Mine looks similar. I try to keep doubles every other day.

Mon - a.m. Long Run
Tue - a.m. Bike Intervals + Short run …. p.m. swim
Wed - a.m. Medium run
Thur - a.m. Bike Intervals + Short run …. p.m. swim
Fri - Off
Sat - Medium run …. p.m. swim
Sun - long bike with short brick run

ditch the off day, then you have 2 days with 1 workout. Space those out.

But honestly for a run focus it looks pretty lame.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

This. Off day is a wasted day

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@floathammerholdon | @partners_in_tri

Don't know if I'd call that a run focus, it looks very similar to what my last Ironman training was:

Monday - AM Swim
Tuesday - AM Ride PM Recovery Run
Wednesday - AM Swim PM Medium/Quality Run
Thursday - AM Ride PM Recovery Run
Friday - AM Swim PM Medium/Quality Run
Saturday - AM Long Ride w/ transition Run
Sunday - AM Ride (fairly easy) PM Long Run

I liked to do my medium/quality runs on swimming days so that I had a more consistent level of work during the week

After taking 6 years off endurance sports after high school I have not run very consistently, as in more than 3-4 days a week. I have been trying to rebuild slowly over the past few years so for me, running 6 days a week is more than I have done in awhile. What would you change to make it more like a run focus or less lame?

Having been coached by DD, I'd guess he'd say your two "medium" quality runs are lame. If it's a true run focus, you should have some "high" quality work in there.

Here's my fall/winter plan:

Monday: AM run, PM swim
Tuesday: AM run, PM swim
Wednesday: AM run, PM bike
Thursday: AM run, PM swim
Friday: AM run, PM bike
Saturday: AM open water swim, PM run
Sunday: AM run, PM bike

I'm strictly trying to slowly build my mpw. I got up to 30 mpw (good for me) around mid summer before I pissed off a nerve in my foot. I'm going to start with 21mpw, zero speed or threshold work until January (other than two small races I have). I'm going to add one mile per week so that by week 7 all my runs are 4 miles up from 3 miles. Once I'm over 30mpw I'll start slowly incorporating some speed work but for now I just need to work on running consistently.

Looks good for a third month focus, given the fact you only had been building for 2 months so far.
Baby steps....

Built carefully.
As you see here, some who ramped up to fast freely admit they got injured.

I would re-assess after you had been doing this for a month. I think you bike too much.

When I was doing a lot of doubles, my 3 short, easy runs were after my bike sessions. And my swims were on my 2 quality run days.

Example

M: Optional Swim
T: Bike, easy run
W: Q Run, Swim
T: Bike, easy run
F: Q Run, swim
S: Bike, easy run
S: Long run

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What I do: http://app.strava.com/athletes/345699

denali2001 hit the nail on the head. I'd remove those medium quality runs.

At 2 months into the game, you don't need to be worrying about intensity, you need to be worrying about consistency, frequency and total volume. Never underestimate how fast you can become and how fit you can become off of just running a lot.

Here read this: this will save me some typing:

http://accelerate3.com/...t-the-answer-part-1/

You may want to read this as well as it answers some of the how to questions:

http://accelerate3.com/...-the-answer-part-ii/

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

Putting a long run the day after your long bike goes against the general philosophy of BarryP, as I see it. IMO the long ride should be on your off running day. A brick run should replace your medium run as it's not a recovery run. The long run shouldn't be the day after your long ride. Switch them.

The brick is your "quality", so having 2 other harder run during the week isn't a great idea.

Then again, I'm not big on "off" days.... except during recovery weeks. It just makes the other 6 days harder or leaves some training volume off the table.

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TrainingBible Coaching
http://www.trainingbible.com

Roughly, what is a decent and aggressive run focus for your athletes?

It depends. But if we do a run focus the focus is on running, not on training like a triathlete.

For some that could mean 10 runs/wk with several of those being 15-20min, for others that could be 75 min every other day with the other days being 45-55min. For some that could be 2 long runs per week for others that could be lots and lots of 6.5-9 mile runs and often more than 1x per day.

once you get pretty fit running it's not hard nor is it overly taxing to run 8-10 miles day in day out for weeks on end.

Off the top of my head the most frequency I can remember is 11-12 runs per week for about 6 weeks. But 8 runs/wk wouldn't be uncommon for an Accelerate 3 athlete in a run focus. Even at 8 runs a week with a well thought out schedule you can still do your weakest non running sport 2-4x per week and your strongest 1x wk.

The problem is most triathletes don't understand how long it takes to get into really fucking good run shape, nor are they willing to invest in that time. It's almost always instant gratification. They'll get into decent or good run shape but it's a whole new level to get into really, really good run shape.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

What is the demographic you are working with on this approach?

