Has anyone here successfully used the “run less run faster” plan to PR or BQ?

It didn’t work for me. I’m about 20 yrs older than you, male, and tried it for a couple of training cycles thinking it would be easier to recover. The two ‘quality’ runs are too much.
If you do use it, the cross training days in between the runs has to be 1-1.5 hrs of aerobic work (swimming, rowing, cycling).
I would suggest doing one workout a week, alternating between the VO2 max (intervals) and tempo, one long run a week and one medium long run. The medium would be about 70% of the volume of the long run, and incorporate hills and strides into that day. So every week you get one workout, one run of 10-12 miles and a long run. Good luck!

It works very well combined with cycling !

I know several guys who combine it with 6-12 hours of serious bike training.

They get to 35 min 10k and great iron man results on that.

If you don't want to cycle I think you are better off runing 5 days per week

2x days of swim

2x short easy runs jog 30 min

1x day of 10k pace repetitions

1x day of marathon pace repetitions

1 x long run at easy pace up to 3h

I know one guy who trained following the book and then switch to 6 runs with 2 workouts, he had better results that way.

He was not a cyclist

Hanson Marathon Method has less running, I dont know exactly how much cross training, but the longest run is 16M.

Small sample size but I know a handful of people who have used it. All were hurt by the time their races rolled around. One has never gotten back to running.

You would be better served skipping the swimming and upping your mileage to 50+ miles per week.

I had to go the opposite way. I'm naturally a bit faster with less endurance, so I had to eschew hard reps and intervals and just run, mostly easy, some long marathon tempos, and just a few sets of 100s here and there to keep the turnover. Before that I loved track sessions; I'd rather run 400s than a long run any day. But, it worked. The key was to keep running enough so that as I peaked in miles I was never really 'fresh' -- I went into tempos and long runs already a bit tired. Also, I only did one run over 20, and that was a hard day of marathon-pace tempos with a mile easy between about a month out from my goal race.

So, my take is that it depends on what kind of runner you are - if you have natural endurance then sure, give it a shot. If you have more natural speed but struggle as the races get longer, then I don't think there's any alternative to putting in miles over a period of months to get the physiological adaptation necessary to hold together for 26 miles. It's not a short-cut process.

Yes, in college the coach had us running 100 mpw consistently, and I stayed constantly sick, exhausted and/or injured. Quit the team, dropped to about 60 mpw of more judicious training and PR'ed at almost every distance.

Honestly the people whom I see "run less with more" are still running about 50 mpw. They just aren't running 70-100 or more you see with the mileage junkies.

I see very few ppl running 40 mpw and finding success, even with cross training.

I think you can be successful with that plan if you are already in good shape. Plus, if you love your cross-training activity and don't want to give it up, go with the plan.

I think running more is always better, if possible. I've started with the plan, but never finished it. Every run is a quality run and that is a physical and mental challenge in itself. I hate life a lot less when most of my runs are just easy to moderate pace.

If you plan to run CIM, then a low mileage plan is a bad idea. You need extremely strong quads to be successful in Sacramento and that immunity to eccentric muscle damage can only be gained through high mileage.

Stop looking for shortcuts and put in some hard f*cking work. Run more. Run faster. Tired of this low mileage sh*t.

IMHO I think your head isn't totally fixated on your 'want'. You can work out until the cows come home but if your head isn't totally screwed on just right you'll always fall short. ". . . and I was really hoping . . . " This gotta go. This isn't a 'HOPING' game. It's a 'DOING' game. Put a plan together, follow it to the "T" and DO IT, cupcake.

You need to try and average 35-50 MPW for 12-16 weeks.

Each week do one mid week "kinda long run 10-15M.

Each week do one long run 16-22M.

Every other week make the long run a Fast Finish long run where you run a good chunk of the second half at your goal pace.

Taper 10 days prior

Race.

Run less run faster sounds like a great idea, but I feel like if it really worked you'd see a lot more pros doing it.

Can’t run much less than that. Do you actually run any workouts or are you just jogging around???…..because it seems like maybe you’d be better off running daily and learning to actually train than wasting your time with silly gimmicks.

Also, trying to improve your marathon time before you can train effectively to run a respectable 5k is a special kind of nonsense!