Increasing Easy Runs? (Read 1155 times)

I'd say half a mile every other or every 3rd week. Go with what's comfortable; if it stops being easy then you increased it too much. Don't forget to cut back every 4th or 5th week to lower mileage and give your body a chance to recuperate.

Increase .5 miles per week for 4 straight weeks and then cut back a bit on week 5. Repeat. If you keep up your 2.2 mile runs, I wouldn't go much above 6 miles on long run. You won't have enough base/foundation to withstand the pounding. What are your goals??

Sounds good, but you will have to start increasing your miles and long run distance and run as many days per week as possible with most of the miles at an easy pace.

Why so cautious? You're young, seemingly healthy, not overweight.

And you're smarter than me, I started running at least ten years later than you and I regret the lost time. mikeymike is wise, there's nothing wrong with a young man flooring it every now and then to see what he can do and blow some carbon out of the old carburetor*. *or whatever the damned fuel-injected equivalent is these days

Did my 4 miles today (to find out it was 4.25), and it seems like it'd be pretty tough if I did that several times/wk. Maybe I'll try a 3 as my easy and up the long run a little.

Dave, I've been doing the 4 miles at about 40:00. I've heard that about "conversational" before. I thought I was going at that pace... I've tried talking to myself some, but how much should I be able to say.

Dave, I've been doing the 4 miles at about 40:00. I've heard that about "conversational" before. I thought I was going at that pace... I've tried talking to myself some, but how much should I be able to say.

I just took a look at your log (duh ). You could stand to slow down to something near a 10 -10:30 pace (as opposed to 9:40). Your shorter runs are certainly faster than you need to run them at this point to build endurance but it is pretty obvious that you're making great progress. I would consider 8:30 a "fast" run for you at this point. If you look back in my log to where it started in 2004, you'll see that I used to run almost all of miles in the 8-8:30 range. I ran before that some but not consistently. Now, I run most of my miles in the 9-9:30 range even though I am in WAY better shape now. Going out more slowly has allowed me to extend my long run well into the teens without injury or running out of steam. As Ken said though, consistency is probably most important right now and at 15 runs a month, you're doing great.