Saturday, February 13, 2010

The Low Mileage Experiment

What would happen if you did ONLY hard intervals and long runs, thereby eliminating all other running from your routine?

Well, I'm going to find out.

For the next 6 months I'm going to try running no more than 25-30 miles a week and no more than 4-5 days a week. All of it will be intense. With the exception of one long run a week, I'm going to limit myself to hill repeats, fartleks, tempo runs and track workouts.

I'm also going to rely heavily on Wii fit exercises, while adhering to the hundred pushup challenge (www.hundredpushups.com) to build strength and endurance.

Hopefully, this experiment will bring some good results. I may completely crash and burn, but that doesn't really matter. I'm trying to simplify the training process and narrow it down to the bare necessities. I'm also incredibly lazy and don't want to run that much. Yet, I still want to be somewhat competitive in races, which I still enjoy a great deal.

Perhaps this is a shitty way to train. Or maybe not.

8 comments:

Jake Marren said...

Maybe some day I will try the "do all your mileage and workouts on one day" training plan. Basically, you run 60-100 miles at tempo and VO2 pace on Monday and leave six days for rest. I bet I would get balls fast.

Ben said...

"I'm also incredibly lazy and don't want to run that much."

Keeping that in mind - how could this NOT work? ; )

Christy said...

Why do you even need the long run?

Unknown said...

I think at this point I will defer to the great philosopher Alyssa Godesky who once said "Just Do What You Do."

New Chris on the Block said...

Injury forthcoming. But look into the FIRST program.

alyssa said...

YES!

RM said...

1. Freaking awesome that NCOTB commented on this post. Glad to see he's still reading.

2. There was a point in my life where I would have had thoughts about this type of training, but really who gives a fu**. If that's what Joel needs to focus on to make sure he's running, who cares. We all do stuff that is probably pretty dumb if you really sat down and thought about it.

So Joel's goal is to be somewhat competitive in races, and wants to enjoy racing. I think this plan will allow him to do it.

Go for it dude.

Unknown said...

Thanks, Ryan. Just trying to streamline the running process and see what happens. Mostly, it's harder to get motivated to do those 'in between workout runs' that used to take up the bulk of my mileage. With that said, I think having almost two decades of base mileage helps a great deal.

Looking forward to running with you guys this Spring. I miss you all.