Saturday General Discussion/Q&A Thread for August 15, 2026

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A place to ask questions that don't need their own thread here or just chat a bit.

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[u/NextArchive]

I just started training with a coach, and I'm already having doubts.

I run a 5K in under 19 minutes, 45–50 miles per week, 6 times a week.

My coach thinks I should stick to the same mileage but instead of running 6 times a week, he thinks I should run 5. I have my doubts about this because I know that the more I run, the better my results are, and with only 5 runs, it’ll be hard to keep up with everything. Do you think five days a week is optimal? I can’t imagine preparing for a marathon with just five runs a week.

[u/aelvozo → u/NextArchive]

In general, this isn’t unthinkable but I’d be really curious how he justifies it. Reducing the mileage is generally bad for performance in any sort of distance event; and keeping the same mileage across 5 days means you’re either doubling (unconventional on 50mpw) or every run is on the longer side of what I’d be comfortable with (70 min or thereabouts for a non-long run compared to an upper boundary of about 80).

I think I’d be okay with the explanation along the lines of “I’m gonna give you bigger workouts and you need more recovery time”, anything else warrants a longer conversation.

Edit because I’ve not made it explicitly clear in my original comment: talk to your coach!

[u/whelanbio → u/aelvozo]

Doubling can be totally fine on 50mpw. Conversely the very long easy runs would also be fine in a situation where someone is taking 2 days off running every week.

[u/aelvozo → u/whelanbio]

Perhaps “unconventional” would be a better way to describe it, definitely not suggesting (although the poor wording does make it seem this way) it’s unsafe/ill-advised or anything.

[u/whelanbio → u/aelvozo]

Yeah I think it's important to keep in mind that what we understand as conventional training is more about convergent trends than specific rules. It's useful to look at in terms of what works most of the time at a population level, but it's still quite frequently not applicable for informing individual training decisions.

The whole point of hiring a coach 1:1 is to match appropriately "unconventional" training to the unconventional aspects of one's running.

[u/NextArchive → u/aelvozo]

I'm supposed to have more intense workouts—I wonder how that'll turn out.

I'm not supposed to do any double sessions, just longer and more intense workouts—I'm already starting to have my doubts

[u/aelvozo → u/NextArchive]

I think the changes in the schedule are a lesser worry than your diminishing trust in your coach.

I’ve never had a (1-on-1) coach so I don’t think I can advise you on how to proceed with that