Am reading this book. What a book? Advocated for only 3 running days:
long run
tempo run
interval run
and 2 cross training days of either biking or swimming. book claims that this program can work for all distances from 5k to marathon and all levels. wow! thoughts!!!
Worked for me when I started running. However, after a while the cross training became running.
Yes, this works to an extent. We implement something very similar at the high school I coach at. Here in Australia XC is not popular - to students and staff alike - and the school only gives three days dedicated to XC training. Therefore, we alternate the Tempo with another interval session every 2-3 weeks, or dependent on a race. We train M W F and tell the student to cross-train on their days off...some run which is fine also.
In theory it may work but if you can run, why not run? If you are healthily why would you only want to run 3 days?
Because running three specific runs in a week requires more recovery time.
Ask Cam Levins about running less.
coach ti wrote:
Am reading this book. What a book? Advocated for only 3 running days:
long run
tempo run
interval run
and 2 cross training days of either biking or swimming. book claims that this program can work for all distances from 5k to marathon and all levels. wow! thoughts!!!
this sounds like tri training. almost exactly.
This is the book produced by the FIRST program guys at Furman University. It works for some. It fails for some. Of the people I know who have tried it (either because of injury problems or because they were getting older or because they just wanted something different to do) every single one has had worse running results in races following this program. Several reported generally feeling better and avoiding some of the little niggling overuse injuries.
The is letsrun where we like running. We don't do run-less here.
This was debated a great length on here years ago when the book came out(use the search bar). Endurance Planet forgot to mention that when you heard about it on the podcast.
To be honest I hate cross training, so I probably wouldn't enjoy that plan at all.
I like running too much to run less.
I do know a 48 year old guy who swears by it tho - he has gotten faster on the program and is down to 16 mid for 5k.