Flash_Fire
Active member
This is something I was very wrong about for a number of years. Yeah I got a 3h13 marathon time without specifically training for it, yeah, I've finished a few 100km running races on maximum 45km of training/week. But that is not competitive, that is not advanced.
I used to brag about barely needing to train and preach it but the truth is I couldn't train more, because of the extreme intensity. The way things are, you google and search for research studies and training methods to support your methods, because you desperately want to be right.
The biggest mistake comes from badly made statistics, which sometimes let you conclude that some elite athletes would use polarized training; spend a lot of time at low intensity, spend a lot of time at high intensity, but that is because they weighted each session the same! They would count 1 easy long (say 25km) run as 1 low intensity session and an interval session with maybe 4km of hard running as 1 hard session and so the tiny session weighed as much into the statistics as the huge run. I've used the holidays to read this article on it which finally convinced me about the error in my ways (among many other searches and training videos)
The reason why volume is king is because there are some physiological adaptations are triggered more by time than intensity and lower intensity saves your body and prevents injuries. These then allow you to later run faster and more efficient. The author of the article cites mainly capillary developement.
The reason why low volume high intensity is so attractive to many and why I subscribed to it as well is because there was no significant difference in the performance of amateurs who used this method vs high volume low intensity but they got the results with less time put into training!
Now, after all this talk about running more to become better at it, it still holds true that you shouldn't only run, but at the bare minimum do 1, preferably 2 strength sessions a week. That is what Olympic marathoners do. This allows you to save your connective tissues and your bones and gives you more training capacity. If you are injury prone it also still stands true that in place of just another run, you could do some type of crosstraining which also challenges your cardio. That will give you some carry over without fatiguing you the same way.
All of that said, most competitive runners run 6-7 days a week and often have two training sessions per day because that is what is necessary to get to that level.
I used to brag about barely needing to train and preach it but the truth is I couldn't train more, because of the extreme intensity. The way things are, you google and search for research studies and training methods to support your methods, because you desperately want to be right.
The biggest mistake comes from badly made statistics, which sometimes let you conclude that some elite athletes would use polarized training; spend a lot of time at low intensity, spend a lot of time at high intensity, but that is because they weighted each session the same! They would count 1 easy long (say 25km) run as 1 low intensity session and an interval session with maybe 4km of hard running as 1 hard session and so the tiny session weighed as much into the statistics as the huge run. I've used the holidays to read this article on it which finally convinced me about the error in my ways (among many other searches and training videos)
The reason why volume is king is because there are some physiological adaptations are triggered more by time than intensity and lower intensity saves your body and prevents injuries. These then allow you to later run faster and more efficient. The author of the article cites mainly capillary developement.
The reason why low volume high intensity is so attractive to many and why I subscribed to it as well is because there was no significant difference in the performance of amateurs who used this method vs high volume low intensity but they got the results with less time put into training!
Now, after all this talk about running more to become better at it, it still holds true that you shouldn't only run, but at the bare minimum do 1, preferably 2 strength sessions a week. That is what Olympic marathoners do. This allows you to save your connective tissues and your bones and gives you more training capacity. If you are injury prone it also still stands true that in place of just another run, you could do some type of crosstraining which also challenges your cardio. That will give you some carry over without fatiguing you the same way.
All of that said, most competitive runners run 6-7 days a week and often have two training sessions per day because that is what is necessary to get to that level.