Are you busy? Me too! Recently back to work full time + four kids under age seven makes for a test of endurance.
And not just marathoning.
Let’s cover a few race training tip[s for busy people.
Doubles and Triples
If you are in ultra territory (26.2 miles or more), you may need to do multiple runs throughout the day, especially if your effort will span the course of 10+ hours.
I’ve talked about not going beyond 3 hours in a single training effort here before and I stand by it.
You need to prepare your body for the volume but there’s a fine line there between volume and injury.
So, consider double and triple runs in a single day.
For example, if you have 20 miles to run that could be 10+10 or 7+7+6
Naturally, you’ll have to schedule around this to a degree with other responsibilities like work but splitting your effort is a way to achieve the high volume necessary to do longer endurance events.
You won’t be able to do this for every single long effort programmed for you, but you can get away with it or use it as a pillar for overall programming if you have time or lifestyle barriers.
Back to back long efforts
Another race training strategy I have used in an effort to prepare my body for long efforts on a time crunched schedule is back to back long runs.
This would be, for example, doing a 12 mile schedules long run it key effort and then a 10 the following day.
The outcome here is training effect. You want your legs to be tired on run number 2. You also want to run through it so you are stronger on the other end.
Note you can combine with doubles or triples if you are training for a marathon or above.
Under that, you can probably choose either/ or & hit the volume and desired training effect.
Splitting the difference on bedtime
Sleep is a crucial part of recovery and you should program it as if it were part of your race training mileage.
My strategy, taken from an infant sleep counselor, is to go to bed 20-30 minutes earlier and wake up 20-30 minutes later than normal.
Normal is defined as when I’m not training for a race.
This gives me at least an extra half hour each night, translating to 3.5 hours extra per week.
My body needs that. I bet yours does, too.
I hope these tips are helpful to you & challenge you to choose ONE to apply during your next race training, no matter the distance!
If you are in need of a personalized program, send me a message. Otherwise, you can check out my template programs, which offer a simple approach to distances 5K-26.2.
Let’s Connect
I’d love to hear what’s working for you. Drop me an audio note to tell me!
