duration of training for running

Question

I am currently resuming running training; initially I ran for lunch but due to my work (and my desire) I prefer to do it in the morning.

This reduces my training from 1 hour to 40 minutes approximately.

I would like to know if by training myself identically (same exercise and same pace of race) that will make me progress identically, a little less quickly or much less quickly.

For information, my training consists of 4 stages:

• "normal" race at a good pace for me haha (~10km/h)
• split (30s at full speed and 30s at slow pace)
• and I start again one more time

The question may be a little vague, sorry if it does. I would like to achieve my goals (1: cardio & 2: speed) without wasting too much time =)

Edit for clarification

Initially i run :

• ~20min at 10km/h
• split (30s/30s)*6
• the rest of the time at 8/9km/h In general this trainning takes me 1h (example : 21jan. i run 9.61km in 01h09, the trainning start @12h00)

Now i run :

• ~10/15min at 10km/h
• split (30s/30s)*6
• the rest of the time at 9/10km/h (i check my speed via my watch btw) This "morning" trainning takes me ~30/40min (example : 2feb. i run 5.03km in 00h33, the training start @06h00am)

For information when I run in the morning I run on dirt roads, and at night with a petzel; the route is relatively flat despite the holes in the dirt and mud.

During the midday training I could run in a park where there are dirt and tarmac paths as well as climbs which was quite interesting for the training.

I hope I have given you enough information thank you for your time.

Answer 1

In my experience (and I'm about the same level of runner as you, I'd guess, from what you've put above), speed training can be done in a shorter amount of time without much problem.

What you can't do is distance train. 40 minutes is fine to train for a race you can finish in 40 minutes, or maybe enough to be able to do a 10k at the paces you show above - my rule of thumb is do enough training at 3/4 or more of the distance, so I run 10 miles frequently to train for half marathons, for example - so if your races are 10km or less, you're probably okay, though even for 10km it would be better to have a few days where you do go longer.

Endurance is just not easy to train doing anything other than endurance itself, in my experience. You can do things like the splits you describe to help some there, but at the end of the day your body needs to be used to going that distance.

If you do want to do longer runs, I'd dedicate one day a week to that. I would train for half marathons (~21 km) like so:

Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: 5km, with some variations like sprint/slow, but mostly just 5km. Tuesday: 8km. Saturday: 16-18 km.

Then about three weeks before the actual half, do 21km that Saturday.

So if you have one day a week where you could actually do the longer distance you want, I'd do that, and then the other days have a few that you just run the whole time, and a few days you do the other work like your example above.