a quick running question

[jsing]

If I run two miles when I first wake up and two miles before I go to bed at night, will my 2 mile time eventually get lower?

[mara]

If you do it right, probably. All things being equal, the more you train at something the better you'll get at it.

Make sure you're not overtraining right off the bat. Four miles a day may be a bit much for you if you're young and not properly conditioned. Make sure you have good shoes and remain properly hydrated.

I imagine there are some good running threads on this site; if not, I'm sure someone better at it than me can help you with a good program.

[jsing]

Thanks for the input. What do you mean by properly conditioned?

[Polar Bear]

If I run two miles when I first wake up and two miles before I go to bed at night, will my 2 mile time eventually get lower?

Yes...What is your best 2 mile time?

[ALLEYCAT-2]

I don't get the 2-2 split. I think you would be better off adding some distance to your morning work out and recoup. in the evening. If you're running twice a day your legs will stay weak and hurt your time. ( If your training for time). You have to give time for your muscles to heal or you'll over train them. I suspect if you run say 3.5-4 miles in the morning and recoup. in the evening, after a few weeks you'll see your 2 mile time drop. A good rule of thumb is to train at twice the distance you have to do.

[jsing]

I don't get the 2-2 split. I think you would be better off adding some distance to your morning work out and recoup. in the evening. If you're running twice a day your legs will stay weak and hurt your time. ( If your training for time). You have to give time for your muscles to heal or you'll over train them. I suspect if you run say 3.5-4 miles in the morning and recoup. in the evening, after a few weeks you'll see your 2 mile time drop. A good rule of thumb is to train at twice the distance you have to do.

That makes sense. I'll try that

[chokeu2]

I don't get the 2-2 split. I think you would be better off adding some distance to your morning work out and recoup. in the evening. If you're running twice a day your legs will stay weak and hurt your time. ( If your training for time). You have to give time for your muscles to heal or you'll over train them. I suspect if you run say 3.5-4 miles in the morning and recoup. in the evening, after a few weeks you'll see your 2 mile time drop. A good rule of thumb is to train at twice the distance you have to do.

Thats well said. If you keep your body from recovering, you'll never get better. How is your diet? Are you getting enough protien to help heal the muscle? If you're not already aware, a good rule of thumb for protien intake is one gram of protien per pound of bodyweight. Get it while you can, cause you're not going to have that luxury in training.

[collin0321]

By properly conditioned I'm guessing Mara means that you've been running consistantly for a period of time( at least a year). You don't want to go from not running at all or very little to running 4 miles everyday. Generally you don't want to increase your total mileage per week more by more than 10%(if you ran 10 miles last week, you can you 11 miles the next week). There are a million running programs out there to find, just use google. Any 5k program will help your 2 mile time. Most programs have a least one long run, one short easy run, one interval run, and one medium distance run per week with the mileage increasing each week. There's a APFT specific program on the AmryRanger website, pt forum, that Silverback said showed a lot of improvement with a class of ROTC cadets. I agree with Chokeu2 though, unless you're a really well conditioned athlete, doing 2 a days isn't going to help.

[mara]

By properly conditioned I'm guessing Mara means that you've been running consistantly for a period of time( at least a year). You don't want to go from not running at all or very little to running 4 miles everyday. Generally you don't want to increase your total mileage per week more by more than 10%(if you ran 10 miles last week, you can you 11 miles the next week). There are a million running programs out there to find, just use google. Any 5k program will help your 2 mile time. Most programs have a least one long run, one short easy run, one interval run, and one medium distance run per week with the mileage increasing each week. There's a APFT specific program on the AmryRanger website, pt forum, that Silverback said showed a lot of improvement with a class of ROTC cadets. I agree with Chokeu2 though, unless you're a really well conditioned athlete, doing 2 a days isn't going to help.

What he said.

If you haven't been working up to four miles a day, or whatever your goal is, you could be setting yourself up for an injury, which is obviously counterproductive to your goals and could lead to long-term problems with your ability and your motivation to run.

[T-Rock]

For preparation prior to entering your program, save the split routines for doing runs > 14-16 miles. One running session per day is all you need if you've just started. As others have already suggested, it's all about the recovery!!! The art of recovery, along with injury prevention is what makes an endurance/running program successful especially the older you get. Next year will be my first attempt at a Doublr Ironman Triathlon ( www.usaultratri.com ) and after many years of endurance related sports, I'm just now instituting split routines in my up & coming program (runs > 18 to 30 miles). For ultra events, split routines are designed primarily to keep you injury free and from over training. Nevertheless, just because you're running 2 miles at a time, don't think you can't overtrain. See below table from " The Lance Armstrong Performance Program" chpt. 9:

HOW MUCH RECOVERY TIME DO YOU NEED?

if you spend you need
0-6 Hrs @ aerobic endurance intensity 8 hrs recovery
30 - 60 mins @ tempo intensity 8-10 hrs recovery
75 - 120mins @ tempo intensity 24-36 hrs recovery
15 - 45 mins @ lactate threshold 24 hrs recovery
10 - 30 mins @ lactate threshold 24-36 hrs recovery
>45 mins @ above lactate thres 36-48 hrs recovery


From the table above, you can see if you're hammering your 2 mile runs (12 min per whack) 2 times daily (24-36hr recovery) at or near your max HR, you are definetly going to over train. Save the hammering for school!!! You'll get hammered there plenty! Your pain will be your instructors pleasure!

[I_heart_PT]

I would not recomend running 2 miles twice a day. I would suggest in the morning, and after you run the 2 miles and catch your breath, run 5-10 100yd. sprints I did this after running 4 miles, and my endurance and foot speed increased dramatically.

I'm not in The Army yet, I'm only 16, but my goal is to get a 300 on the PFT and eventually be in SF.

My 1 mile run time before I started was 6:30, and after about a month of that, it is now down to 5:30 and still dropping, although I have never timed a 2 mile run.

Hope this helps.

[jsing]

Thanks for the good info. I wouldn't want to hurt myself real bad, I just want to lower my run times and increase my endurance.