I’ve been told to run XLR (mic) cable and then just use the two conductors instead of all three for RCA. Would that help even though my subs don’t have XLR inputs?
No. You’re still putting a single ended signal down the cable. In order for common mode rejection to work, you need two signal wires, each out of phase to the other.
Use RCA cables and see what It sounds like. More than likely it will be more than good enough for a sub.