Hello dear letsrun community,
I have been a runner for more than 20 years and a letsrun reader and poster for more than 15 years, so I wanted to share here my findings regarding a new way of training which I am still researching on. I have decided to call it Low Mileage Low Frequency High Intensity. If you only care about top performance, this is definitely not for you, but if you care about maximizing your running fitness spending as little time as possible, you may want to keep reading…
What inspired LMLFHI? LMFHI was inspired by recent large scale studies that tried to find the optimal amount of running to improve health (*), I (as many others) was surprised at how little mileage and how little frequency was found to be optimal and the absence of tangible health benefits when going over it.
I think this new method is able to provide a relatively high level of running fitness with very little training time, which is a blessing for those with demanding jobs such as myself.
This new method of training requires a single running session per week, the benefit of this is that it allows for full recovery reducing the injury risk for many runners. An additional benefit is being able to repeat it indefinitely in time which brings consistency and stability in fitness gains.
The suggested weekly mileage is 10 miles for 1 and 2 mile races and up to 20 miles for marathons. I will provide example workouts below:
1 mile training: 1 mile easy + 1 mile hard + 2 miles intermediate + 1 mile very hard (all out) + 1 mile very slow (jogging) + 2 miles intermediate + 1 mile hard + 1 mile easy - Total of 10 miles averaging intermediate intensity.
Marathon training: 1 mile easy + 1 mile hard + 7 miles intermediate + 1 mile very hard + 1 mile very easy + 7 miles intermediate + 1 mile hard + 1 mile easy - Total of 20 miles averaging intermediate intensity.
Of course the specific pace depends on the runner talent and current fitness.
Other than the single weekly running session this program requires to have 2 strength sessions per week involving core muscles (push ups, sit ups and squats without weights are suggested) consisting of a single set of between 8 and 30 repetitions on non running days. Additional physical activity and movement is encouraged though not required.
What kind of results does this program provides? More research is needed to determine the effectiveness of LMLFHI and results depend on each individual, however I can say that from preliminary results on a small sample size runners can expect an average of about 1.1X in time (only 10% of difference) over performance with optimal training (which for many runners would involve about 6 times the mileage that LMLFHI requires). That would mean that a 2:15 marathoner can expect to run around 2:30 and a 4:30 miler can expect to run around 5:00 following this program. An additional benefit of this program is to be able to estimate the potential of runners without commiting much time to training.
Feel free to experiment with LMLFHI if you are so inclined and if you do please share your results here. Also feel free to share any thoughts and comments you may have regarding this program. I know low mileage and low frequency are not well regarded in the running community so I do not expect a good reception. Nevertheless I am getting better than expected results following this program and that made me want to share my findings with the world.
Yours truly, Mediocre Runner
(*)weforum.
org/agenda/2019/11/running-just-once-a-week-can-reduce-your-chance-of-early-death/