I'm 37 years old and feel that I just need two easy days between workouts.

In 2003 I was running 30:30/1:09/2:26 for 10k, 1/2 mar & marathon at 26. Got injured, married, had kids... Cut all hard workouts, hit 35-45 mpw over the next 4-5 years. I could still jump in a marathon and run 2:40 with not really training for it.

Got a head coaching job and it killed my training. By the time my second kid came 6:30 pace for 10k was tough so I hung them up.

Well now at 40 I'm trying to come back following a 3-4 layoff. I gained 20 pounds and my God did 2-3 mile runs hurt. I've put in 6 weeks of 30-40 miles but my body is topping out at 8 min per mile.

All that is to say training is different as a master. I am just getting going again but I have noticed it takes longer to recover, weight is SLOW to come off and I need one day off a week. I'm seriously considering running every other day and biking in between.

I was one of those guys that couldn't gain weight if I tried and was back in the groove in two weeks. Man how things change when you get older.

I've been best on 2 workouts a week all my career.

Usually something like hard workouts on Tuesday/Saturday and a long run on Sunday.

Usually a longer easyish run on Thursday.

You can only do what you can do. Remember, its not what you do but what it does to you that counts. As you're older you'll be better at getting the most out of workouts and have years of accumulated training inside you. Enjoy the days when you can run fast and feel good!

I'm getting old wrote:

I have been Daniel's training for years now, but I am finding out that I am no longer able to recover with one easy day. I need two between workouts. Period. I have sustained a few injuries and they all seem to stem from not having 2 easy days between workouts. When I have 2 easy days between, I always feel good.

Has anyone else experienced this? And are there any training outlines that use 9-day segments instead of 7 days?

Thanks!

yes ability to recover really declines with age.

One thing I've found (age 42 or so) is that I really pay for it when I overdo it in a workout -- a week of "workout PRs" is likely to be followed by a week where I just bomb.

Something that would help with Daniels training -- really back off a bit on the workouts that aren't as hard or are not critical to a given phase of training (for example phase III Daniels is all about the "I" workouts, the others are secondary. Phase II there's no need to hammer any workout). For example, don't go faster than the prescribed pace on the "R" workouts even if you can. Don't race the tempo runs -- use these as "semi hard" or "not as hard" days. If R workouts aren't as critical to your race distance (e.g. 5k and up), replace them with hill workouts or fartleks, especially in the earlier phases of training.

A better trick is to cut the volume of speed and increase the frequency.

Plans always have some number of reps with little evidence as to why that number is chosen.

Find out what the minimum number of reps to achieve the desired effect is.

I'm 62 and discovered that two hard w/outs per week is it; one distance one speed; cross-train and short easy runs in between; heavy emphasis on cross training (row/bike mostly)went thru a lot of injuries in my 50s trying to run like I was 40could have used this philosophy even in my 30s

I'm getting old wrote:

I have been Daniel's training for years now, but I am finding out that I am no longer able to recover with one easy day. I need two between workouts. Period. I have sustained a few injuries and they all seem to stem from not having 2 easy days between workouts. When I have 2 easy days between, I always feel good.

Has anyone else experienced this? And are there any training outlines that use 9-day segments instead of 7 days?

Thanks!

2 days is totally fine, I need 3-4 when I'm actually training hard and I'm only 28 years old. If you have a full time job, are a full time man, and are actually training(hitting decent mileage and have a structured w/o plan), it's near impossible to workout every other day. As a very sub-elite(~225-230) marathoner I know the only way to actually hit workouts and recover is to take day easy if I need em in between.

Pushing 53.

Could get away with one easy day between efforts in my 20s, now I have 3 easy days between workouts. Running my best races of the last 5 years by introducing more rest.

I'm getting old wrote:

Has anyone else experienced this? And are there any training outlines that use 9-day segments instead of 7 days?

Moving to a 9-day cycle (one hard, two easy) is exactly what Meb did at your age:

I feel ya,brother. I also like the idea of running every other day with a ride on the other days.

I'm in my 50's now. I can only run twice a week at this point, doesn't matter whether it is a workout or an easy run or something in between.

Arthritis is a bitch.

