If you increase your long run.... (Read 1736 times)

slowgino

posted: 1/16/2008 at 1:46 AM

Quote from run_ac_run on 1/14/2008 at 11:11 PM:

what do you do with your other runs during the week? For example, I am currently running about 3 to 3.5 miles 4 times a week. ... My question is, at what point do I increase the distance of my other runs during the week, and by how much?

Just a note from my own experience - When I started running 37 years ago I also was doing 3 to 3.5 miles 4 or 5 times a week. It was only 2 or 3 years later when I was doing maybe 25 mpw that I even started thinking about anything like a "long" run compared to the normal daily runs of 5 to 6 miles. If you are running comfortably and easily and just increase your mileage (or time on feet) by 5% per week, you'll more than double your mpw in 4 months. If you feel like you need to do "long" runs before then, why not just take one of your normal runs and break it up by taking some little walk breaks: instead of just "4 miles" run 1 mile, walk a little bit, and repeat. You might find you can do 6+ miles that way with no problem whatsoever.

run_ac_run

posted: 1/16/2008 at 12:29 PM

Quote from slowgino on 1/16/2008 at 1:46 AM:

Just a note from my own experience - When I started running 37 years ago I also was doing 3 to 3.5 miles 4 or 5 times a week. It was only 2 or 3 years later when I was doing maybe 25 mpw that I even started thinking about anything like a "long" run compared to the normal daily runs of 5 to 6 miles. If you are running comfortably and easily and just increase your mileage (or time on feet) by 5% per week, you'll more than double your mpw in 4 months. If you feel like you need to do "long" runs before then, why not just take one of your normal runs and break it up by taking some little walk breaks: instead of just "4 miles" run 1 mile, walk a little bit, and repeat. You might find you can do 6+ miles that way with no problem whatsoever.

I think this is a good idea. At this point when I think about a "long run", I really thought of using that as a way to gradually increase my mileage. My plan was to maybe get up to 5 or 6 miles for one of my runs, then start increasing the other runs. But after reading all of your advice, I think the concensus is just to come up with a plan to start increasing my weekly mileage, and not focus so much on a "long run", as all the more experienced folks are accustomed to.