Mostly I just run by mood. I'm not following a plan of any kind, I'm just trying to safely build my base. If I'm feeling good, I'll run farther, if I'm tired, I'll cut it short. Most of my runs are in the 4-6 mile range with a weekly long run. I've only been running 4 days a week. Since I was off for several months last year due to injury, I've been trying to keep my weekly totals within limits: first between 10-15 for about a month, then between 15-20 for the next month, then 20-25, then 25-30, now 30+. I'll probably keep it at this level for a while, since I fear getting another serious injury.
Barking Mad To Run
I don't have any set plans these days since I'm now a 'fun runner' and am training for NOTHING.
I just go out and run how I feel. I always try to do at least 5K distance as a minimum. If I'm feeling pretty good I'll keep going longer.
No pressure running...it feels great!
"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." Theodore Roosevelt
Like Ginny, I'm sort of running by mood right now. I am working on getting my mileage back up to where it was before I became a lazy, snow-bound slug over the winter. I target 4-6 miles for my weekday runs and longer for a weekend LR. But I do have one rule--if I start a run I have to go at least 20 minutes, since that is the minimum that has a health benefit (or so I've read).
Most of my runs are generally in the 1.5hr plus/min 15 min range, with some short ones < 1 hr, maybe 30 min if short on time. Long runs are generally 4 hr this time of year, once a week - or every 2-3 wks in winter. As progress toward summer, they'll get up to 6-8 hrs. I try to get at least 4000-5000ft of uphill on long runs. I generally run 5-6 days/wk, sometimes more, rarely less.
My weekly mileage is basically determined by how many days I take off.
Well this is sort of Captain Obvious here, but I surprised myself a bit with this. I had never run more than 5 days/wk before, and had trouble getting to 50 mpw, which was the minimum I thought necessary for any kind of reasonable marathon training. Since the beginning of this year I moved to 6 days, which made 50mpw much easier to achieve, and allowed me to get a good stretch of 60+ mile weeks. All based on 5 runs of 7-10 miles (1-1.5 hrs), plus one LR. Schedule has worked out just fine (once I got used to the 5AM wake-up calls -- correction, you never get used to those); it remains to be seen whether my body can hold up.
Dave
6 days a week makes everything over 45 MPW a whole lot more manageable for me.
So far, I've either been building miles or training for a goal race. To build miles, I more or less do 3 weeks of inching up, then a cutback, rinse and repeat, but modify it pretty liberally based on how I'm feeling. In goal race mode, of course, I am usually following a plan that I've picked based on how many miles I think I can realistically do based on my base going in.