2-a-Days workouts!

by Mackenzie Swenson
(Wisconsin)

Doing twice a day workouts with the 100 day plan:

"Hey Marius,

I've looked around on your Q & A section for info regarding running twice daily, but couldn't seem to find anything :/ I've gone through the whole plan for one marathon I did, and have since played around with it to cater the training towards other distances (Half-Marathon and 5ks) Here's why I'm asking about 2-a-Days: This fall I'll be living in an apartment 6.5 miles from my college (9 a.m. to 4 p.m) and I was thinking about running to and from school 4 days a week. I'm currently at about 40 miles a week, and I start school in early/mid September. The run to school would be at a very easy long run pace (don't want to get sweaty! haha :) and the return is when I would do that day's harder workout. I don't have to worry about books and such, so lugging around extra weight on my back won't be problem.

My questions are:

Is this something that can be incorporated into the 100 Day Marathon Plan Schedule?

If so, how would you suggest building up to 2-a-days?

Thank you so much!"

Answer:Hi Mackenzie and thanks for your question.

You can certainly do this, especially as you have some experience with the plan at this time.

I would probably spend 4 weeks building up to this, adding one of the morning runs every week.

In addition to this you NEED to run really easy on these runs (zone 1) and on days where you have really long marathon specific runs you may want to consider only doing single runs.

It will be a nice experiment for you - some runners do need some more mileage and doing it your way is a nice approach without interfering too much with your daily routine.

PS : extra tips : run the morning run on an empty stomach if you can - I have very good experience with this as the slight fasting mode from the night may help you burn a little bit more fat on the morning run if done on an empty stomach.

all the best,
Marius