Why and how weekly running distance matters for new runners

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 and how strong of a runner you are. The impact is so strong that it's fair to say that up to a certain weekly distance, what you do in those actual runs doesn't matter too much. What I mean by this is if you're running less than 20 kilometers a week, what you do in those 20 kilometers a week doesn't actually matter that much.

You'd get bigger benefits by just running more. Now the exact distance varies between person, but my rule of thumb generally is that if you're doing 30 kilometers or less per week, then the actual runs of that week won't be a huge lever for your performance. The biggest lever for your performance, as in getting better at that sort of weekly volume, would be simply to run more.

I am sorry, but that does mean your Norwegian 4x4s you're doing to increase your VO2 max for your Garmin chart, aren't doing a huge amount if your weekly volume is that low. Of course, there are diminishing returns as you increase your mileage as well. A runner going from 20 kilometers a week to 50 kilometers a week, for example,

pardon me, will see huge gains. But a runner going from 80 kilometers a week to say 90 won't see the huge gains. So, big question why does weekly running mileage matter so much? Well, running like most things is one of those things that you get better the more you do of it. And weekly mile weekly mileage is such a huge lever for performance because with consistency you get all of the benefits that directly contribute to you being able to run faster and for longer. So, what are these benefits? First one, increased efficiency across your entire cardiovascular system. This is summarized these days as VO2 max or just like the general efficiency of your cardiovascular system. But this isn't just your lungs, it's your heart, it's how the blood seeps into your muscles, it's everything. All of that efficiency throughout your body. The next benefit is stronger, more resilient joints, tendons and ligaments. Yes, your joints can hurt at the start, and people with reduced joint structure, maybe more prone to arthritis, can have joint problems. But in general, if you run, you put those joints under strain over time, they will get stronger, more resilient, and more able to handle a faster load. An underrated benefit is the mental grit. Consistently doing something hard trains your brain to do hard things. That's just a net benefit for your life. There's no downside there at all. And all of that running, the more you do, you get better at it. That means increased running economics. So you get more efficient with every step. Your body just gets better at going through the motions of an actual run. So you get more efficient, you can use your lungs and your heart, you can use all of those systems much more efficiently. Now, these are the functional parts of being a fast, strong, and efficient runner. And the best way to train them all at once with the least risk of injury is just to do more weekly miles and just to do them at an easier pace. That is the simplicity of it. Your weekly distance builds the engine that feels everything about your running performance. It's the driver for your running in every sense of the word. So, does this mean that your priority should be to increase your weekly mileage as soon as possible? Not really. Working on an increased your weekly mileage, if you want to get better as a runner, should be part of your progression plan for sure. Whether it's the next thing you do or focus on depends. You should never rush to increase your mileage just for the sake of doing it. That is a very quick way to hurt yourself and to not actually run at all.

And while the performance gains from weekly running are real, the strain and increased injury risk it puts on your body are also very real. Increasing your weekly mileage and whether you should do it kind of depends a lot of you. And it demands a lot of you as well. So it demands more of your time actually spent running. Lots of people have families, they have kids, they have jobs. Running more means less time for that. And that's an important consideration for a lot of people because that does matter. That's really important stuff. Running more demands more of your diet and hydration. If you eat poorly and don't hydrate, running more will show up those gaps really quickly in aches, pains, and just general tiredness. Your body won't adapt to the running. Running more demands more of your sleep and recovery habits. These come into huge focus as you run more often, which is hugely important. Punishes you more for your alcohol intake. Drinking and trying to run a lot demands a lot of your body and it's really hard. Alcohol in general is a killer for performance gains. It will ruin your recovery. You won't sleep well, so you won't lock in any of the gains you've done from your runs and stuff like that. And it demands more thought from you into how you strengthen your body. Running is an intensive, hard thing to do, and it requires strength. So strength training needs to be a key part of that. These demands are very real, and each of them left out will impact how you feel on your runs and how much benefit you'll get from them. Now, while thinking about increasing your mileage and you're a normal human with a job, thinking about the extra demands is something you should do. Unless you have all the free time in the world and no commitments, then running more will take away time from other important things in your life, and that's always a consideration. Performance is one thing, and if you care about that, you should work hard to do it. But the other things in your life are equally important, and the time spent running, taken away from them, should be taken into consideration.

