Due to young family/work commitments I am only able to run once or twice a week.

Although I'm not a great runner (53 mins for 10k is my best so far!), I really enjoy it, want to beat my  times in the races I've done so far and even think about training for a half marathon at some point in the next year or so.

My dilemma is how to make the most of my 2 runs a week. All the 10k training plans I've seen on the web suggest running 3 or 4 times a week with a mixture of tempo runs, hill runs and long slow runs etc.

Is it possible to improve if I'm doing 5k races one week, long slow runs the next week, hill sessions the next or will the lack of consistency be a problem?

Many Thanks

Paul

Clearly if you are only doing 2 runs a week you have to make them count! Your recovery is not running so kick those recovery runs out and make the two runs any of: tempo, long, intervals, hills or race, over a 2 or 3 week cycle and i'm sure you can improve.

Thanks for the reply.

This is probably a bit of a newbie question but is a long slow run considered a recovery run or just another type of training run?

Hi,

Thanks for all the good advice, I think maybe the answer is pretty obvious now that everyones has pointed it out! I just need to make the most of the runs I do have - better to have a couple of decent runs a week, rather than 4 mediocre ones.

This probably sounds a little stupid but if I ran 6 miles at a really good pace (for me!) but then ran 8 miles at a slower pace the week after, am I somehow training myself to run at a slower pace and would not perform as well over the 6 mile distance again?

Or am I just getting obessed with running and looking at stats on the GRG!!

Paul

lisa's explanation of the long run is brilliant. No, don't worry about running slowly on a long run as you are building stamina and general fitness. If you ran a long run every day for a while then ran a 5k you'd be so fit you'd run it very fast. Of course a quicker and better way would be to mix up your training as we have already discussed.

P.S. Aren't we all obsessed with stats? I am anyway :-) A non runner listening to a load of runners talking: not only will they be very bored, but also think we are completely barmy...'How fast did you run the lap tonight? How fast is your best? How many miles a week/year/ are you doing? And then i had shin splints..'etc etc

Thanks for the clarification.

Glad it's not just me with the stats!

No, not just you.  I'm obsessed with stats and graphs, too  :)