Why weekly running volume is the single biggest lever you have on running performance
As a rule, the more distance you can accumulate each week, over a long period of time, will directly influence how fast you can run and how strong of a runner you are.
This impact is so strong that it’s fair to say that up to a certain weekly distance, what you actually do in those weeks matters little.
The exact distance varies between person but my rule of thumb generally, is that if you’re doing 30km or less per week, then the actual runs of that week won’t be a huge lever for your performance. At these weekly distances, the biggest performance gain available to you, is to simply run more.
Yes, I'm sorry but that means at your 20km weekly distance, the Norweigan 4 x 4s you've found on social media probably aren't doing too much for you compared to the impact just running more would.
Of course, there are diminishing returns for increased mileage. A runner going from 20km per week to 50km per week will see large performance gains. But another runner going from 90km to 100km will see far less improvement.
Why does weekly mileage matter so much?
Running is not very different to most other things, the more you practice it, the better you’ll get.
Weekly mileage is such a huge lever for your performance because with consistency, it directly provides all the stimulus your body need to grow in ways beneficial for running.
Increased efficiency across your entire cardiovascular system
Stronger, more resilient joints, tendons and ligaments
Mental grit through consistently doing a hard thing
Improved running economics through sheer volume of practice
These are foundational parts of being a strong, fast and efficient runner, and the best way to train them all at once with the least risk of injury, is higher volume weekly miles at easy paces.
Your weekly distance builds the engine that fuels everything about your running performance. It’s the driver for your running in every sense of the word.
Does this mean my priority should be to increase mileage asap?
Working one an increase to your weekly mileage if you’re towards the lower end should be part of your progression plan for sure. But whether it’s the next thing you focus on depends, and you should never rush to increase weekly distance for the sake of it.
Whilst the performance gains from more weekly running are real, the strain and increased injury risk it puts on your body is also very real.
Increasing your weekly mileage demands a lot of you.
Demands more time actually spent running
More of your diet and hydration habits
Much more of your sleep and recovery habits
Punishes you more for alcohol intake
Demands at least some or more thought into strength
These demands are very real and each of them left out will impact how you feel on your runs and how much benefit you get in a big way.
When thinking about increasing mileage and you’re a normal human with a job, thinking about the extra demands is something you should do. Unless you have specific goals and reasons, then increasing mileage might not always be right for you.
When you should increase weekly distance:
You want improved running performance
You’re ok with the extra demands of more distance
You understand how much performance gains you can expect based on what you’re currently doing
When you shouldn’t increase weekly mileage:
You don’t care too much improving about performance
Your time is limited and running isn’t a priority for you
You struggle with running injuries in a way that impacts your quality of life
The reality is that most of us are purely recreational athletes where running isn't our full time job. The impacts that running more has on your time, energy and brain space is often overlooked.
How to safely increase running weekly distance
Slowly and with care, in short. The often touted rule is the “10% rule”. This says that never increase distance from week to week by more than 10%.
So if you currently run 40km a week, don’t increase by more than 4km in a single week - don’t do more than 44km in single week whilst increasing.
Adding weekly volume slowly and at an easy intensity is key.
Only add between 4-6% in distance each week
Make sure every increase KM is at a genuinely easy pace
Ensure a big focus on recovery whilst increasing, plenty of sleep and adequate food intake - especially carbs and protein.
Step by step guide on increasing mileage
Work out what weekly distance you’ve run, on average, over the last 6 weeks, this is your starting volume
If it’s less than 40km, add 5% (2km) to it each week.
So 42, 44, 46km
On the Fourth week, drop the total volume by 33%, so after the 46km week, you’ll do just 31km. This is a deload or recovery week. It lets your body adapt and grow into the new volume and is essential. During the deload week, focus on sleep, plenty of good quality food, and only easy running. This deload week lets the fatigue subside and let’s your body grow stronger to get all the performance benefits you’re after.
After your deload week, start at 44km and repeat the increase and deload cycle.
I’d always suggest do this in blocks of 10km or 6 miles. So go from 40km to 50km and stay at 50 for a month or two, still doing deload weeks every fourth week.
This build, deload and then consistency cycle is how the biggest gains are made.
What are the risks of increasing distance too quickly?
In short, injury. When you hear about the numerous benefits of running more, it can be so tempting to ramp up the weekly distance suddenly.
Unfortunately, this often leads to less running due to injury or burnout instead of the better performance you were hoping for.
Taking it slow and steady and being safe is key. Consistently higher mileage is the goal, not too weeks at a REALLY high mileage followed by 3 weeks of nothing because you’re injured or mentally burnt out.
The risks aren’t only physical too. More distance demands more of you in almost every way, and this can be really hard on us mentally.
The extra hours of easy running can feel monotonous, the discipline and recycled motivation needed to get out the door, more often, more consistently can be draining. These things are very real demands and are often overlooked. Taking it slowly, prioritizing recovery and taking deload weeks seriously are the key ways to battle this mental challenge.
Should I run lots of shorter runs, or fewer longer runs?
The answer to any question on this site, where we love nuance, will always be, it depends.
Both long and short runs have huge pros and cons. The best answer in almost every case, is that good mix of the two is best.
The physical stimulus (what makes your body stronger) from lots two 8km runs is different to the stimulus from one 16km run. In general, you get better at what you do in training.
Longer runs have to be slower by default, so most of the time they're better at training your slow twitch muscle fibres and the longer time on feet leads to more emphasis on strong tendon and bone growth. Super important.
