3 runs a day?

it would be better if you could just get all your miles in in a single run, if not, try to hold it to just 2.

"It's no accident that the elite Kenyan runners, many of whom train three times a day during serious blocks of training, have chronically high daily intakes of a number of high-GI foodstuffs, including corn meal, white bread, potatoes, and highly sugared tea. It's also no accident that the Kenyans go straight to their breakfast/lunch/dinner tables immediately after their workouts are over."

I think the Kenyans do OK at 5K-10K.

Kenyans do it.

Just run baby.

"We ran twice a day, sometimes three times. Twenty miles a day, sometimes more. There were a couple of 170-mile weeks... All we did was run - run, eat, and sleep." - Frank Shorter detailing his training with Jack Bacheler and Jeff Galloway prior to the 1972 Olympics

Frank S. wrote:

"We ran twice a day, sometimes three times. Twenty miles a day, sometimes more. There were a couple of 170-mile weeks... All we did was run - run, eat, and sleep." - Frank Shorter detailing his training with Jack Bacheler and Jeff Galloway prior to the 1972 Olympics

True, but I have modified this history to fit my current audience:

We ran twice a week, sometimes three times. Twenty miles a week, sometimes more. There were about 170 walk breaks a week...all we did was run, walk, run, walk, eat power bars...

bad idea? wrote:

I've heard of ultra runners doing 3 a day, but would it be a bad idea for say a 5k-10k guy?

Hi Alex - its good to hear from you again.

It is best for you aerobically and muscle endurance (glycogen storage) wise if you can get all your mileage in 1 run per day, 2 per day is second best, and 3 per day is third best.

But unfortunately its not that simple.

You may get the comparable benefit from 1 run of 15 miles as you get from 2 runs of 10 miles or 3 runs of 7 miles. You have to see what your body can handle. Which of these three leaves you the freshest for your quality workouts and is most sustainable. The answer is likley different for each person.

If I run 110 miles per week in singles am I any less prepared for a marathon then if I did 140 miles per week in doubles or 170 miles per week in triples? I would answer no and so which I use would depend on which one my body handles best. Some feel for confident with a base of 150 mile weeks (Seko, Geb, Rodgers) while some feel amply prepared with 100 mile weeks (Lopez, Virgin).

But before you blindly jump into triples - at some point the success goes those who work smartest not hardest. At the highest level everyone works very hard, its the smartest workers that get the win.

My frosh year in college we did 3-a-days the first two weeks of camp. Half the team never made it through the third meet of the season due to injury.

Some of that had to do with our basework going in, some of it had to do with fragility, and some had to do with having no friggin clue what we were doing.

I think the law of diminishing returns is in effect here. You get MOST of your benefit out of one (or even two) runs rather than three. A 5k-10k guy may benefit from 2-a-days but I see a beaten path to the PT with more.

andrew

bad idea? wrote:

I've heard of ultra runners doing 3 a day, but would it be a bad idea for say a 5k-10k guy?

Why do you want to run 3 times a day? Why not 4? Why not 5?

I've come to believe that some runners are more interested in bragging about their training schedules than they are in racing well. I remind you of Bowerman's quote: Are you in this to do mindless labor, or do you want to improve?

At some point you'll benefit from a regular long run, so you wouldn't want to eliminate that by doing three a days all the time, although I suppose you could do 15-5-5 or something. Otherwise, I think it's a matter of personal preference and available time. Let's say you had a 9-5 job and went grad school at night with class starting at 7:00pm and a 45 minute drive to the classroom and you didn't want to get up super early to get a long pre-work run in. So you'd run 5 miles or so before work, another 5 at lunch, and 5 more after work. Why not? When I was in college, the guy who had our school record in the mile would do 4-5 two mile runs a day.

Its worth pointing out that even the three a day kenyan approach is/was only undertaken by a few athletes and even then the third run was often no more than jog to loosen the legs.

And as a previous poster pointed out you can only absorb lots of tough training with lots of rest and good quality food. This is the bit a lot of western runners seem to skip. They train hard and then fail to eat the right stuff straight away and then get extra sleep.

A 15 miler is more aerobic stress than 2x7.5m what is..than 3x5m at the same pace.

Now that is a good and a negative thing, producing more stress is good on one side but that also means that its harder to absorb for your body.

Also on the negative side for the 15miler is the risk of dehydration and muscular problems.

I would say for recovery its always better to split it up even to 3 runs a day, for hard days...i prefer doubles cause a nice recovery in the evening helps me more to relax and sleep good than a long recovery direct after a workout but thats just my experience.

What the kenyans do(thats what Komen/Kiptanui did) is that they have a nice warm-up early in the morning("open the lungs") then the main session at around 10am and then the afternoon jog to flush the crap out of the system, quite logic.

15-miles is not always better than 2 x 7.5-miles. Why does everyone keep saying this?

Sure, a longer run is better than two shorter runs as long as the paces are the same. But what makes elite runners, well... elite, is that they train hard. This means intervals, hard fast running, etc. It's better to do two runs like 6-miles at half marathon pace and a easy 10-mile run, then to do a steady or easy 15-mile run. That's what doubles are for.

And who might you be?

I'm with 'Logic' on this one, I was training for an ultra and researched a lot about multiple runs on the same day or even long runs back-to-back on consecutive days. I soon learnt from trying it and talking with a few 'in the know' that although different things work for different people (and a lot of this is psyc ! ie you think what you're doing is the best for you) physiologically best to get in down in one effort, for many reasons e.g. aerobically, recovery, glyogen issues, endocrine system

also agree it's not all about the volume, I'm a Lydiard man (and from NZ) and feel need a good base but doesn't have to be more than 100 MPW, then quality not quantity after that...

pete

Sorry my last post was in response to JK Runner.