But with that said, when should you increase your weekly distance? So the biggest thing is if you want to be a better runner, if you want improved performance, then you should probably look to increase your weekly distance.

You're okay with the extra demands of extra distance. If you're happy with all the trade-offs that you come with dedicating the extra time to running, then probably go for it. If you understand how much performance gains you can expect from what you're trying to do. If you're running 80 kilometers a week and you're going to 90 kilometers a week, the performance gains you see will be much more limited. There's a higher level of diminishing returns at that level compared to if you're running 20 kilometers a week and you go up to 30 or 40. You'll see much bigger gains at those lower levels increasing. So just understand where you're at, where you're looking to go, and what that will mean for your performance.

When shouldn't you increase your weekly running mileage? So honestly, if you don't care too much about running performance, if running for you is a 5k park run every week to chat with your mates, that's absolutely fine. Do that, don't worry about it, just have fun and enjoy the social side. Not everything has to be about performance and being as best as possible. If your time is limited, if you have kids, if you have a demanding job, if you just have a demanding life, then sometimes the time dedicated to running isn't the best use of your time. If you struggle with running injuries or in general struggle with health issues, then

extra mileage in your running probably isn't the best thing for you, and it's something that should be taken into consideration. The reality is that most of us are purely recreational athletes. We don't, this isn't a job, we're doing this for fun, and no one is paying us to do this, which makes it seem silly. But that

being said,

these demands need to be taken into account. So, with that said, how can you safely increase your running weekly distance? In short, slowly and with care. The general rule that's often touted is the 10% rule. What this means is that you should never increase your weekly distance from one week to the next by more than 10%.

So if you're running 20 kilometers a week and you wanted to increase your distance, you shouldn't increase it by more than two kilometers, which is 10% of 20. So you shouldn't run more than 22 kilometers in from one week to the next. You shouldn't increase by more than that much, if that makes sense. So how do you do this? Well, you increase by less than 10%.

You increase by 4-6%

each week. You do that for three to four weeks, and then you can bring it down to have a nice recovery or deload week. While you're increasing your mileage, you should make sure that all the extra miles you add into your week are easy and genuinely easy. Conversational pace, heart rate, really low, nice and easy, comfortable for you. And ensure a big focus while you're increasing is on recovery, getting plenty of sleep, eating well, plenty of protein, hydrating well, just do the basics consistently and do them really well.

So, step-by-step guide to increasing your mileage. Work out what your weekly distance is. If you're a bit sporadic with your running and you do a bit, you mix and match, take an average from the last six to eight weeks, work out what the average is. If it's 16 kilometers, that is your starting distance. From there, add five percent. Say, I'm not gonna work that out because I can't, and increase that slowly. So from your 16 kilometers a week, add 5%,

do that for three weeks very slowly, easy miles, lots of focus on good sleep, good food and diet intake. After you've done three to four weeks of that increasing steady mileage, what you'll then want to do is just have a taper week or a delo week. What you do is drop the distance that you're at at the peak of that increase, drop it by like 33%

or 50%.

So if that is 30%, you your deload week will be around 15 kilometers.

After your deload week, start again at the increased mileage. So if your increase from 16 after four weeks was to 24,

then after your deload week you go back up to 24 and increase like that.

