Running Twice a Day

Running twice a day is something that may conjure up images of training fanatics or elite athletes (or both). Two-time Olympic marathoner Pete Pfitzinger offers his expertise on the topic at http://pfitzinger.com/labreports/twoadays.shtml. Pete states that runners should not introduce running twice a day into the training regime until their weekly mileage exceeds 55 miles for runners targeting a 5 km race, or 75 miles for marathoners. For runners attempting to push themselves to the limit and run as fast as their body’s will allow, following the advice of experts like Pete only makes sense. For the rest of us, running twice a day can still be beneficial, but for different reasons, depending on our individual running goals.

As a fifteen to twenty-something mile a week runner, I fall well short of Pete’s guidance for even considering running twice a day. Occasionally, however, I manage to run twice a day – and feel good about it (I do not consider myself a training fanatic and I am definitely not an elite athlete). As my schedule permits, I run during lunch at work. Although my lunchtime run usually only lasts twenty minutes, it recharges my batteries and enables me to better focus on the rest of the day’s tasks. Arriving home after work, my son sometimes wants to go for a run, and the dog is always ready to run. So, periodically I will head out again for another twenty or thirty minute run with my two favorite training partners. Physically, there may be more gain from running four miles, rather than two miles twice in the same day. Mentally, however, running twice gives me the mid-day boost that I need to get through the day and an opportunity to visit with my son.