Long rides / runs on consecutive days?

While each of those (consecutive long bike/long run and bricks) may help you mentally, in fact, neither has any basis in physiology--i.e., your body is not being "conditioned" to do anything special for the most part.

If your long runs are not "good quality" following your long ride and you are able to separate them in your weekly schedule then, by all means, do so.

^^^ x 2 of what JK said. If you can split your long run mid week and do your long ride(s) over the weekend you will get better training sessions.

Yup - I don't have enough daylight to do a 3 hr ride on a weekday...

You have brought up a good point that I've wondered about as well. I've always done my long run on Sat followed by a long bike on Sun. Because I work 6 days a week Sun is the only day I can get in a long ride. However I may be able to change my long run to mid week.

I think I may give that a try and see how I feel as I know some of my long rides have suffered because of dead legs from the previous days run. 

x3. I've been separating mine (in IM training), and so far so good.

I definitely prefer separating them.  The argument (in favor of doing them back to back) is that you "learn" to run on tired legs. However, the kind of "tired" that your legs feel the day after a long ride is very different from the "tired" that your legs feel immediately off the bike, so really what you are learning to do is to run with legs that are not just tired but also sore and crampy from the previous day's effort, leading to crappy, shuffling, miserable runs with horrible form and increased risk of injury.

I do agree with Bryan that it builds mental toughness, but to me the risk is just not worth it.

For me it is the risk of injury from running with bad form.

It's not a "risk" per se.  And many athletes have followed the same schedule as you for years.  It's simply "less than ideal" training if you sacrifice quality or quantity in doing so. 

For example, you may recover fine becuase you have a lighter weekday workout schedule.  But perhaps your training would be more effective with a more consistent training load versus big weekends and long recoveries. 

Of course, logistcially a more balanced schedule may not work for you.  In that case, your 'big weekend' scedule may be the best that you can do given all your other constraints.  But if it is an option, then I'd wager that you can get better quality and/or more volume into your week while still getting adequate recovery.  And that's the point.  Greater training load + adequate recovery = higher fitness level.

 x3 and enjoying that rest  today. But man Monday's go fast

bryancd - 2008-06-16 3:08 PM That's another good point, Scout. It does provide a perfect opportunity for a full recovery day on Monday, which I have alos grown to love!