Jun 3 • 💪🏼 Check-ins
“Why every athlete should be running 3x a week. (Not how you think.)”
Most young athletes either run too much or not at all. Both are mistakes.
Here’s the actual breakdown every soccer/sport athlete should be doing year-round:
Sprint work — 2x per week
Short, explosive efforts. 10-40m sprints with full recovery between reps. This builds your anaerobic engine — the system you use for everything that wins games. Acceleration. Top speed. Chasing down a through ball. Closing space on a striker.
Endurance run — 1x per week
30-45 minutes at conversational pace. Zone 2 effort. This builds your aerobic base — the system that lets you recover BETWEEN sprints during a 90-minute match.
Why you need BOTH:
Sprint-only athletes gas out by the 60th minute. They have top speed but no recovery capacity.
Endurance-only athletes can run for hours but can’t beat anyone to a 50/50 ball. No explosive output.
Game speed = (sprint power × aerobic recovery). Both systems multiply each other. Train one without the other and you cap your potential.
The two engines feed each other. The endurance run improves your sprint recovery. The sprints make your endurance work feel easier. They’re not competing — they’re stacking.
3x per week. Forever. No exceptions.
— Coach Owen
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“Why every athlete should be running 3x a week. (Not how you think.)”
