I was wondering. I never bothered to count mileage in the past when I ran and just did whatever my coaches told me, but now, I keep track of my mileage. When I read all this stuff about people running x mpw, I am wondering, exactly what is included in mileage?
When I count mileage for instance, I only count workout mileage. So, if I do say a 3 mile tempo run, but in order to do this I warm up for 1 1/2 miles and cool down for 1 mile, I only count the 3 mile run. So, say I do this 7 times a week, I consider myself running 21 miles. Is this correct, or did I really run 38 1/2 miles since that is what I actually ran, or did I run 31 1/2 miles since cool downs are usually the slowest runs I do.
What about recovery runs? Is that mileage too? I haven't been counting that as running.
What about drills? Now, it is a little cold, but when the weather is above 65, I do about 1/2 mile of drills on days that I do a warm up. Is this mileage, or just something else?
And running backwards? Should I count that as mileage as well or would this just be a different type of workout? I do anywhere from 1/2 mile to 1 mile backwards when I attempt this and I usually do this before my cool down. I think it strengthens my shins a bit as well as my quads and calves.
Thanks for the input!