If I can, allow me to summarize the main point that at least *I* am trying to make.
There are plenty of reasons to run fewer than 6 days a week and there are plenty of people who are very successful doing it.
Injury prevention is not one of those reasons, and this is true for at least 99% of the runners out there.
Virtually everyone will run better if they run 6 days a week instead of 4. Running better, however, is not the primary goal of a triathlon. Getting to the finish line as fast as you can is and for many people running better may be the best way to do that.
At this point I'd like to quote one of my training partners as we watched a bunch of triathletes doing yet another needless interval workout at our track. "These guys will never get any good because they have gone their entire lives without ever breaking 35 miles a week."
In order to become a good runner, you HAVE to pay your dues! A lifetime peak of 4 hours a week of running just isn't going to cut it. If you want to increase beyond 4 hours a week of running, the best, safest, most efficient way to do so is to increase your frequency.....not decrease it.
Having said that, if you read through my plan (linked in my sig line) you'll note that plenty of people training for an IM will actually end up running only 4 days a week through much of the months leading up to the race. In a nutshell the plan has you running 6 days a week with 3 short runs, 2 medium runs that are double the duration of the short runs, and one long run that is triple the duration. I also advocate getting your long run up to 80% of the race distance (limit at 3 hours). That's 21 miles for an IM. In order to run 21 miles with my plan, you need to be running 70 miles a week. Not too many people can do that.
If you can't run 21 miles a week (like almost no one can in a tri plan) I advocate doing an ultra long run every other week and then borrow back the miles from the following two runs. If your milage is low enough (say you are running 3s, 6s, and a 9 on a normal week) and you do an ultra run of 18 miles, that's 9 miles longer than your normal long run. That means you cut out 9 miles of the first two runs of the next week.....which is everything.
So a normal week would be:
3, 6, 3, 6, 3, 0, 9
An ultra long run week would be:
3, 6, 3, 6, 3, 0, 18
The week following the ultra long run would be:
0, 0, 3, 6, 3, 9 --> FOUR days.
Also note above that I was doing 4 short days, 1 medium, and 1 long. IF I wanted to maximize my running, I would have done a 2nd medium day. However, I felt it was more important to push my bike training so I sacrificed a a medium length run. Despite what DD is writing here, he actually suggested it at the time. Why? Because I ran a 16:00 5K that year but was a MOP rider because of my lack of bike fitness. Most triathletes suffer on the run........
.....which leads to anther point in that article that I thought was missed. Was are there so many sucky runners compared to swimmers and bikers in triathlon? Triathlon doesn't attract runners the way it attracts swimmers and cyclists. Runners don't need to do tries because they have road races. I've found the triathlon to be overwhelmingly filled up with former swimmers and riders who want an activity that they don't need to be part of a team anymore to do. This is one of these reasons why DD is so adamant about pushing the run training for his athletes. Most of them can already swim and ride, but they completely fall off the back of the pack on the run.
Anyway, as I said before, there are plenty of reasons not to run 6 days a week, but injury prevention is not one of them.
-----------------------------Baron Von Speedypants
-----------------------------RunTraining articles here:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...runtraining;#1612485