How a busy CEO ran a 1:28 half marathon on 2 hours LESS training per week
- Emma O'Toole
- Jan 18
- 5 min read
Many runners and cyclists assume that getting faster means finding more time to train. But for busy athletes with demanding jobs, families, and constant travel, more training often creates more fatigue, not better performance.
This case study breaks down how Jim, a CEO and parent with limited recovery bandwidth, improved his half marathon from 1:34 to 1:28:43 by training fewer hours per week. By reducing unnecessary intensity, replacing HIIT-style workouts with focused strength training, protecting recovery, and making his plan fit his actual life, Jim finally started adapting instead of accumulating fatigue. If you feel like you’re doing a lot of work but not seeing the results you expect, this story will challenge how you think about training volume and effectiveness.
Strength training for runners and cyclists over 30 is a game-changer for performance, resilience, and long-term health.
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TRAINING BREAKDOWN
"The goal was to make his training more effective and fit his actual life."
By Emma O'Toole
Hi there!
I want to share Jim’s story with you today because it challenges one of the most common beliefs I hear from endurance athletes:
“If I want to get faster, I need more time to train.”
Jim didn’t have more time to train. He’s a CEO of his own business that takes him all over the world, has a 4-year old son who just started primary school and before we worked together, he was already doing what many would consider “a lot”.
Despite that though, he wanted to run a sub 1:30 marathon. He’d been stuck at 1:34 for the past 8 months and couldn’t seem to breakthrough. Jim had no previous injury history.
Now whilst this story is about running, the principles extend to cycling, so if you’re a cyclist reading this, don’t exit off the email just yet!
How it started
When we began working together, Jim was training around 10 hours per week.
Most of it happened early mornings before work, setting the alarm at what many would call an ungodly hour and trying to squeeze everything in before the day took over.
To some, and even admittedly to Jim, it looked committed and dedicated- this is just what runners do, we’re a different breed.
This is what Jim’s training week looked like:
Monday- Zone 1/2 run
Tuesday- 400m reps
Wednesday - Tempo run
Thursday- Zone 2 run
Friday- 30 min circuit workout and 1-2k threshold reps.
Saturday- Zone 2 long run
Sunday- 20 min HIIT class or rest day.
Load management problem, not effort:
Jim’s “easy” endurance runs were not easy. He was running them too hard, ignoring heart rate data, going mainly by pace and inadvertently adding more stress to his training week.
His 30 minute circuit class or 20 minute HIIT session was another workout in his week, not strength training to support his running.
There was a lot of intensity in Jim’s week. He told me that, more often than not, he struggled to hit the pace targets in his interval runs, particularly the Friday threshold reps.
His rest day was quite literally HIIT or miss with him not really thinking that the 20 minute session counted as a “proper workout”.
The result wasn’t a “dedicated runner making progress”, it was this:
His sleep was consistently poor with few REM cycles and little time spent at deep sleep.
His HRV had been trending down for months.
His energy was best described as flat, groggy and always a bit tired.
So for his running, he wasn’t really adapting just driving himself deeper into a hole.
This is something I see a lot in busy, high-performing people: they don’t lack discipline, they lack space to recover.
What we changed
The goal was to make his training more effective and fit his actual life.
Here’s what we did:
1. Jim took 1 week off.
Jim couldn’t remember the last time he didn’t train 6-7 days per week. So first things first,
Jim had one week off running to reset mentally and physically.
2. We reduced his total training time
We brought his weekly volume down to around 8 hours per week.
This was something that confused Jim and he will admit to be resistant to, however it wasn’t that Jim couldn’t handle a 10hr training week, it’s that it wasn’t helping.
That reduction immediately gave him:
More sleep
More energy
A dedicated rest day
Better consistency within his sessions
And more time with his family
3. We introduced 2x quality strength sessions
Instead of circuit and HIIT classes, we introduced two focused strength training sessions.
Jim’s initial concern here was that if he was travelling away for work he wouldn’t be able to do the sessions, but we adapted week after week. Sometimes Jim had access to a gym where he was staying, other times he packed bands in his suitcase and occasionally a dumbbell in his overnight bag!
These strength sessions weren’t about getting sweaty or replicating another run. These were designed to:
Build tissue tolerance.
Improve force production
Improve running mechanics
Support running economy
Support resilience to reduce injury risk
In other words, strength training that worked as his running “enabler” to support his 1:30 half marathon goal.
4. We reduced running intensity
We dropped down to two quality sessions per week, not 3. These sessions were planned, purposeful and progressed as race day approached. Jim soon found that he was actually enjoying these sessions once again because he found he could hit the intensity targets and feel himself making progress.
Jim’s “easy” runs became easy and he was stringent with wearing (and sticking to) his heart rate monitor targets and feedback.
This is when his aerobic fitness started to improve instead of being constantly suppressed.
5. We created space to recover
This is the part that often gets overlooked.
By training smarter, not harder, and taking a rest day at least once per week, Jim had space to: recover properly, fuel adequately, sleep more (and better) and enjoy time with his family.
This was one of the key pieces really.
You can have the best training plan in the world across your running and cycling that includes strength training, but if you’re not recovering then you’re not adapting to your training.
The result
Jim ran a 1:28:43 half marathon 7 months after us starting work together.
That’s over 5 minutes faster than his previous best.
And that was off 2 hours less training per week, less intensity, a dedicated rest day, performance-orientated strength training and a better work/training/life balance.
This was about doing the right amount, at the right intensity, with enough support to actually adapt as well as trusting the process.
If you’re busy, tired, and feeling like you should be fitter for the work you’re doing, it’s worth asking:
Do I really need more training… or do I need better structure?
If you’re not quite sure, join my free community for runners and cyclists over 30 for support on how to train consistently, adapt when life (naturally) gets busy, and still improve your performance.
Enjoy your week!
Emma x
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