Shorter runs can be faster but not always, but they are always less time on your feet than long runs. This means you don't get the same adaptations in slow energy systems as you'd get from long runs. Shorter runs can be faster though which is equally as vital for performance gains.
Doing a good mix of the two is a good idea. Do some slow and short, some fast and short, some fast and middle length, and do some long and easy.
When you start to hit higher weekly volumes, including faster periods towards the end of long easy runs is a great bang for buck training strategy that's incredibly hard to replicate.
Does all my increased mileage need to be in zone 2?
It needs to be easy, genuinely easy. This means you can hold a full conversation, you’re not out of breath and you’re not pounding the pavement at speed.
For lots of people who have their zones set correctly, this will fall in zone 2. But there’s nothing special about zone 2 that makes it essential for this. The important bit is that it’s genuinely easy and zone 2 is a good indicator of whether the run is easy.
How important is zone 2 at lower weekly distances?
Zone 2 is trendy at the minute. Every influencer is saying it’s all you should be doing.
They’re not wrong in the sense that zone 2 as a proxy for genuinely easy running is very important. You should be doing easy running at all weekly distances.
HOWEVER, the exact amount of zone 2 running and how important it is does depend on how much you run per week.
Someone doing 80km per week is REQUIRED to be doing a lot of zone 2 / easy running simply because you can’t run 80km per week at high intensities. Your body would break down.
However, someone doing 10km per week of running with no injury troubles, and this isn’t meant to be dismissive, but it doesn’t really matter how hard you run that weekly distance.
I don’t mean that in a dismissive way, but put simply, 10km per week at any intensity (for a normal, healthy adult) can only put so strain on the body. The reality is that unless you’re doing the full 10km sprinting downhill, after a heavy legs gym session, in a tornado, then it might have some impact.
Someone doing only 10 or 20km per week would genuinely see faster improvement from running a majority if not all of that distance at higher intensities.
Is there a weekly distance goal I should aim for?
No. There is no magic number that comes with the biggest gains. How much you should run per week and how much you're willing and able to run each week will depend on your life. The same considerations about running apply at every distance.
In general though, if you do want more performance, running up to 70-80km will be the high limit for normal people. Above this will take more time and you won't see many returns to make it worth it.
In reality though, the best distance for you depends on your life and goals. Do what is best for you.
Reasonable weekly distances based on your current volume
The below are general assumptions for the general population. They come with all the caveats that you'd expect.
Assuming you're injury free
Assuming you want to improve performance
Assuming you're healthy, keen and willing to run
If you run below 10 or 20km per week:
Upping that distance to 30km will have big improvements. Some of the biggest gains runners see from increased mileage are in this range. So if performance is your goal, starting by slowly upping weekly volume to 30km is a really good way to improve. Just make sure that you increase slowly, focus on recovery and listen to your body. All new distance should be at a very easy pace.
Between 30 and 40km
Honestly, if you're happy with your running here, then really consider if performance improvements are worthwhile the extra time. This weekly distance is a really nice sweet spot for casual runners with good fitness.
You won't ever win a Parkrun but you'll enjoy running and have time for the more important stuff like family and shareholder value, so this is a nice spot.
If you're here and do want to improve, upping slowly and with care to 50 or 60km is a decent performance jump. At these distances and with some good quality intensity work, you're likely to be towards the front of Parkrun.
If you already run over 60km per week
If you run this far already, then you don't need me to tell you anything. The gains from increased mileage for recreational runners start to taper off here, so going from 60km to 70 will have a noticeable but more limited impact.
What weekly distance do I need to run under 20 minutes for 5k?
The age old question. There is no single right answer here, as always it depends.
In my opinion though, for men, between 40 and 50km per week with good quality threshold work will get you there very quickly.
For woman, I still think 40 and 50km per week is needed but it may just take a bit longer.
Is increasing distance ran the only way to improve?
No, total weekly distance is just one way to measure your training volume and it's far from the whole picture.
Lots of runners choose to run for time over distance. After all, your body doesn't really KNOW how far you've run, it only knows the strain from the run and how much time you spent in that state.
This leads lots of runners to lead with weekly time spent, over distance. So if you run 3 hours a week, then increasing volume here could be simply adding an extra 15 minutes per week.
This is completely valid and serves lots of runners well.
Benefits of running to time and not distance
This method has several benefits over measuring only by distance too.
Running to a weekly time goal has the big benefit of painting more clearly the amount of load put on your body each week -this very good article discusses it well and uses a term i like "duration of effort.
The idea here is that a fitter and faster runner can cover more distance in the same time as a slower runner. So a runner doing 60km per week might spend 5 hours running. A slower runner doing 40km might also spend 5 hours running. So the time on feet and actually spent running is the same, therefore, their load should be considered equal. Which of course, it wouldn't be if we measured only on distance.
This is just the classic debate, who's working harder, a 3 hour marathon runner or a 6 hour marathon runner. You can say they both worked as hard, but the faster runner just covered the distance quicker with their efort.
When training for longer runs and especially for marathons or ultras, time on feet and duration of effort becomes very useful.
Which is better, running for weekly distance or time?
If you have to ask, you know the answer. It depends and both.
If you believe that only one is valid and the other should be disregarded at all times, then this probably isn't the site for you. Too much nuance here.
Both are incredibly valid, useful and serve important purposes. Which one is better for you at any given times depends on what you're trying to do.