Is it worth doing doubles on 35-40 miles a week?

Yep. I found that when I was tired, running like 6–8 miles just made me more tired and fatigued. But if I did like 5 and 3, or sometimes 5 and 5, or 4 and 4, it doesn't matter, I felt better and more recovered. Something about getting to 6 or 7 miles crossed a line for me between recovery and becoming more tired.

why wouldn't it be worth it? granted it is another shower, another change of clothes, and maybe even a drive to a path or trail, but.. in the summertime in most of the US it is really hot. If you are one of the lucky few to live on coastal CA or in the NW where it's nice, lucky you, but for the rest of us I can get a lot more out of a 6/6 split or 6/4 than one long 12M slow slog in the horrid heat. I can recover and come back much easier from the double than the one long bout.

Stick w one workout per day but make it meaningful or challenging more often.

Be active the rest of the day including most anything physical, but save the running for a single session. The additional activity cap at 60-90' /day.

I'm in my 60's and while still training, albeit slow, much slower than my competitive days, I will go for an easy 2-3 mile second run if I do 'speedwork' or tempo run in the morning. It just seems to help my crickety old bones be less sore and I sleep better. I'm only running about 45 miles per week but retired, so why not go for a second run as long as I enjoy it.

i ran 3 1/2 mile runs in the morning on hills at 630 /mile pace or better as a mainstay of a 45-50 mile / week program, mostly focused on quality.

with a second run of 5 miles steady hard in the hills in the afternoon or something like 3x1mile, 5000m steady, intervals, or a bit of cycling, stairs once a week.

would throw in 2x1 mile at 450 as a second run once in a while at night.

on the weekend it would be one run, with a "long" run on sunday of 10 to 12 miles.

this kind of mileage does not over train you, and is a great base i think.

so i really enjoyed and benefitted from the doubles with small runs.

i should add in that i had a background of 70 to 100 miles per week for a season prior, which made the above schedule light. and settled on the lower mileage higher quality program due to a heavy work schedule. i was able to have fun with it while giving it a bit of a go to see if the olympics were in the cards, in which case i would go all in.

Other consideration- be prepared for your water bill to increase due to double showers and laundry

100% - but don't wait to build up to it.

Jump right in ! 6 days per week one run 20-30 min one run 30-45 min. Every second day do a fartlek or a progression run. Focus on time not on pace or distance.

Expect big gains !

So, this training failed to qualify you for the Olympics.

hmm

When I am doubling consistently, I feel as if it forces my body to really adapt to running- even if I am not super high mileage.

Still leave a Saturday or Sunday for a longer run with a rest in the PM (no double)

I think there might be an arguement solid against double when most your runs are like 15-25mins. Want to do 15-30+40 instead of 60/70min in singles? Sounds good. But 2 20 min runs instead of going out for 35-40 for your easy days. I am not sure about that. Maybe that is just me being old and needing 15 mins to get warmed up most days..

I've always wanted to perform an experiment with a high school cross country team, where the entire training plan was two 30 minute runs a day, six days a week.

If you feel good, run faster. If you feel sluggish, run slower. It's up to you, kids!

No weights, core, strides, hills, thresholds, Vo2 max reps, visualization, max sprints. Just two 30 minute runs every day. One day off a week.

In season, race every weekend.

Only run once the day before regionals and state.

I think that team would outperform 95% of HS teams across the country.

Not saying it's the perfect program. Of course you could optimize it with some thresholds and some turnover work and some specific training the last six weeks or so. But I'm confident it would outperform most teams.

I like it!

Definitely worth it.

It's a smart way to build mileage with lower injury risk.

Also, if you're working full time, it's much easier to squeeze 2 x 30-40 min runs around work, rather than 1 x 70 minute run (especially in the winter when it's dark and cold).

You tend to feel much fresher for your workout days as well.

You would be running like 50mpw cause there is no way kids are hobby jogging 9 min miles at that volume. That’s more than most% HS xc teams😂

The question I would have is would your kid who struggles with say 35-40mpw in the normal program handle it better. My guess would be yes. Getting to 30min and the. Adding runs might be better than the more traditional approach that build to like 60 and then adds runs

Weird advice for someone starting doubles

Just keep the doubles as easy runs to compliment any workouts or normal runs that are the primary focus. See how that works for a season.

Doubles helped me in 2021. I was averaging 45-50 when I did my 3:20. Peak week of 65 in late August.

I did 2-3 in the morning very EZ, around 10:30 pace, then 6-7 a bit faster (8:55-9:10 pace) in the evening to adapt to the heat. LR between 14-22 that block.

The 2-3 EZ made a HUGE difference in terms of the feel of the later runs...

Some kids, if they are volume monsters, would kill it with 50 mpw on EZ/steady training. They'd go out strong and just close the gap on traditional leaders, cruise by them, and get the win. I think some respond to stacking Lydiard-style base...In a sense, that 50 mpw would be training them like 1:22 half/2:58 full runners...and if you extrapolate that downward to 5k, that puts you around 17:40-17:50-ish?

The point of the experiment isn’t that workouts and ancillary work aren’t beneficial. The point is that frequency of runs matters more. But yeah, semi talented boys would often run 50 mpw with this and girls maybe 40 mpw. That would help, too. This would be as easy you could make that volume. It would beat the pants off all the programs that have kids crushing workouts 3 days a week plus racing. Be a lot easier too.

And this would probably require much less of a time commitment than many HS programs. School days that end at 3 would have practice over by 4:15. Only challenge is selling HS kids on daily early mornings😂