How often are you training?

I know there are a lot of schools of thought discussing the amount of days per week that people should be training.  I know that not everyone is the same and that everyone is of different physical abilities, but I’m of the opinion that more is better.  Ive always wanted to train as much as I can no matter if Im tired, sore, don’t want to, or anything else that would limit me.  I hate days off.  Like really hate days off.  My family and friends know that if I have an off day scheduled, then its probably a good idea not to annoy me.  I have such a short fuse on my days off that the smallest things make me blow up.  Or if I cant do a morning workout, the rest of my day Im edgy and irritable.  I know its bad, but I just like to blow off some steam.

Ive read all the reports and articles showing how important rest days are, and that you shouldn’t go hard every day since your body needs to heal to get stronger, but in some ways, I just don’t care.  I want to push myself every time I work out.  I don’t see a point in going for a nice leisurely run just to log the miles and count them as an easy run.  Every workout should have a specific goal, and to me, its to get faster or build endurance.  Even on my long training runs for marathons, I cant bring myself to slow down and add between 45-60 seconds per mile like everyone says you should.  If I were to run 45 seconds slower than my goal pace that would be painful for me every step.  To me, I wont be running at the pace during my races so why train at that pace.  Its also why I do most of my training alone.  I am typically faster than most of my friends, so if I were to go out and run with them, I would have to go at their pace which in my mind, doesn’t benefit me at all.  I know its not the right way to think, but I just cant bring myself to think any other way.

I’m also of the belief that if you can train every day, or at least 6 days a week, then you should.  My typical training plan for a marathon is something like:

Monday: intervals

Tuesday:  Tempo run

Wednesday- hill training

Thursday- probably a bike ride or a short run at faster than tempo pace

Friday- off day, but Im still doing weights at the gym.

Saturday- Long Run

Sunday- bike ride or off day depending on how long the Saturday run was

During Triathlon season, the schedule looks the same but we add multiple workouts to each day to obviously incorporate swimming and biking.  I like to swim in the morning since it wakes me up for the day, and because the pools that I swim at typically have a children's program during the day, so I don’t want to swim in a pool where kids pee in it all day.  I feel like I would be drinking pee with every breath.  No thanks.  I’ll pass. 

I’m sure my schedule looks light to some people, and heavy to others.  That’s why its great that everyone is different.  I just feel Id rather push myself every day and be a little sore for a workout or so than have a day off and not be working on anything.  My training buddy Leo does about half my weekly mileage and volume but it works for him. 

Now with Riley being born, I’m finding it harder to squeeze in a workout every day.  There are just some days that I don’t have the time or cant break away and leave my wife to watch him for a bit.  I’m guessing Im going to have to change my thinking and how many days I can workout.  That’ll be the hardest thing to overcome.  I can overcome bad workouts, but having to realize that I probably cant train every day will be the one thing that I will need to work on the most. 

So how much are you training and whats your beliefs?