Start with 2-3, only on the “harder” days of your training, when you have a workout or tempo or the like. Keep your volume on hard days and keep load off of your easy days to promote recovery. On these doubles, run intentionally slow. Imo, if you’re running a double, there’s no need to make it hard, it’s all about stimulating recovery while adding volume. Otherwise you should just be adding that volume onto your primary run.
but I would agree that an ideal double is somewhere around 3-4 miles or 30 mins. So, if you feel these 2-3mile doubles are working, feel free to work your way up to the prior.
Knowing you went out and ran twice per day and keeping that in your back pocket....that can give you confidence on race day. More than just adding two miles when doing just singles would.
From my experience, I added 5 doubles of 30 minutes of SLOW jogging in the morning my senior year (9 min pace on a treadmill, making sure to have a high cadence so my form wasn't horrible) and that helped me drop my times from 4:50 to 4:30 in the mile and 11:30 to 10:10 in the 3200 and 2:18 to 2:08 in the one 800 I did. Doubles work and at the very least, they allow you to compete longer into the season without burning out if you keep them a jog during the important times of the year.
Everyone out here dodging the question. It’s the one with the question mark next to it
Not dodging. Malmo said 'add the 2 miles' meaning do the extra run even if it is small. There are many up arrows on his comment because people agree.
I know everyone likes to agree with Malmo but that's not an answer. Obviously adding an extra 2 miles per day is beneficial. The question is: Is it better to add the extra 2 miles as a double or as part of the main run?
In my biggest fitness jump I went from a 19:10 5K to 17:45 5K in just one year by bumping up mileage and a big part of that was a second run - a 3 miler (sometimes 4) at 8:35-8:45 pace every other day.
A 3 miler hardly zaps your energy at all. I love them.
Not dodging. Malmo said 'add the 2 miles' meaning do the extra run even if it is small. There are many up arrows on his comment because people agree.
I know everyone likes to agree with Malmo but that's not an answer. Obviously adding an extra 2 miles per day is beneficial. The question is: Is it better to add the extra 2 miles as a double or as part of the main run?
Its not the two miles. Its the double. Period. You can disagree all you want but thats the answer.
This post was edited 35 seconds after it was posted.
I know everyone likes to agree with Malmo but that's not an answer. Obviously adding an extra 2 miles per day is beneficial. The question is: Is it better to add the extra 2 miles as a double or as part of the main run?
Its not the two miles. Its the double. Period. You can disagree all you want but thats the answer.
I started cross country as a 15 yo. Running perhaps 35 miles a week. I was finishing in the top 10 in dual/tri meets. One day my dad allowed me to by adidas Tokyo spikes. My 1st pair of spikes. I wanted to test them out so bad that I started running mornings-- 2-3 miles around a golf course. After two weeks of this the next race was a big invitational at Battery Kimble Park in Washington DC. I finished 11th out of 77 runners. A huge breakthrough.
So do you think I continued with mornings or not? Open book exam. Easy to figure this one out.
I know everyone likes to agree with Malmo but that's not an answer. Obviously adding an extra 2 miles per day is beneficial. The question is: Is it better to add the extra 2 miles as a double or as part of the main run?
Its not the two miles. Its the double. Period. You can disagree all you want but thats the answer.
If you run only 2-3 of these a week (4-6 additional miles/week), then it probably won't matter or make a difference. You'll just have a lot more laundry.
If you did this every morning before school (5 days a week), then it would really help. Amping up your metabolism and HR before a long day at school could be a great addition to your training.
I did this in college and it seemed to make my afternoon runs (the main workout) a lot better. But our program didn't do doubles, so this was all on my own.
I know everyone likes to agree with Malmo but that's not an answer. Obviously adding an extra 2 miles per day is beneficial. The question is: Is it better to add the extra 2 miles as a double or as part of the main run?
Good question. But I think there is more adaptation for a HS runner by adding a double (if done regularly) than there is to be gained by adding 2 miles onto all his 5-6 milers. Going from 6 miles with the team to 8? I don't know if I think that will help much, especially if it is just jogging tacked on at the end after the real workout. Essentially, this is a long cool-down.
2 miles? Waste of time/no aerobic benefit (unless you're just priming your body to do longer doubles as others have suggested). However, be cautious if you decide to double during the school year.
The stress of a high school day: Wake up early, sit in a desk under a variable amount of mental strain, lunch at 10:45, more sitting, then practice- makes doubling during the year a poor choice imo.
None of my high schoolers, or those in the surrounding area (one of which is a top-10 runner in the country) double during the school year for the exact reasons I've stated above. Err on the side of caution and talk to your coach!
If you’re a long time runner- you know that just getting out the door is paramount. How many times have we all dragged ourselves out the door and then within a mile or two we decided to extend the run. This describes me early in my running career, but that was decades ago.
I’ve been doing this long enough and played around with so many different approaches that I’ve gotta go with Malmo on this. Add the double. I remember thinking the 2-3 mile doubles I was doing with my teammates was probably a waste of time, but it was the fastest I ever ran and the healthiest I ever was. Eventually, those 2-3 milers became 4-6 milers, but even when “tapering” I kept in the 2-3 milers as part of my routine. “Live like a clock,” as Jumbo Elliott used to say.
I remember multiple times thinking before an easy double that some ache or pain I had was surely a big injury coming on and after the run not even remembering that something had been bothering me.
Start with 2-3, only on the “harder” days of your training, when you have a workout or tempo or the like. Keep your volume on hard days and keep load off of your easy days to promote recovery. On these doubles, run intentionally slow. Imo, if you’re running a double, there’s no need to make it hard, it’s all about stimulating recovery while adding volume. Otherwise you should just be adding that volume onto your primary run.
but I would agree that an ideal double is somewhere around 3-4 miles or 30 mins. So, if you feel these 2-3mile doubles are working, feel free to work your way up to the prior.
This is the correct answer, IMO. Doing the doubles after a workout or tempo to stack your volume on your hard days is good training. For me personally, I struggle with recovering for the next hard workout if I’m doing doubles on my easier days, though I’m sure if I did 3/3 or something like that it would be fine because the volume is so low.
