Benefits of a 2-for-1 Tradeoff

Hi, Friends & Fellow Runners:

For the time-constrained athletes among you who are always battling to balance family, job and running commitments, the following question-and-answer exchange may be of interest.  The question was submitted by a National Post reader to the newspaper’s EachCoach column; the answer is mine.

Q.  Trying to increase the amount of distance I run during the week, but always a bit tight for time in the mornings and evenings.  Is it ok to do 2 shorter runs on some days (an 8K morning and 6K evening for example) or does that create more risk of an injury?

A.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with splitting a day's scheduled run into AM and PM components when time constraints would otherwise force you to do the run faster than you should.  Trying to shoehorn a 14K workout into a shorter time frame than your body is accustomed to, for example, would create a much greater injury risk than any 2 runs-for-1 tradeoff.  Beyond that, you should simply add one or two kilometers to the day's total workout to get a comparable performance benefit from the tradeoff.

Coach Stephen