Dumb to run every day as a beginner?

It’s fine if you have no plans of running fast.

i'd like to run as fast as possible

JOGGY HOBBER wrote:

What are thoughts from experienced runners on here about training 6/7 days a week as an out of shape HJer

Don't. You're very likely going to end up injured. Run 4 days a week, 5 at most. Cross train the other days to stay active.

Ignore the bad advice. If you built up gradually over 6-8 weeks and you've maintained 25 mpw by running 7 days/week for 5 weeks, you've done something right. Feel free to take a day off whenever you feel like it as you've been doing.

Since you want to get faster, the question is where to go from here. And step 2 is basically to run a bit faster one day, and a bit longer another day, and gradually build up weekly mileage, but take your time. 90 minutes (around 9 miles) might be too big of a step up for a long run, so be cautious at first.

It's at this point that you might find that a day off after your hardest effort might be worth it in terms of physical recovery. Eventually - 3 months? 6 months? - you'll add structured workouts, and with greater modulation between hard days and easy days, a day off can become essential. But there's no single right answer - everyone responds a bit differently.

The more you run the faster you'll get and the more days on which you run the more running you'll do. If you really feel like you need a day off take it and maybe do something else or just rest. Otherwise run as often as possible.

Shouldn't be a problem as long as you run mostly easy and avoid running on the asphalt every day. Choose gravel or terrain every other day. Also, don't use the same shoe two days in a row.

+1 great advice

Thanks for all the replies. Based on this replies I don't see any reason to stop unless my body tells me to. Maybe for older folks it's more important to take some days off or even once you are running hard. I bet a couple miles at 5min pace would probably take more out of you than the whole week at my pace.

Decided to go with my gut and do my run today as usual. Went a bit slower just under 10min pace for 5 and felt great. Probably focus on upper body tomorrow with a 20-30 min jog afterwards then aim for a 7ish mile longer run Sunday around the same pace I did today

Congrats OP, I bet you're not nearly as fat as you think you are.

You're really in a near ideal sweet spot of weekly mileage, so just get your 25 miles in any way you want in a week.

I wouldn’t say so. You’ll get a lot better if you can get yourself to run consistently 5/6 times per week. Don’t hesitate to take a day off though if you need one.

healterseltzer wrote:

Congrats OP, I bet you're not nearly as fat as you think you are.

You're really in a near ideal sweet spot of weekly mileage, so just get your 25 miles in any way you want in a week.

I mean I'm kinda fat but getting leaner. I'm a shorter guy and its cool to see how many of the elites are too. You don't see that in many other sports. All them are damn twigs though. Kipchoge is about the same height as me but a good 65 lbs lighter than me LOL not to mention I already lost a good 15 or 20 since I started. Granted some amount of that is muscle but a lot of its pure fat.

Glad to hear the mileage is good. It feels like a good volume to maintain for a while and work on widdling down my pace and my weight.

You need to learn what works for you. Lots of elite runners take a day off. Some do it on a schedule, others go a little more by feel. Some take 1 day per week off and some might take the 10th day off.

I think a planned day off a week is great idea for a beginner becoming accustomed to running and learning how your body reacts.

I am confused. You say you are running 25 mpw and around 10 min/mile then you talked about doing a 90 min run. At that pace that would be a 9 mile run and 1/3 of your weekly distance. That would make the other runs pretty short.

Be patient and increase the volume and the intensity smartly. No idea how old you are but you probably have decades of running ahead of you.

Luv2Run wrote:

You need to learn what works for you. Lots of elite runners take a day off. Some do it on a schedule, others go a little more by feel. Some take 1 day per week off and some might take the 10th day off.

I think a planned day off a week is great idea for a beginner becoming accustomed to running and learning how your body reacts.

I am confused. You say you are running 25 mpw and around 10 min/mile then you talked about doing a 90 min run. At that pace that would be a 9 mile run and 1/3 of your weekly distance. That would make the other runs pretty short.

Be patient and increase the volume and the intensity smartly. No idea how old you are but you probably have decades of running ahead of you.

That was my plan if I had taken today off, and it was still a little overkill I think. The longest run I have done was 6 miles, which I used to do regularly when I was running every other day or less and building up to that 25mi point. Since I ran today that's completely off the table for Sunday.

I'm in my late 20s now and ran casually as a teenager. I probably ran around 5 days per week back then and was playing soccer or frisbee or something on the other days. I was never that fast or serious at all about running, but I was still in decent shape and ran quite a bit faster and longer than I do now.

Nothing wrong with that, within reasonable pattern of effort/distance.