Physiology 101: Is 4 Days a Week Really Enough?

If you notice in my preliminary training schedule, some weeks have 3 sessions and some have 4. I mentioned in a previous post that this lack of consistency has led to the temptation for me to sometimes sleep through a Wednesday or Friday workout during those weeks with only 3 sessions because I reason that I can do the last one on Sunday (what I consider the last day of my training week).

Today I was reading Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer while eating breakfast, and I realized that from this point forward, all of the preliminary weeks are 4 days long. This means that from now until January 17, 2010, I can't sleep in on Wednesday or Friday mornings. I think that this will prove to be a good thing because I'll no longer second guess whether or not I REALLY have to get up.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

I've structured my running days based on the following principles:

• My long run day has to be on a weekend because some of the runs will eventually be 18 miles long. I just don't have the time on a weekday to devote to that long of a run. Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer recommends taking the day before and after your long run off to rest.
• Sunday will work out better than Saturday for the long run because Friday night is Poolapalooza (standing pool party at our house), and this sometimes includes the consumption of too much wine and gourmet food. Saturday mornings are better left open, with no expectation of running, just in case Kevin and Ashley decide to open that last bottle of wine.
  
• I have an unnatural dread for Mondays, and if my Monday dread now had to include running as well (not that I dread running, but it's just one more thing stacked on Monday), I don't think I'd be as successful. So, Monday's a rest day.
  
• Thursdays are my day off from work. You'd think that this would mean that Thursday would be the perfect day for running, but I know from experience that ANYTHING I put on my agenda for Thursdays, I end up coming up with every excuse under the sun to avoid when Thursdays role around, no matter what degree of excitement I had when I scheduled the activity. Thursdays are MY day, and I try to not fill them with anything.

Some of you may be wonderimg if I will actually be properly conditioned to complete the marathon if I'm only running 4 days a week. So many other training programs I've researched out there called for 5-6 days of running a week. I'll pass on what the book suggests and hope that the trust I'm placing in it leads to success.

The instructors who wrote Non-Runner's Marthon Trainer have experimented with training programs of four to six days per week and have found that four-days-per-week programs are just as successful as program involving more than four days per week. They conducted an experimental study (which is actually published in the back of the book) and found no difference in the four-day-per-week program and a six-day-per-week program. The runners in the study liked having three days of recovery each week as opposed to just one day.

Sneak Peak at Official Training

The official training program which I'll begin the week that spans the end of September/beginning of October, includes two "short" days, one "medium" day and one "long" day each week. The program is built on the principle that the most crucial element of training for your first marathon is to get in one "long" run each week.

The official program is also based on the idea that the training mileage should not increase more than 10% per week. The authors contend that increasing too quickly will increase the chance for injury. Each time mileage is increased, the body needs a week to adapt to the increase. If the increase is too great, the body does not completely adapt and after several weeks the tissues begin to break down and become injured.

I'm going to keep this in mind when I'm feeling bad about being 8 weeks in and still doing some walking.