Paul terget runs his 2 a day runs at 6 and 10 am .

I will follow up a LT or VO2 max workout with an easy 4 miler a couple of times a week with only 2 hours between them.

Very affective in regards to completely depleting the tank without tearing up the nueromuscular system. Teaches muscles to store more readily available glycogen stores.

I taught high school in my best running years. The early start to the workday was always horrible for me and doing a run at an even earlier hour left me almost dysfunctional at work (it was good excuse for being dysfunctional anyway.)

So I started running just once a day at 3:30 or so and would come home and nap. Then I began feeling guilty for not doubling so I'd get out for a second run after the nap, usually around 7:00-8:00 PM.

Idiot. You read ONE report that says that so you believe thats what he does?

His name is Tergat.

There is quite a bit of material that shows that Kenyans have runs rather close together. Toby Tanser always says so in his books. Anyways I think they usually take naps in between the runs so that helps.

I don't think it makes a huge difference and their are more important things to take care off besides the break between runs.

I routinely will run my second run about 3.5 hours after my first and sometimes less than 3 hours. Life happens and you just have to roll with the punches.

A lot of training is on public roads, and there is a lot of dust kicked up, so early morning is the best time for air quality. There is no street lighting, and traffic safety is not a practiced concept.

HRE -- did you have a wife and kids at the time? Not being facetious. I'd love to be able to do longer/harder runs in the late afternoon/early evening (I get home at 5:30PM from work), but with husband/dad duties I just can't. I do the bulk of my 70 mpw before 6AM.

mondo bondo wrote:

Idiot. You read ONE report that says that so you believe thats what he does?

His name is Tergat.

It doesn't matter if he pulled the report out of his ass. He is still right, and you are still wrong (except about how to spell Tergat).

2 hours seems a little short, but closer together makes sense. If we assume for most people the second run of the day is the easier one and it's purpose is to flush out waste products and spur the recovery process. Waiting too long would let the legs stiffen up even more and make the recovery less effective. Furthermore, it allows more time before tomorrow's first (presumably harder) run so you can start the next day a little fresher.

I know Kenyan runners who do the same. Early shakeout run, then workout later in the morning.

Algonkian wrote:

HRE -- did you have a wife and kids at the time? Not being facetious. I'd love to be able to do longer/harder runs in the late afternoon/early evening (I get home at 5:30PM from work), but with husband/dad duties I just can't. I do the bulk of my 70 mpw before 6AM.

Not then. There was only me.

HRE makes a good point that is we as runners do what is needed to reach our level. He was not a morning runner so he made sure he found his way to get in his workout. Would he have been better if he was able to run at 6:00 am and again at 3:30 pm we will never know unless we can discover a way to send him back a few decades. My question for him is - when school was not in session (summers, etc) did you keep the same schedule?

Summer's were great when I taught. I lived the life of the pro then. I'd usually run 10-15 miles in the late morning and another 7-10 around 6:00-7:00 PM. The heat and humidity on the morning runs was tough but I thought of it as making me tougher. In the evenings I'd usually drive to a big graveyard that sat on a hilltop. It was cooler, there was a breeze and some great views of the setting sun. Then I'd come home, have a bath and dinner then settle in front of a fan and the TV with a cold beer.

you only part of it, I believe he also did a evening run, so he was actually doing triples....many kenyans do this

no he did some times but for a block he was doing 2 a days like that.

Paul Tergat is retired. Retired Emeritus Kenyan runners are allowed to quit by noon and skip out on the third, PM run.

fuser wrote:

Paul Tergat is retired. Retired Emeritus Kenyan runners are allowed to quit by noon and skip out on the third, PM run.

He's talking about Paul Terget, not Paul Tergat.

HRE wrote:

I taught high school in my best running years. The early start to the workday was always horrible for me and doing a run at an even earlier hour left me almost dysfunctional at work (it was good excuse for being dysfunctional anyway.)

So I started running just once a day at 3:30 or so and would come home and nap. Then I began feeling guilty for not doubling so I'd get out for a second run after the nap, usually around 7:00-8:00 PM.

Erm, hi. Please list all of your pr's. Thanks.

I seem to remember reading in Athletics Weekly (British equivalent of Track & Field News or Times or whatever it is) back in the late 90s that Tergat built up to 3 runs a day in peak training (5am, 10am and 5pm).