How fast can I get off 2-3 runs per week?

I know a few guys that used to be a bit faster than you as college runners, maybe low 15 type guys. They now run 3-5 days about 30-35 mpw and run 16:45-18:30. In their 30s with families and careers.

Don't know wrote:

I know a few guys that used to be a bit faster than you as college runners, maybe low 15 type guys. They now run 3-5 days about 30-35 mpw and run 16:45-18:30. In their 30s with families and careers.

How is this relevant?

ThatAverageRunner wrote:

Don't know wrote:

I know a few guys that used to be a bit faster than you as college runners, maybe low 15 type guys. They now run 3-5 days about 30-35 mpw and run 16:45-18:30. In their 30s with families and careers.

How is this relevant?

Are you daft?

Check Lee Grantham in Strava.

I am not sure about his history about runner, but during 2017 he averaged ~70km running and ~250km on bicycle to have a 2:20 marathon. He is more of a marathon/road ultra runner but his training approach might be something useful for you to check.

Good luck!

Yes you can run 16 minutes on that training but not 14 minutes which you need to do in D1.

Far from optimal but you can run close to your potential if you're focused on short distances.

Shave all the junk and make all the 3 runs quality:

1) Tempo

2) Short intervals / Fartlek

3) Longish run at a good clip

Don't hammer the cross training too much so you've fresh legs in running days.

Predictor wrote:

Yes you can run 16 minutes on that training but not 14 minutes which you need to do in D1.

It sure sounds better than not being able to race at all so that's something

anyone have suggestions for a 5 days of running per 2 weeks, training plan?

You might have this covered but in regards to your injuries a couple of things come up that greatly impact those that are injury prone. So, I can't help but ask anyway:

- Do you do something to strengthen your hip stability muscles? Most don't and it's only a three minute per day exercise.

- Have you had your form analyzed? I have had athletes that pronate way more on one leg than the other. I always knew which leg their injuries would pop up on.

- Most overlooked item for any athlete I have ever coached is lack of sleep / poor diet / alcohol etc. I can write a book on how this will catch up to you. If you are not recovering between workouts then you have to wait another day to do them. It's that simple. You will not adapt to the one you did, and will not build on it for the next one even if you're not injured. For most college kids it's I had to finish a project, study for an exam so I got little sleep. I hear you, but now you have to put off that workout.

It's obviously not ideal training, but 3 days per week is basically the idea behind the Furman First philosophy.

http://www2.furman.edu/sites/first/Pages/rlrf.aspx

You can google Furman training plans from 5k to the marathon, but maybe your coach can set you up with something similar.

Good luck.

Thanks for the advice but yeah I've went down all those paths and have taken care of those items. It pains me the most that so many of my teammates can get away with treating their body so poorly and still run decent (alcohol, poor diet, etc).

A good chunk of the 16:20-17:10/34:30-35:00 guys at our Uni/Amateur Athletic club only a max of 4 days per week. A lot of the times they only do track sessions and races. Maybe one or two easy runs on their own. Actually really frustrating and impressive lol.

A bit slower than if you did 7, or maybe... 8 days a week.

Guts wrote:

Far from optimal but you can run close to your potential if you're focused on short distances.

Shave all the junk and make all the 3 runs quality:

1) Tempo

2) Short intervals / Fartlek

3) Longish run at a good clip

Don't hammer the cross training too much so you've fresh legs in running days.

Exactly this! And doubles on the bike. I think you could get reasonably fast like this.

jorvack wrote:

Guts wrote:

Far from optimal but you can run close to your potential if you're focused on short distances.

Shave all the junk and make all the 3 runs quality:

1) Tempo

2) Short intervals / Fartlek

3) Longish run at a good clip

Don't hammer the cross training too much so you've fresh legs in running days.

Exactly this! And doubles on the bike. I think you could get reasonably fast like this.

Definitely agree with this. Those are the (imo) clear three workout choices to do each week. Also agree that you should keep the xtraining light the days before your tempo and speed day. Doubling back with some xtraining would be good. I would suggest doing a second "interval" day in cross training as well.

Depends on level of talent mostly! I coach a couple of US hobbyjoggers with just 3 sessions per day and they did improve very fast. www.coachjs.se

Sorry! Even I write wrong sometimes ;) Ii would of course be 3 sessions per week. :)

The Wizard

Chatted with my coach and we have a general outline of starting off by trying to run 5 days every two weeks on every tuesday / friday and every other sunday.

Cycle Schedule:

Day 1 (M): Easy Spin on the bike

Day 2 (T): Run

Day 3 (W): Bike intervals

Day 4 (Th): Easy Spin on the bike

Day 5 (F): Run

Day 6 (Sat): Bike intervals

Day 7 (Sun): Easy Spin on the bike

Day 8 (M): Progression Ride on the bike if feeling good

Day 9 (T): Run

Day 10 (W): Bike Intervals

Day 11 (Th): Easy Spin on the bike

Day 12 (F): Run

Day 13 (Sat): Easy Spin on the bike

Day 14 (Sun): Run

The running days will be workout days essentially so no easy runs in the schedule as of now (that sunday run may be close to one though).

Bike interval days are just a way to get my heart rate up outside of running. Its pretty hard to maintain an elevated heart rate when just spinning so bike intervals get my average heart rate around 150 BPM. The easy spin days may be subbed with aqua jogging or swimming.

One thing we were really unsure about was where to put the cycling interval days - I need something to get my heart rate at a reasonable level when I am not running and we thought right after the running days would be the best place for those.

Any triathletes out here have any suggestions for this?

Forgot to mention one thing - I am not sure how I will be able to handle those cycling workouts right after running days so definitely could use some feedback for those as well as where to place them.