Doubles: Big Run in AM or PM?

I have done and suggested both approaches. I have also let the athlete chose based on his social/work demands. Never thought of either as being better than the other. My two cents, of course.

There's one caveat though. If you are doing a hard workout the next day after a big double like that, I would suggest going 12 AM 5 PM. You might not feel it because of the easy pace, but anything above ~10 miles requires a bit of recovery. It's better to give yourself 24h or so before the next demanding session.

it doesnt matter. what matters is day to do running

long terrrm wrote:

it doesnt matter. what matters is day to do running

You might be right. Just two additions: I feel like going one hour plus before breakfast makes me tougher. And being tough really IS improtant for marathoners. You can't be a sissy and be (semi)elite at distance running. And IF somethings pops up at work and you gotta run super late (sometimes happens for me) you just have 5 or 6 miles left and not 12+. Just my 0.02.

Pikachu

Pikachu wrote:

long terrrm wrote:

it doesnt matter. what matters is day to do running

You might be right. Just two additions: I feel like going one hour plus before breakfast makes me tougher. And being tough really IS improtant for marathoners. You can't be a sissy and be (semi)elite at distance running. And IF somethings pops up at work and you gotta run super late (sometimes happens for me) you just have 5 or 6 miles left and not 12+. Just my 0.02.

Pikachu

Pikachu, I am similar to you as I run doubles 4-5 days per week, an AM 7-10 miles and PM 5. You want to stagger the paces. make the longer run a "harder" run and ALWAYS make the second shorter run easy, 8:00+ pace for me

I used to go short AM, long PM until I had a class conflict that reversed that order. The results were the same in that I improved the seasons with short, long and improved going long, short.

Right now, a few years out of college, I have time and work constraints that make it so that I have to go long, short and it's working out just fine.

The one thing I liked better about short, long was that on structured workout days, you start your warmup in the afternoon already feeling a little warmed up in the legs, and you really feel ready to rock for your workout by the end of the warmup.

The bad thing about short/long for me was my stomach/bowels. I am a first thing in the morning pooper so if I get up early I can poop a bunch and not have to on my run. If I have to go longer in the afternoon, the chances of having to poop sneak up and I find myself hiding in bushes rather quickly, losing either my socks or the sleeves of my t-shirt.

Also going long, short helps me consume more calories over the day because my stomach really seems to be ready to have food settle after a longer run. And I don't have to make sure my stomach is as empty for a 4 mile run as for a 10-12. So in general caloric consumption goes up from going long/short, which I need.

The problem though for going long/short is being warmed up enough for a workout early in the morning, so I usually just add on about 1/3rd of the warmup. Aka I go 4-5 miles.

I don't know if you have stomach issues etc, but that is my take on the whole thing.

Marathoners run longer in the AM because that is when marathons are, in the am.

The hansons and other elite groups discuss training at the same time of day as their goal race.