Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Training Hours Per Week

How many hours per week do you train?

As a runner, admittedly I usually focus on the amount of miles I log every workout and per week, but don't usually get too hung up on the amount of time it takes to train.  But since I'm busier this Summer with work than I've been in recent years, I've really started to notice the amount of time my training is consuming.

On the left is a portion my GarminConnect calendar snapshot of the past two weekly summaries.  You can see that the mileage totals are around 60 miles, totaling about 8.5 hours.  What it doesn't show is the 60-90 minutes of supplemental core, upper body, plyometric, and leg strengthening work I also add in on most days.  If I combine those additional 5-6 hours to the weekly summary, I'm at about 13-14 hours total.  And during the bulk of marathon training later this summer, this will increase to 16-17 hours of training per week.

Now before you roll your eyes or flip the channel ... YES ... I realize this is probably much more time than the "average" runner puts in.  Heck, there are some triathletes juggling three sports who don't put in this kind of time.  This Runner'sWorld article recommends about 30-50 miles per week for the average marathoner, and 100-140 for elite athletes.  I'm not elite, but I've tried 100 mile weeks and I can't quite cut it.  But I've always found that the key to me feeling good on a daily basis and performing well on race day is to increase the load during training.  For example, I don't feel confident at the starting line of a marathon unless I've put in quite a few 75-80 mile weeks during the training cycle.  And of course, the ancillary core and leg strengthening work helps keep my body strong and healthy during during the ramped up workouts.  But of course, all this leads to more and more time.

Now, before you start with the "How could you take that much time away from your family?" condescending barbs - ha - let me just share with you how fortunate I am.  I have a spouse who is totally on board with the training because she is a triathlete and logs her own miles!  It's just what we do.  Plus, the kids are adults and have families of their own now.  So what are we gonna do ... sit around and stare at each other in rocking chairs?

The key for me with all of the hours of weekly activity is to get plenty of water, nutrition, and most importantly ... REST.  I try to build in 20 min naps here an there, and am usually in bed by no later than 9:00 p.m. each night, which is sort of a prerequisite of waking at 4:00 a.m. almost every day.  Going to bed while the sun is literally still in the sky in the Summer is sometimes difficult, but if I don't do it, I can't manage the workout the next morning.

So how many hours per week do you train?  Do you find the more is better ... or is there a saturation point where you're only really wearing yourself down?  I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.
... Be Great Today!

8 comments:

  1. Hi Jim,

    I would like to say I am pretty close to 90 minutes 5 - 7 days a week. Sometimes more, sometimes a little less. I am fairly fortunate in that after work I have a good amount of free time to train, but there is only so much a body can handle. I don't belong to a gym presently so the bike trail is my gym.

    I too am trying to get in a nap when I come home from work, maybe 30 - 40 minutes.

    The downside to my current training is that by the time it is cool enough outside to run, it is getting sort of late (by my standards) and when I am done working out it is hard to fall asleep. I am typically a morning person as well, so sleeping in later (and going to work later) doesn't sit well with me. And I really don't like the treadmill at all.

    The amount of time I do put in seems to be sort of conditional as far as what I can afford to do, what my energy level is, and what I am trying to accomplish. You just have to be careful, especially in the summer, as the heat / humidity can take a lot more out of you. I've met more than a few runners who were "taking it easy" because they felt drained which is smart.

    Either way good post and glad you revealed more details of your plans.

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    1. Yeah, it definitely comes down to managing what your body can handle

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  2. back in my running days I would normally do about 8 hours of running.

    as a cyclist I now ride 10-15 hours a week. (empty nester with a great corporate job)

    that said, have you heard of trainingpeaks.com? it's a website that you can use to track your workouts, time distance and *intensity* to give you an overall picture of your training and the amount of stress you put on your body... and can even guide you on how and when to back off...

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    1. I have a buddy who's a cyclist who used it too - I'll check into it, he said the same thing you did about it

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  3. You are definitely doing more strength/stretch etc than I am - and I am sure I need to change that. I do about an hour on days off from running, but only about 30 minutes on running days.

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    1. I think you're still doing more than most runners do Grace

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  4. There's definitely a point for me when I'm doing too much. We're all different and the amount of work you do would have me injured or overtrained in a couple of weeks. But there are people out there who wouldn't be able to cope with my work-load. It's all about finding out what works for you.

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    1. So true, it's definitely about finding that threshold - I'm pretty guilty of pushing past the threshold occasionally, probably not smart

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Thanks for stopping by ... your comment's always welcome!