5-10K on a half hour's worth of training a day?

Another example - Mike Barratt - all his career he only averaged half an hour a day from Lauriston at lunch time, but it would be 30 minutes of tempo....and on that schedule of 35 miles a week, he was one of the best runners in Surrey and the South of England on the country and the roads.....that's right folks...he reached National level on only 30 minutes a day average...you read it right.

John Sheridan (London Irish) was another pretty low mileage runner. During his best years he would run 4 miles to and from work (painting and decorating). He ran about 14:20 for 5000 and 29 minutes for 10.000 on that and also ran a good marathon (2:17) with a slightly longer "build up."

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There was a runner called Peter Barrett who used to run for Shaftesbury Barnett in The Uk in the 80's. I read on this site he only ran half an hour a day at good tempo. Will find the page for this and put on the site.

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Can you provide his web site?

Thanks

Just do lots of fast, continuous running, unless your legs are really fried. Don't do any kind of structured workouts, just run hard, and CHARGE the hills on all of your runs. Race on many a weekend, and try to do a longer run on Sunday, 90+ minutes if you can.

This is a great thread, especially the link to the older thread referencing the Brit runners. This is why I read LETSRUN.

try rising early

Rather than a half hour every day, I would suggest running an hour a couple days and taking a couple days off (if that is possible with your schedule). As you get older, you will find it takes a good 20 minutes just to warm up. The hour runs will be much more beneficial. You will then have a couple free days you won't have to worry about running. Just run the hour hard enough it takes you that extra day to recover. That will give you plenty of endurance for a 10k.

15:12, 25:20, 1:09:57 off of essentially that. i just didnt have tons and tons of time to train.

a couple things

My job is EXTREMELY physical (hauling, lifting, etc) - and some people may laugh - but i think this helped a lot with fitness.

I did go about an hour and a half on my day off. I ran this at a good clip. Aside from that I did only striders occasionally. Zero workouts. I raced basically every weekend. Thats it. My normal runs varied from 5:30-9 minute pace, depending on what the hell i felt like doing. I also ate well and slept a lot. I do have a history of higher mileage, and have run competitively since high school, so the base is there obviously. I dont consider myself "talented".

Sometimes running fast isnt all that complicated. Just run fast.

18 year old runner won our state 15k road title in 44.09 some years back. He was running about 80km/50ml per week max.

Basically longish run on sunday up to 20km, monday steady run up to 10km, some hill reps on tuesday, steady 10-15km on wednesday, track thursday 8x200m -400m with short recoveries, steady run up to 10km on friday, race or fartlek saturday.

A few years later he had his mileage up to 220km per week and ran a world best in the marathon and won a world title.

My point is if you want to win world titles and break world records you will probably have to push your training as far as is possible.

But if you are happy to run below your absolute physical potential but enjoy a well balanced lifestyle and achieve a good level of running fitness then 50mpw will certainly do the job.

I don't know if this is one of the guys mentioned already. In Tinman's thread on unorthodox training methods there was a good description of a runner who could only run 5 miles a day because of a childhood injury, but did so with modest success.

luv2run wrote:

I bet you are wanting to run really fast on 30 min/day. Generally I say you can forget it and not even bother racing until you can get your priorities straight.

Running snobs can sometimes make the most asinine comments!!

You're right. Did the poster who responded even READ the first post?

Formosan Joe: Where did you read/see that? I am curious.

Thank you.

Sussex Runner wrote:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=705629&page=1

Another example - Mike Barratt - all his career he only averaged half an hour a day from Lauriston at lunch time, but it would be 30 minutes of tempo....and on that schedule of 35 miles a week, he was one of the best runners in Surrey and the South of England on the country and the roads.....that's right folks...he reached National level on only 30 minutes a day average...you read it right.

John Sheridan (London Irish) was another pretty low mileage runner. During his best years he would run 4 miles to and from work (painting and decorating). He ran about 14:20 for 5000 and 29 minutes for 10.000 on that and also ran a good marathon (2:17) with a slightly longer "build up."

You have GOT to think that people like this are the exception to the rule. This guy probably has more natural talent in his right foot than most have in their whole body.

I would think if you can run fast on just 30 mins a day, then you're underachiveing and with more volume you could still be improving. That's just my opinion...

according to the cover story of last months running times article on tirunesh dibaba, the longest run she has ever done is the 10k where she won worlds in just seconds over 30 minutes, so she has never run continuously for 31 minutes and she has 3 world cross country titles, 3 track world titles and the indoor 5k world record, talk about talent.

the most amount of time she has run for is 30 minutes and 24 seconds to win worlds, when she qualified for worlds she ran 30 minutes and 15 seconds, maybe kenneth cooper was right when he said alls a person needs is 20-30 minutes of exercise a few days a week.

Do you have a link to that story? Thanks.

luv2run wrote:

...forget it and not even bother racing until you can get your priorities straight.

Hahaha -- "priorities"?

Maybe as a 19 year-old D3 runner your sole "priority" is putting in 90mpw chasing a dream you're not going to achieve. That, and hotness threads.

You might find this hard to believe, but some of our priorities include developing or maintaining actual careers, marriages, families, or even (wait for it...) *other interests*!

Years ago I trained 20+ hours a week, but now with new pieces of a life to think about I *will not let myself* train more than 7. An hour a day, two hours on Sunday, and one day off a week. With that 60/70-something mpw I'm pretty happy with how I compete. Frankly, I'd probably take you down at anything over 5k. And I'd be nicer to the joggers afterward, too, while you went home to have a tantrum on letsrun.