Running doubles every day is really working!

I'm coming back from injury (2 year layoff, started back up in late April) and just recently getting into the low 70s. I'll have to say that doubles at ~70 is MUCH easier than singles and I don't feel like I'm losing anything, but maybe actually gaining something. I definitely feel better recovered and, though I obviously can't say for sure, like I'm getting the same or even greater benefit than from singles at the same mileage.

Typical double day is 6/4, 6/5, 7/4 and sometimes 8/4 or I'll reverse it, depending on what I did the day before, what's planned for the next day, work obligations, etc. Every once in a while I'll triple, where I run my typical 6/4 and add an additional short run with gf and dogs of 1 or 2 miles. One of these days might look like 6 @ 9am, 4 @ 6 pm, 1.5 @ 8pm. Strangely I feel like the last run aids recovery in some way. It's such a short distance that I don't feel it adds any significant stress and my legs feel better afterwards.

Will your office have a shower/gym? Is there a gym nearby? Either one will make your life much easier since you could easily get the 4 miles in at lunch.

Can you find an apartment within a few miles of your office? If so, try to run commute some days.

6 a.m. is nothing. Many of us training for marathons while holding down full-time jobs with kids get up as early as 4 a.m. to get decent midweek runs in. It depends on how much you want to dedicate your life to running.

unfornately there wont be time for a lunch run. its going to have to be a double very early, and then one at night. which is why im struggling to plan it out based on all the info i gave. im gonna give it my best shot to make it work though but i just wish it was easier. this is what i signed up for though, its a guaranteed good starting job, just with rather unfortunate hours. its looking like i may be working on some saturdays as well.

will sub 15 be do-able with 50-60 hours of work and the cold winter? also, im wondering how long i should just run easy and build base for until i start incorporating tempo and fartlek workouts. i probably wont start intervals until early march because its going to be so cold outside and snowy until then.

not sure how to quote you bostonbilly but no gym available at the office. i really wont be able to run at lunch. im going to have to do a morning and evening run if i want to double. i wont be able to run to work either for this reason.

if you get up at 4am to run, do you also double again later at night? im just concerned that i wont be able to start my main workout/run until 7:15pm when its cold and dark out, and i wont finish up until 8:30. then theres really no time to do anything else if i want to get enough sleep to wake up at 6am to get in a double and be energized enough to work another 8-6pm day. thoughts on this?

15 hopeful wrote:

not sure how to quote you bostonbilly but no gym available at the office. i really wont be able to run at lunch. im going to have to do a morning and evening run if i want to double. i wont be able to run to work either for this reason.

if you get up at 4am to run, do you also double again later at night? im just concerned that i wont be able to start my main workout/run until 7:15pm when its cold and dark out, and i wont finish up until 8:30. then theres really no time to do anything else if i want to get enough sleep to wake up at 6am to get in a double and be energized enough to work another 8-6pm day. thoughts on this?

I feel like a OAR quote would be appropriate here

something about the trial of miles, miles of trials

What about the 0.5 mile run benefit claim here? I doubt its been tried by many runners. Anyone try this since 2011 when this thread started?

DOUBLE UP!

Bump because this thread rocks

Wow...totally forgot about this thread. I never was able to get my mojo back, unfortunately. Maybe I'll try again! Thanks for bumping this back up.

A) Noticed you are a cat person.

B) Yuck

C) Cat urine, everywhere

+1 for doubling.

I run at 6 am and then again at 6 pm. Usually a 7/4 double for my easy days. Workout days will be anywhere from 10-15 in the morning plus 4 in the evening. I have always noticed huge physical benefits within a few weeks of starting up doubling. Definitely a tough adjustment, especially cause I usually just jump right in to 4 miles extra per day, but completely worth it.

Recently I too have been throwing in lots of easy miles with doubles (not every single day, but about 3-4 days a week). I was struggling with some fairly minor foot pains (sore big toe, plantar fasciitis, sore calcaneus/lower achilles) after trying to do lots of intensity with low milage (in hopes of preventing injuries). However I'm figuring out that the low intensity, higher volume jogging (it should not even be called running cuz i usually go that slow) is really therapeutic for my mild foot pains. My feet seem to be resolving themselves now after about 3 weeks of this shift in my running. I still do intensity (mostly 15-20min tempos and some 200m sprints, and mile/800m races) because I'm going for a good mile time, but I make sure that each intense session is separated by 2-3 very easy intensity days.

If you are working through some minor/moderate aches and pains my advice is to run more with doubles and make sure to run easy.

I'v been running slow 3 miles in the mornings for a few weeks now before an afternoon run.I feel like it really loosens me up before a track workout in the evening.

Anyone else having/had success with very short shakeout runs as short as 1-3 miles?

Bell Lapper wrote:

You'll find this 3 part article interesting:

http://www.scienceofrunning.com/2009/10/is-9mi-once-better-than-45mi-twice.html

I was especially intrigued by this statement:

"If we look at growth hormone release during easy running, there's a swift rise intitially for the first 30-40min of a run, and then it levels off significantly to 60min. In one study, it showed an increase of about 550 percent from 0-40min, yet from 40-60min it only went up another 40-50percent."

The name of the study was not cited but maybe the ideal day would be something like three 30-40 min. runs? Brother Colim O'Connell, the great Kenyan coach, believes in this approach.

Interesting. To the extent this is true, you're still getting some hGh production up to 60 min, no? So maybe the ideal double day would be 40 min in the am, 60 in the pm? Or if that is too much, 40 and 40 on double days, 60 on single days?

I'm pretty sure Joe Vigil once said 125 min of running for the long run was about ideal as it helped work on running economy, but more than that was unnecessary. Not sure if that is physiologically sound or not, but that's what I recall.

Doubling is where it is at. I use the summers to ramp up my base milage. I'll double everyday at work, 5 miles on a late lunch around 3-4pm. I'll do my main run in the mornings before work, 7am.

I actually look forward to my second run of the day. I take it very, very slow, especially since it's in the heat of the afternoon.

Typically do 10-12 in the morning along with the lunchtime fives. Then a LR on Sunday gets me some solid milage for three months of summer. Once the fall comes I'll ramp up the intensity with an extra workout and drop the doubles. This has been working for me the last few summers.

Hardest part is mental. If you're talk about doubling then you're probably in pretty damn good shape, generally speaking. So it's not like you physically can't complete a second run. You just have to force yourself to get out there a second time. That's where mental toughness comes into play.

mental part is key, getting out the door for the second one. I'm procrastinating about it at this very second. The trick is to start super slow. Yes, that is hobby jogger advice, but it works. After a few miles of super slow, you can get the pace down.

I made completely contraring experiences with running doubles, although I have to admit that I only tried it a short time.

I typically run 6 days a week (only singles) and about 50 mpw. I had two weeks off (from work) recently and wanted to run as much as possible (my normal runs plus some easy/short secondary runs on most of the days) in that two weeks.

I imagined that I could easily add some more miles that way. Surprisingly I experienced the opposite effect: my legs felt dead (no energy in them, running felt very hard) on almost all the runs and I even struggled to reach my normal weekly milage. I also found it harder to run the same distance on one day in two runs than in one. I ran 6-7 singles/week after that and could handle the same amount of miles much better again. (I didn't train harder during that time, just one tempo run a week and some strides/hill sprints like before and also no long run unlike before.)

I'm surprised that everybody else seems to experience the opposite. Is it possible that I have to get used to running twice a day first, even when I do not run more miles than before?

Or am I different to anybody else (which I cannot believe). Maybe it was just some strange coincidence..

Yay

Yes, you have to give your body time to adjust.