Combining runs

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January 30, 2018 at 3:49 am #7808

tomasaiduk
Participant

Quick question,

Is it fine to combine runs together in the transition and base periods? For the first three weeks of my transition training I was doing 5 days of running:
1. Long Z1 (45min)
2. Z1 (30min)
3. Z1 (30min)
4. Z1 (30min)
5. Z2 (15min)

However, on the fourth week I ran Long Z1 and Z1 in one long run and felt pretty good about that (1h22min). Is it fine to do something like:
1. Long Z1 + Z1 (1h22min)
2. Z1 + Z1 (1h6min)
3. Z2 (16min)

This just gives me extra sleep in the mornings, but I can manage 5 days as well.
Would this have a negative or positive effects to my training (or it does not really matter)?

Cheers
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Posted In: General Training Discussion

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Anonymous on January 30, 2018 at 4:34 pm #7837

Tomas;

Yes, you can certainly increase the volume of the Z1-2 runs up to the tolerable limit. More is always better when it comes to basic aerobic conditioning, as long as you recover from day to day. It is better to do one long rather than 2 shorter runs.

Scott

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Anonymous on January 30, 2018 at 8:00 pm #7838

One additional thought as well: the more you sleep, the more you can train.

Life constraints need to be respected–work, family, etc–but it’s important to acknowledge that sleep is a hugely important factor. If you find that early mornings are wearing you down, don’t grind through. It’ll end up biting you in the long run.

As Scott J. said, long runs are better, so it sounds like this could be win-win for you. You could do both longer runs and longer sleeps, just on different days.

Participant

tomasaiduk on January 31, 2018 at 2:02 pm #7867

Thanks!

Participant

zupancic on February 1, 2018 at 3:08 am #7876

I read somewhere, maybe it was Outside magazine or something similar, that it is better to have 5 aerobic workouts a week than 2 or 3 longer, because the body reacts better or something like that.
Now, if it is the same number of hours per week, I don`t get why would it be better to split those hours to more workouts.
You say the opposite, that it is better to have fewer workouts that are longer. Can you elaborate a little on the differences in 5 shorter vs 3 long workouts, like the opening poster suggested that is more convenient for him.

Thank you!

Participant

LindsayTroy on February 2, 2018 at 9:20 pm #7938

I read somewhere, maybe it was Outside magazine or something similar, that it is better to have 5 aerobic workouts a week than 2 or 3 longer, because the body reacts better or something like that.

Better how? Depending on your goal better could mean lots of things, I’d be interested in what they were referring to as “better”

Inactive

Anonymous on February 4, 2018 at 7:44 am #7981

As usual, “it depends”.

I think what Scott J. meant is that a 2-hour run is better than a one hour run because there will be more glycogen depletion in slow twitch fibers which will stimulate mitochondrial growth and fiber recruitment. Past two hours, then I suspect Lindsay is on to the answer: what are you training for?

For example, if your training plan is seven hours per week, it’ll be more effective to have one or two longer runs and one or two shorter runs than it would be to have seven one-hour runs. But it wouldn’t make sense to have just one 7-hour day.

Does that make sense?

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