Optimal way to double: shorter run in am or pm?

wejo wrote:

Anyone have any evidence if the one way is more optimal than the other.

Letsrun appears to have a particularly loose definition of "evidence." This explains a lot.

I think the natural thing would be to do the tougher workout at the time you would want to do a single workout day. Do the easy one at your "off time". I hate doing more than 4-5 miles early in the day before work, so doubles are easy morning, harder afternoon/evening.

resurrecting this thread because I was asking myself this and did a search.

surprised that no-one here has mentioned recovery and injury implications of one approach versus another. my intuition is that it's better to do the shorter run in the morning with an eye to recovery and injury - with the shorter run first, your body is already (more or less) fully recovered by the time you do the longer/harder run, whereas if you do the longer/harder run first, your body is still in 'recovery mode' when you're starting the shorter run. any thoughts on this? (or better, elite/coaching testimonies)

Cross country - main workout/run in morning, secondary run in PM (most races are in the morning)

Track - main workout/run in the PM, secondary run in AM (most races are in the PM)

Old people - If I have time to do 2 runs, if easy mileage, I do the longer run in the morning. If any sort of speed however, I run in afternoon when my legs are more warm and ready to go.

sprooty wrote:

resurrecting this thread because I was asking myself this and did a search.

surprised that no-one here has mentioned recovery and injury implications of one approach versus another. my intuition is that it's better to do the shorter run in the morning with an eye to recovery and injury - with the shorter run first, your body is already (more or less) fully recovered by the time you do the longer/harder run, whereas if you do the longer/harder run first, your body is still in 'recovery mode' when you're starting the shorter run. any thoughts on this? (or better, elite/coaching testimonies)

no bites on this idea?

I do my doubles based on convenience. However, I've often thought it probably makes sense to have the harder effort coincide when you would be racing. So for most weekend warriors this would be AM but for college runners would likely be PM. Anyone have any thought on this aspect?

During summers I'll do the long workout when it's cool early and then the shorter workout in the PM as heat training.

In the cold dark midwest winter, I'll typically do 50/50 - a medium treadmill session in the morning, and a medium run outdoors in the afternoon before it gets dark.