now for the tougher part…the endurance. This is where heart rate training becomes king. Endurance is THE most important piece of a triathlete’s fitness. Why is it tough to develop? Simply put, it is challenging because it usually means an athlete will have to slow things down from their normal group training pace to effectively develop their aerobic engine and being guided by what is going on with your heart rate rather than your will to the champion of the daily training sessions with your training partners! It means swimming, cycling and running with the ego checked at the door. But for those patient enough to do just that, once the aerobic engine is built the speedwork will have a profound positive effect their fitness and allow for a longer-lasting improvement in performance than for those who blast away from the first day of training each year.

Again, kudos for asking for help.  Over the last six years of running I've learned that everything I thought to be true, is false.  And that I know pretty-much nothing.  Everything I have learned from other succesful athletes and coaches that I have applied to my training has paid off in spades."   

Now, my question is...

Is this supposed to be every run, bar none? Or is this just base phase, or something else completely?  If it is every run, do you have to skip all of the local weekend road races?

I've probably gone as far as I can go on the newbie train after three years and still believe I can get to the point where I am capable of 6 minute miles over a 13.1 distance if I work at it so proper execution of this is important for me to figure out. If I read the site correctly, he did all of his training at this low HR pace, but I can't believe he didn't race at all...

Thanks in advance for your comments.

Thanks in advance for your comments.

So I stole this post from another thread so as not to hijack...

"Read what Mark Allen says: 

Here is a quote from the article:http://www.markallenonline.com/maoArticles.aspx?AID=2

Now for the tougher part…the endurance. This is where heart rate training becomes king. Endurance is THE most important piece of a triathlete’s fitness. Why is it tough to develop? Simply put, it is challenging because it usually means an athlete will have to slow things down from their normal group training pace to effectively develop their aerobic engine and being guided by what is going on with your heart rate rather than your will to the champion of the daily training sessions with your training partners! It means swimming, cycling and running with the ego checked at the door. But for those patient enough to do just that, once the aerobic engine is built the speedwork will have a profound positive effect their fitness and allow for a longer-lasting improvement in performance than for those who blast away from the first day of training each year.

Again, kudos for asking for help.  Over the last six years of running I've learned that everything I thought to be true, is false.  And that I know pretty-much nothing.  Everything I have learned from other succesful athletes and coaches that I have applied to my training has paid off in spades."   

Now, my question is...

Is this supposed to be every run, bar none? Or is this just base phase, or something else completely?  If it is every run, do you have to skip all of the local weekend road races?

I've probably gone as far as I can go on the newbie train after three years and still believe I can get to the point where I am capable of 6 minute miles over a 13.1 distance if I work at it so proper execution of this is important for me to figure out. If I read the site correctly, he did all of his training at this low HR pace, but I can't believe he didn't race at all...

Thanks in advance for your comments.

This winter my two goals are running, and also building cycling power. I can do this slow running thing if the dividends are worth it. I just don't want to train myself to go slow.

Same question.  I have proven to myself in running that speed work and races are brutal on my body, but I can log a lot of slow miles without injury and come race day, astonish myself at how fast I am, without having ever run anywhere near that fast in training.  I don't think this works for cycling though, but I'm not sure.

My question for cycling is how effective is group riding, where you hang in the middle of the group most of the time at an easy pace, and then kill yourself when it's your turn at the front. 

Swimming- eh, it's so much more about technique than training.

Like Bryan said, swimming and biking don't have the injury risk of running because of the lack of impact & eccentric loading. In possibly oversimplifying things, swimming and biking have kind of the reverse idea as running.  Do several hard sessions a week, where you really push yourself at times, then build around them with the longer aerobic level sessions you're thinking of. Do these as you can fit them in, both schedule-wise and being able to recover for the higher intensity sessions.  Bryan has said he never rides less than IM pace before, I've been doing that too (outside of warm-up, cool-down and recoveries between efforts). If I can't make IM pace or it's noticeably harder than it should be, I cut the ride short as the rest will likely do me better.

Volume is beneficial in swimming and biking, that's why the pros will do it. It's not quite as economical in terms of time for age-groupers though. The longer ones will help with holding power longer as opposed to creating more. As you get progressively closer to the event, knowing pacing will become more important, so the longer rides will help out more then. But for now, keep going with the intensity to build up power development. Most people can learn to scale their efforts for longer distance pretty well later on.