Forums >General Running>The Less is More approach - does it work?
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Feeling the growl again
There is no reason that you cannot improve fitness on 4 days running as long as you do the right workouts on the right days, at the right intensities. Most everyone will agree that you can effectively substitiute various cross training for what might usually be your "easy" days. The role of the easy days in many running programs is mostly about allowing your body to recover so that you can perform the "key" workouts at the proper levels to continue to improve fitness. For example, if your 4 running days per week are a) one day of intervals or running at faster than goal pace, b) a day for a tempo run at or near goal pace for 50-75% of the race distance, c) a long run, and d) a run that starts out easy, but the last 25%-50% are done at your tempo run pace. These are the kind of workouts that will improve running performance. Just allow some recovery between them.
"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand
I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills
Actually, I do disagree. I've tried this (hitting key workouts, cutting out other mileage) several times due to issues getting enough time to train. It flat out doesn't work (at least for me). It will work for awhile, kind of like reducing mileage and hitting workouts to peak into a key race(s). After awhile, however, with the reduction in volume, I can no longer tolerate the length or speed of workouts that I used to. Performance begins to decline. IMHO saying the main purpose of easy days is recovery is misleading. Do you recover on easy days? Of course. But they serve an important primary purpose -- to continue to develop you at a level that does not negatively impact recovery. In other words, the primary purpose is what I mentioned before -- continuing to develop you aerobically, strengthen various tissues, and add endurance. Recovery simply happens because you are not pushing it, it's a secondary benefit. Cross training, while better than not doing anything, is NOT running. I did slash over a minute off my 10K in college simply by nordic skiing 2-3 hours/day all winter. However the alternative was not doing anything since there was too much snow to run anywhere -- running would have been better. Watch any very fit skiier or cyclist try to run fast for the first time and you will see cross training is not a 1:1 replacement. This is why when top runners are injured they will spend hours and hours in the pool, on a bike, etc to replace that one hour of easy running they are missing. My current conditioning sucks primarily because I cannot get the volume in. Becuase I cannot get volume, I can't go out and do 4-5 miles' worth of intervals on the track, I don't have the stamina the volume would give. When I get time one of these days, I am going to post an analysis of my performance by year as it correlates to volume. The results are pretty clear for this n=1 experiment.
meh
The Furman Institute of Running and Scientific Training (FIRST) marathon program was born, in a sense, when Bill Pierce and Scott Murr decided to enter a few triathlons way back in the mid-1980s. Just one problem: They hit the wall when they added biking and swimming to their running. The demands of three-sport training were too much, so they cut back their running from six days a week to four.
My stupid little mobile-friendly treadmill calculator
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So, you can run better with less miles, but you'll probably have a pretty nasty heart attack? Hmmm.
Champions are made when no one is watching
I used to run every day........and kept getting injured and sidlined....... Now I take off Mon and Fri....and I never seem to get hurt....... You have to define 'less' cause that is a term that is different for everyone, but I cut back to 5 days and I am doing much better now........for what it is work in this string....
I used to run every day........and kept getting injured and sidlined.......
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I've got a fever...
Just to be contrary - I've had exactly the opposite experience: the less I run, the more frequently I get injured, or feel sore, or hurt, or just don't wanna run.
But I'm pretty sure if I had the time and inclination, I could run 10-15 miles daily and never be injured. Oh - and I'd probably get a hella lot faster if I did it.
On your deathbed, you won't wish that you'd spent more time at the office. But you will wish that you'd spent more time running. Because if you had, you wouldn't be on your deathbed.
Maybe even faster than Tanya.