Distance Running for Busy People

I've often wondered how those ultramarathon runners do it. Where do they find the time to put in that kind of mileage each week? I've often assumed that they were either very rich and didn't have to work for a living, very poor and didn't worry about working for a living, or had no life.

While those scenarios may be true for some, many marathon and ultramarathon runners are like you and me...busy people with busy lives. As a result, they break up some of the mileage into smaller chunks by running more than once a day. Let me repeat they do it by "running more than once a day."

As I train for an upcoming marathon (and I'm seriously behind in my training), I find that I often don't have time for a decent long run each day. Either I'm working, dropping kids off at school, picking them up from aftercare, coaching their teams, spending time with my wife, teaching Sunday School, you name it. In order to keep up my mileage without giving up some other activity, I run 4-6 miles at lunch and a few miles either in the morning or at night. It sounds hard, but it's just a matter of adjusting your body to it.

Along with "2 a days", I usually structure my workouts so that Friday is a non running day. I try to run a long run on Saturday (10-15 miles). I let my family know in advance that I'm planning a long run and work it around their schedules.

I'm not sure if this is the best way to train for long distance races, but for me at least, it solves the problem of finding enough time to run.

For more information on marathon/ultra training see the Runner's World website.