I am almost 49 and, due to family and work schedule, I do back to back hard on Sat/Sun and another hard workout on Wednesday. Seems to keep me healthy while still getting benefit of decent quality.

I stopped trying to fit a 3rd hard workout into the week when I was around 35. Not because 3 workouts had become too much, but because 3 workouts had never worked for me, and it just took me a while to accept that less is more.

(Similarly, I experienced significant gains in fitness when I accepted the fact that my tempo runs needed to be quite a bit slower than other people at my race fitness.)

I do a Wednesday track/tempo workout and a long run on Saturday. As long as I'm in reasonable fitness, my long run is a progression run by feel.

I also do strides and/or hill sprints a couple of times a week, and a medium-long recovery run on Sundays.

mid-week workout (wednesday or thursday)

weekend long run or workout (Sat or Sunday, ideally saturday with long run the next day)

That's all you need with as many miles as you can handle between. I do 45-60 mpw tops

i used to disagree with this as I was a 400m/800m guy, but running on tired legs in your 30's is no fun

i've been running 15:50's, 33:10's, 1:12's and 2:32-34 this way for 4 years

Shavas wrote:

I got pretty overtrained doing Daniles 5/10k plan, however I also threw in too many supplemental workouts like hard strength training and intense hikes. But yeah I need a couple days in between hard workouts...

Probably also ran the workouts and easy runs too fast.:)

If you are not recovering you have a bunch of options

a) reduce the workout frequency

b) make the workouts easier (i.e. don't run 3k pace when 5k pace will do, do 6x1k instead of 8x1k)

d) change the workouts to something you tolerate better.

e) make the easy days easier by cutting junk

f) improve recovery (sleep more, eat better, rolling)

There is also a bunch of variations (1 day between 2 workouts followed by 2 days after the second. Alternate 3 workout weeks with 2 workout weeks) to shuffle the stress around. What is the best approach is impossible to generalize.

Just run enough to win at dials. Have your kids sit and kick. Even if they let the other teams 1,2 win by 2 minutes but your 1,2,3,4,5 come in next your going to win, time doesn't matter.

Ditto; and if anyone has kids especially very young the sleep just isn't there to recover adequately

Obviously recovery rates change over time depending on the individual makeup. One thing that I have always tried to keep in the cycle, weekly/9 day/whatever is a hard tempo run , more as a monitoring method of how progress is generally coming along . It definitely gets me to back off when the tempo run feels terrible or is too sluggish. If tempo runs are stale two weeks in a row i will be overtrained and in the hole if i continue to hammer. The rest days are altered according to these test days and how my body responds.

Of course I am not a university or even club athlete anymore but at 47 i have managed to stay in 33high 10k shape on a good day and had only run 30.XX races even as 25 year old.. rest varies depending on what you do to yourself obviously..

I'm getting old wrote:

I have been Daniel's training for years now, but I am finding out that I am no longer able to recover with one easy day. I need two between workouts. Period. I have sustained a few injuries and they all seem to stem from not having 2 easy days between workouts. When I have 2 easy days between, I always feel good.

Has anyone else experienced this? And are there any training outlines that use 9-day segments instead of 7 days?

Thanks!

I'll turn 38 soon and I don't feel like I need two days to recover.

I returned to running after 15 years and yes, was hard to recover after workouts.

But I found out that in the meantime I got a lot of bad habits.

Poor sleep (I have a daughter too), more alcohol and coffee, less water, bad diet, got lazy a bit...

I pretty much fixed all of these. What i noticed is that if I take 4-6 days off it will take longer to get back to normal.

I'm not training for performance anymore, but I can't stop myself from doing hard workouts.

Yesterday morning I did some hills, in the afternoon, at 92F and full sun, I did a tempo.

This morning was supposed to do a recovery run, but ended in a tempo.

The biggest change I noticed after adding omega-3 supplements.

Omega-3 is great for arthritis, btw.

oth wrote:

At 50, I do a workout on Thursday and a long run on Sunday. On Tuesday I can get a mini-workout but that's it, eg yesterday was 10 x 1 minute around 5K pace. An easy run with the last 2 miles faster would be another option.

I´m 47 and this is exactly my situation.