I recently purchased “Don Fink’s” new book “Iron fit”.
He has 3 training plans in it “Just Finish”, “Intermediate”, and “Competitive”.
They all have the Long Run placed on the Sunday, after the Saturday Long Ride.
This is completely against what everyone seems to be recommending about having
the Long run/Long ride split over the week. Any thoughts?
p.s. I emailed the guy 3 times with a small question on a detail of the plans and haven’t even had a response!!!
Uhm… I’d say the book states that cause it’s directed to people who work during the week and find it hard do run/bike long during it.
Anyway, don’t know the book so I’m just guessing.
IMO the perfect situation is that you do one easy day at least between long run and bike but that’s “perfect” for recovery and to take the best out of both workouts. No harm in doing them in-a-row, probably will do a bit more for your aerobic endurance… well… not sure about that.
I often do both my long bikes and runs back to back on the weekend. However, I do the long run first (Sat.) and the long bike the next day (Sun.) I find for me at least its more important to have fresh legs for the long run rather than for the bike. I’m much less injury prone that way. Ideally if your schedule allows it, do one midweek and the other on the weekend.
this isn’t hard. if your scedule affords a lone run or ride in the week, do it. if not, double up on weekends. just make sure you eat well so you don’t get sick.
how long is your long run? and what are you building up to?
another thought is if you do work 40-50 hrs a week. Maybe do a long run every other weekend to allow more recovery. You can still do a long ride every wek as it is physically easier on the body, then on the non-long run weekends do your long ride. The othe day you can ride a significant length of time and get a decent run in of an hour. Most workers will not be able to recover from week after week runs of 2-2.75 hrs.
I always did the Long Ride Sat/Long Run Sun routine. Worked well for me, from a performance stand point and also, from a timing one. Mid week, typically I did not have time for these types of workouts. Mid week was for faster training and recovery.
LSD: How’s the book otherwise? When was it written? Long ride Sat. followed by a long run Sun would seem more closely to match an the IM protocol, however, around here (Westchester, NY) most group rides are on Sun. so that sort of turns things on its head. Either way…just do the miles!
Frank
for 3 years now i have been doing long run Sat, long ride Sun. i find I have to do the long run early Sat AM or recovery for Sunday becomes tough. other than that, no issues.