Anyone ever tried running 4x a day (or 3)?

Most Kenyans run 3 times/day. A few even run 4 times/day such as Moses Tanui used to do. The main problem is recovery. Read "More Fire" for more details on Kenyan style running.

Karel Lismont - Marathon '72 Silver, '76 Bronze

3x day, 10-15km each run.

At the same time, another Belgian, Marc Smet 13:23/27:48/2:10:01 trained 1hr/day usually.

Never heard of any women training this frequently. Doesn't mean it won't work...

I barely have time to run two times a day and I'm a college student. Just curious, but are you in college/ have a job? That's crazy. I've never heard of a female running that much mileage. Keep it up

I have wondered the same thing, but never tried it. The obvious appeal is the more constant introduction of the body to the stress of the workout, so it adapts to function more efficiently to that stimulus. The obvious weakness is the drastic lessening of the time to recover/heal from the stress of the workout. Twice a day gives you eleven hours before the next one hour workout begins. Three times per day gives you only six and a half hours between workouts in the day, and eight overnight.

This is one area where an actual study would be very helpful, not just anecdotal accounts of individal runners.

Run 7 days A day.

inspired by domino's 5-5-5 deal, I switched to the following plan:

4:45am wakeup. four bananas consumed

5am 5 easy (6:20s)

6am breakfast alone. eggs again...

noon 5 moderate (5:40s)

1pm Lunch with Catherine Zeta Jones

1:25pm bj from Catherine Zeta Jones

6pm 5 fast (5:00s)

8pm Took your mom out to a nice seafood dinner and never called her again.

That schedule followed religously 7 days a week 52 weeks a year allowed me to run a 13:55 5k.

And you won't even guess my choice of footwear...

isolated runner wrote:

Hi, anyone ever tried running 3-4 times a day? I am close to 140 mpw right now and I thought it would be better if I did at least 3 runs a day occasionally, maybe 4.. or mingled with 2 runs a day. What I was thinking was a typical day could be like 5 miles early morning, 7 miles midday, 8 miles in the evening or something like that (or, if adding an extra run, just do 5-5-5-5 or 5-4-6-5 etc). What do you think? Anyone ever tried it? By the way, not sure if it matters but I'm a female in my early 20s.

I find it hard to believe that a woman can run 140 miles a week in the kitchen.

It seems like it would be boring.

deal breaker, wrote:

I find it hard to believe that a woman can run 140 miles a week in the kitchen.

It seems like it would be boring.

she must be using a treadmill....and there are plenty of dishes to wash so being bored should not be an issue.

not necesarilyly wrote:

deal breaker, wrote:

I find it hard to believe that a woman can run 140 miles a week in the kitchen.

It seems like it would be boring.

she must be using a treadmill....and there are plenty of dishes to wash so being bored should not be an issue.

But why would any man in their right mind waste their money buying a woman a treadmill. Clearly doing dishes isnt going to pay for it.

140 mpw is a lot. But didn't the Chinese marathoner, Zhou Chunxia, run almost 200 mpw?

Off the Grid wrote:

Karel Lismont - Marathon '72 Silver, '76 Bronze

3x day, 10-15km each run.

At the same time, another Belgian, Marc Smet 13:23/27:48/2:10:01 trained 1hr/day usually.

Never heard of any women training this frequently. Doesn't mean it won't work...

Frank Shorter - one place in front of Lismont in each race ran 13 times per week (6 doubles and a long run) and Geb runs 13 times per week. Both did in the 140-150 mile per week range.

Thats all you should need to know.

In high school, Brad Hudson was running 3 or 4 times per day.

Dr. Science wrote:

In high school, Brad Hudson was running 3 or 4 times per day.

Do you have training logs? I am kind of interested to see how he structured his days.

but you didnt say wrote:

Dr. Science wrote:

In high school, Brad Hudson was running 3 or 4 times per day.

Do you have training logs? I am kind of interested to see how he structured his days.

Did he go to a school like Glen Mills where the main goal by the staff is not to educate, but to train them?

Why are you running that much, and wanting to run more, if you're a female in your early 20's? Are you post-collegiate/serious level? This seems like a troll attempt. I know of only one lady who may be doing this, but I believe she has health issues and won't last in the sport.

Theres no need to run 3 times a day if your running 140 miles pers week. Just run twice a day. Something like 12-14 miles in the morning and 4-8 miles in the evening. That should give you about 16-20 miles for the day. Also, once or twice a week go for a longer run of 16-22 miles and skip the second run. This should work out to 120-150 miles per week. The 12-14 mile runs will teach your body to burn fat better than runs of 8 miles or less. However, they take something out of you so the second run (4-8 miles) should be shorter and easier.

Example Week:

Mon- am 12-14 miles easy

pm 4-8 miles easy

Tue- am 12-14 miles / striders (tempo, fartlek, etc...)

pm 4-8 miles easy

Wed- am 16-18 miles easy

Thu- am 12-14 miles / striders (tempo, fartlek, etc...)

pm 4-8 miles easy

Fri- am 12-14 miles easy

pm 4-8 miles easy

Sat- am 12-14 miles / striders (tempo, fartelk, etc...)

pm 4-8 miles easy

Sun- am 18-22 miles easy

Some ultra runners run 5+ a day. Just run easy if your going to it.

My high school coach, former Cal great Richie Boulet, did one triple in his whole career. It was in Davis, California - he needed to get 9 miles in that day and he spaced it out into three 20 minute runs because he couldn't bare the boredom of running for more than 20 minutes at a time in Davis, California.

During Hood to Coast I have run 3x in a 24 hour period (4 times in a 36 hour period once). They were pretty damn hard efforts (except for that "Shake out" run on Friday morning sometimes.