Days or Distance? (Read 689 times)

I'd like to get some opinions... I'm currently running every other day-ish, trying to build back up to a 60 min run (the pattern will likely be 30 - 45- 60 or something similar). Right now I'm doing 30 - 35 - 40, and after the next cycle my plan was going to bump up to 30 - 40 - 50 for a few cycles. Once I get that longer run up to 60, I was planning on adding a fourth (30 min) day into the mix (back to back after the middle run). I plan to gradually get to 5 days per week. My question is this: should I stick with this plan, or should my next step be to add that fourth day? That is, should I wait until my three runs are a more reasonable distance, or should I throw the back-to-back day in sooner?

I asked a similar question over in the coaching forum last year, and had several different people arguing for both sides of the equation. I think it depends on the individual and what you want to accomplish with your running. My thoughts are that if you are training for a specific, longer race that will require you to run for an hour or more, then getting to the hour first would be priority. If you're just trying to improve your overall fitness, I think that 5 days of 30 minutes does more for you than three days of 30, 45, and 60. Of course, I could be wrong. Have been many times before. One thing I noticed when cruising through your log trying to see what you've been doing, is that your 5k race pace is very close to what you've been running your "easy" runs at. Chances are you either didn't "race" that 5K or, more likely, you're running your easy runs too fast. I took the liberty of plugging your 5K time into McMillan's running calculator - it told me that your pace per kilometer for easy runs should be between 6:57 - 7:15 per kilometer. I'm not real great at conversions, but I know that's a good clip slower than what you've been doing. You'll find it easier to run longer and more frequently if you slow down your training runs. Plus, you've got a better chance of not getting hurt. Happy running!

That seems like an extremely cautious approach. Do you have a history of running injuries? How are you handling the mileage you're doing now? But in general I think frequency comes before distance. I feel like once I make running a habbit and get used to running pretty much every day, it's easy to increase distance on some of the runs.

Days.

Thanks for the input, people; I think I'll go with days before distance.

One thing I noticed when cruising through your log trying to see what you've been doing, is that your 5k race pace is very close to what you've been running your "easy" runs at. Chances are you either didn't "race" that 5K or, more likely, you're running your easy runs too fast.

Yes, it is the former rather than the latter. My girlfriend and I signed up for that 5k on the spur of the moment, and I just ran it as a regular training run with a small kick in the last 500m or so. I'm fairly confident I could 'race' a 5k a fair bit faster than that. But I do very much appreciate you looking in detail at my training!

That seems like an extremely cautious approach. Do you have a history of running injuries? How are you handling the mileage you're doing now?

I agree, it is an overly cautious approach. I have a history of medial shinsplint issues that have plagued me for the past 2 years, but seem to be currently under control. I'm also bouncing back from an ankle injury that had me out for much of Feb/March; more of a freak thing than an overuse injury.