I was just looking over my run log and noticed that the shortest run I’d do is 5mi. If I only have 30 minutes or so, I’d just bag the workout. Is this healthy or is it going to get worse (in 2 years I won’t run unless I have at least an hour)?
If you “only” have 30 minutes, run faster and sneak more miles into it.
3 miles and I do it a lot, consequently I have a ton of days where I have 25-30 minute workouts, but its still better than this time last year.
30 minutes 3x per week is an extra 9-12 miles, depending on how fast you are. It could make a big difference. I find that getting in an extra day of running, even if only for 30 minutes, really helps my durability, builds toughness in my legs and keeps my form up.
OK, here’s the deal: The length of your run will determine the length of your recovery. As Lydiard was fond of saying hard-easy-hard-easy. Runs of 45 minutes or more will still be affecting you to some extent the next day, so running 30 minutes EASY counts as mileage AND recovery and seems to help me run better on my hard or long days. After a really long run on Sunday, I was tempted to bag my 3.7 monday-night brick, but surprisingly felt better then next day for having done it.
Someone younger and/or stronger than I am might be good with 45 minutes, but if I run 6-7 days a week I need those short runs, even if done twice in one day, rather than setting the 5-mile minimum like I did years ago. I also find that some days I won’t go if I’m forcing myself to go a minimum of more than 30 minutes; I just don’t feel up to it.
I also believe in listening to my body, and if I don’t think I have a good run in me, I’ll go out easy and by the time I find out I’m not going to warm up and feel good, just running back home gets me close to 30 minutes. As long as I never really turned on the gas, it’s a recovery run.
If you “only” have 30 minutes, run faster and sneak more miles into it.
exacly, 5 miles is my shortest run, I just make it work in 30 minutes.
I ran a half-step a few days ago…
Minimum is 30 mins (since I need 20 mins to “warmup” even if I swim or bike or lift some weights before) & sometimes I will just two in one day.
Sometimes, you need to run easy and not for long to recover/rest and still log some miles…
Fred.
Sometimes I’ll have T runs of only 15 minutes. I figure I get more psychological benefit than physiological, but I imagine it is for sure both.
For designated runs, 5k is generally the shortest. If I’m short on time I still feel better getting something in rather than nothing.
I do quite a few transition runs of < 2 miles. I used to get calf cramps when starting the run but since I started doing that the cramps have gone away completely.
I run 5 days/week right now, and my shortest is 3 miles, and that’s just a warmup run for my long swim on Fridays. 2 of the days, I do a 4-mile transition run off the bike, 1 day an 8 miler, and one day my long run (currently at 13 miles, 3 weeks out from my HIM).
Which HIM, Jay. California half?
30 minutes (it usually turns into 35-37 minutes so I can get 5 miles in)
If its a transition run, I’ll run as little as 3 miles.
shortest is usually a mile. i have been doing a wide range of long and slow, to short and hard. a little earlier tonight with limited time i simply did a hard 10 minutes on a stationary bike with immediate transition to the track and ran hard for 10 and that was that. i don’t think there is a low end barrier to which the effort provides no return.
Depends, I’ll run when i can, I’ve gone as little as 10min as a warm-up for lifting weights, or just as a transition run, after a long ride. Typically if it’s less then 15-20min, It’s not really worth it, unless it’s exactly that, a warm-up, or a transition run.
Adam
For a standalone run, my minimum is 20 minutes. For brick run my minimum is 15 minutes since I don’t have to spend the first 10+ minutes shuffling through the warmup period. My preferred minimum is 30 minutes though. Add in an extra 3x30 min per week and you suddenly have 12-14 miles of additional mileage.
Dev
The distance from my couch to the fridge is pretty short. Does that count?
30 minutes 3x per week is an extra 9-12 miles, depending on how fast you are. It could make a big difference. I find that getting in an extra day of running, even if only for 30 minutes, really helps my durability, builds toughness in my legs and keeps my form up.
What system is the 3 x 30 minutes a week run actually training? If you do it easy (I am assuming you are) the duration is probably too short to really have any benefit to developing aerobic capacity unless you are hopelessly out of shape. 1 x 60 minutes would probably give you more training benefit (while doing 33% less mileage)
These runs would be “junk” miles. The only time I would ever do a run this short is the day before a race, with no expected training benefit, except to warm up my muscles enough to do a decent stretching session.
Triyoda, all those extra 30 min runs just add to your mileage. Forget about what system they are training. They just help you in the ‘train to train’ part of your program. This is why you can’t finish events like Epicman and Irontour. Keep in mind that most of the people who finished those events also qualified for Kona. Its all the little stuff that while seemingly small in the small picture of today, add up to a lot of training over the year and years. For a time limited age group triathlete, managing job, family, perhaps grad school and other responsibilities, it is a nice way of keeping the mileage high, or at least maintaining consistency, so that you don’t miss too many days of running in a row. Then when you go to do the big training days or the long races, you have just a bit of extra base to leverage over the guy who sat on the couch with a beer and opted to watch Monday nite football while his competition decided to skip watching the first quarter to get that 30 min run done…
Dev
I’m currently running 6-7 days a week, 30-40 miles, one of those days is a ~30 minute run with my wife @ ~9:30 pace. Probably one of my most important training runs of the week. Recovery, quality time with my wife, relationship building and training equity, …
Also just changed what was a 6 mi threshold transition run into a Q1 4x800m R pace workout, lasts < 30 minutes, but seems to work well for the purpose.