It goes without saying it's important to listen to your body while you're doing this. Your body will send you lots of signals about how it's adapting to the training. And a big thing is to not expect all of the huge performance gains you can get after just the first four weeks. These gains take months and years to accumulate in your body in ways you can see. So just be patient and as cringe as it is, trust the kind of process of increasing your mileage. What are the risks of increasing your distance too quickly? In short, injury, you're gonna cook yourself, legs are gonna hurt, you're gonna moan about it. If you increase distance too quickly, your body won't have time to adapt. All of those benefits we talked about, your ligaments getting stronger, your bones kind of adapting to it, they won't happen. And like they won't happen quick enough to adapt to your training. So you'll hurt yourself and then you'll be out for longer. Playing it safe and playing for the long game is always better than trying to ramp up to a really good distance really quickly and then just hurting yourself and being out for months. That's gonna waste more of your time. The extra hours of easy running that you add in to increase your distance can feel really monotonous. It can feel really boring, but it comes with the process, it's just part of what this is. If you want to get better as a runner, those extra boring, honestly, runs are kind of part of it, part of life. So deal with it to be honest. Now, when you're increasing your distance, a big question people ask is should you run more shorter runs? As in, increase your distance by just doing a few more short runs or at least one longer run. Answer to any question like this, where we like nuance, is it depends really. One on what you prefer. If you're just starting out and you just want to increase your money, just do what you prefer. Making it enjoyable means you'll stick to it and you won't hate your life as much. So just make it enjoyable, do the stuff you enjoy. Make those extra runs something you really look forward to. Listen to music, do whatever. Just have fun with it. That's more important than anything else because it means you'll stick to it and ultimately sticking to it with consistency is what matters. Now, whether short runs or long runs to increase your distance, both these types of runs have different effects on your body. If you do lots of uh long, easy runs, that will have a different impact, different stimulus on how your body adapts than doing loads of shorter runs. The reality is

if you're not a professional athlete and all you're doing is just trying to get fitter, maybe run a bit faster, it doesn't really matter. Do what you enjoy, that's more important. In general, if you know you prefer longer distances and you want to like your first marathon or something like that, then maybe try a few of the longer runs, but I would not stress about it too much. Get to the mileage, just get the hard, gruelling,

painful first few months out the way, and then you can focus on the performance gains. Just get there first of all, build the consistency habit. So much more important than worrying about the details when you're just starting out. A big question Does all your increased mileage need to be in zone two? So zone two is very popular at the minute, it's very trendy.

The answer is it doesn't really matter. Your increased mileage, the extra miles you add in to increase your distance, need to be genuinely easy. I don't care if that's zone 0.5.

Zone 2 is just a range of heart rate, a range of a band of heart rate. Butchered that one. Zone 2 is just like a band for your between doesn't need to be zone two.

Doesn't really matter. The extra mileage you do as you increase your weekly mileage needs to be genuinely easy. It needs to be conversational and you need to be able to breathe really calmly, not feel out of breath, and it needs to be feel relaxed. Whether that's zone two doesn't really matter. So there's nothing inherently special about zone two running that makes you a better runner. The benefits of zone two is that it's a good proxy for easy running. If a run is done mainly in zone two,

we can always assume that run is easy. That's the only reason zone two is beneficial. There's nothing inherently good about being in zone two, nothing special about it. So the answer does all your increased mileage need to be in zone two, it needs to be easy. Doesn't matter what zone it is, keep your heart rate low. It should be on the lower end. Zone two is a good goal. If you like to be in a metric, have a number to aim for for your heart rate, that's fine. But increased mileage just needs to be easy. Is there a weekly distance goal you should aim for? This really does depend on where you're coming from. If you're running

and lastly, is increasing weekly distance the only way to improve? No, it's not. It's just one way to measure your training volume. As in, the amount you run each week is just one way to measure your training volume or how much training you're doing. But it's far from the whole picture. Lots of runners choose to run for dis for time over distance, so they'll aim for a four hour or a three hour long run instead of a 20k long run. That's completely fine. That's an equally valued way of measuring your volume. The benefits of choosing to run to a weekly distance is that it's a nice easy figure to aim for.

Weekly distance is just a number, and you can target and aim for that number.