Beginner, intermediate, advanced?

20-50 y/o? above 50?

What about those that are 180+, 200+ etc.

How and/or does that change your basic approach from this?

well I tend to not coach beginner triathletes, there are coaches out there who can do a better job at that than I do.

Of course my approach changes based on the athlete, their weight, running history etc. I'm no one size fits all coach.

Go read the articles I linked to several posts above this. That will give you some framework on how I approach this....with just about everyone, at least in the beginning.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

I grew up under a coach that developed his plan around the same mindset of Barry P -- increasing volume through high frequency. It was unusual for sub 10-workout weeks (though a handful were just ~20min out, then back with drills etc.). Moving on to tri, I've reduced that to ~8/week.

So I'm curious, short of non-tri related scheduling conflicts, what are the reasons (if any) you'd prescribe not running everyday? If a person is running 6 times a week (say 5 hours/week), would you indiscriminately recommend cutting some time out of the 6 and add in 2 workouts that would bring the weekly hours up?

I probably would, but would like some thoughts on it.

Would it be less lame if he had simply said, i'm trying to continue on the Barry P plan and work in biking and swimming? I think this is what he was asking, so what exactly is lame about his schedule. I'm not a coach so am just asking based off what i perceive his question to be.

How long would you estimate it takes to get into "really fucking good run shape"? I'm thinking of including a run focus block during the winter and would like to schedule this training over at least a 4-5 month period. Just wondering how long out from one's first 'A' race of the season should they be starting? Obviously, I figure the longer the better, just trying to get an idea of typical expectations.

Yeah, I had a similar question. I'm doing the same thing but not as far along as the OP. My total volume is still VERY low cuz I started feeling the shin splints coming on again so I dialed it back. So for now, I'm building from about 10 mpw. This is not even close to challenging for me fitness-wise, so I'm adding in biking and swimming to keep that up.

Also, is there a difference in doing a medium bike AFTER the medium run in terms of sticking to the BarryP philosophy. That is, I figure if I do the run first on fresh legs, then bike afterward it's not the same as doing a traditional brick of running after you've put a workout into your legs. Am I off base?

Sometimes it's better to get 7 runs in 6 days vs 7 runs in 7 days. That allows more flexibility in getting in the other workouts.

@trifreemc - I perceived it that to be the schedule he was sticking to for the run focus.

@trispud - 4-5 months should do it, maybe less maybe more. It seems like a lot of people do it for 4 -6 weeks, which is better than zero weeks. It also depends upon when you start it and when your first race(s) that you care about are.

In the past I'd see a lot of triathletes doing lots of 4-5 mile runs for their focus.

If you get to the point where you're running 6.5-8 day in day out going from a month, month and a half of that. You can bang out a 12-13 miler nbd. Someone who is running a lot of 4 & 5 milers is going to have a harder time making that sort of a jump.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

i keep pretty much the same exact schedule all year:

M: Swim, run
T: Bike, run
W: Swim, long run
T: Bike, run
F, Swim, run
S: Bike,run
S: long bike

sometimes i'll add in another swim on T or Sat or if W is a 2-hr run then cut out or move around runs but I have to get my swims in before the weekend because i can't count on being able to swim weekends unless the weather cooperates so that limits my options. if i had a real pool at my disposal i'd add a swim on Sat.

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http://harvestmoon6.blogspot.com
https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/katasmit

I think that answers my question too. Keep working on the volume (well... obviously). I plan on adjusting things once I've had some time with volume under my belt.

Why shouldn't you run the day after the long bike?

There is no hard rules on any of this. There is many ways to proceed.

With some atheltes that have very busy work/life schedule, it does become necessary to put the long run and long ride on weekend. that is simply the reality of life. it s not optimal but it s sometimes the only option.

As for not running the day after a long ride. I never heard of this, my coaches have never done this with me and i sure make my athletes run the days after long rides. Be a simply 50min run or perhaps some tempo work but there is no reason you should not.

A run focus is simply to raise the volume of running to a level your body isnt use to.

-I achieves this by making them run 6-9 times a week over 6 days.
-I like to use double runs, very effective, allow plenty of recovery. Fit well in schedules/life
-i like to prescribe run focus over period of up to 20 weeks. That allow for significant gain in fitness.
-As the athletes adapt to this new running training load, it slowly become the new baseline so we dont necessarly need to reduce the volume that much when we start adding back more swim +bike workouts.
-build slowly and substain it for a long time.... it will keep you away from injury!

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Jonathan Caron / Professional Coach / ironman champions / age group world champions
Jonnyo Coaching
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