[JGwartney]

First off thanks for distilling your years of experience into an entertaining, informative and accessible book. I got a copy of Training for the Uphill Athlete this summer while training for my first marathon and immediately saw flaws in the training program I’d been using. I’ve been able to integrate the concepts outlined in your book for the past month and a half and feel that I’ll be much better prepared for my race than if I’d continued the program I began with.

I had a quick question about doing back to back long runs during a Specificity week. When doing back to back long runs is it better to for the runs to be of equal distance or for the first run to be longer? Does it make any difference at all as long as you get in the 60-80% of your weekly volume during these runs?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer and thanks again for authoring such a complete training manual.

Topic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on August 4, 2019 at 8:32 am #26142

We like to use B2B long runs for runners and run/hikes/climbs for mountaineers in the the specific period as a way to mimic most of the demands of the event without impacting normal life too severely. I do not think there is a magic balance of distance on the two days. The important thing is to begin day 2 carrying some fatigue. This will make the second day’s training effect especially powerful and more similar to what you’ll feel during the later stages of the event. I normally ask my athletes to shoot for close to 50/50 distribution on these days. But I do not have an science behind that.

Scott

[JGwartney]

JGwartney on August 4, 2019 at 3:02 pm #26165

Scott- Thanks for your advice, it is greatly appreciated.

Jon