What is considered "junk mileage"?

Junk miles is what my old coach told me not to do. I ran 17:40 for 5k with no "junk miles". Suprisingly, when I added "junk miles", I dropped down to 15:20 by senior year. Something's not adding up!

It's a myth. There is no such thing.

What doesn't hurt you, makes you stronger.

I hear people saying if you're going to run more miles, make them about quality? Who says that?Most increased miles when you are running high mileage are easier runs on top of the workouts you are already doing plus a longer long run. You don't really need to double if you are running 50 mpw. But if you want to run high mileage then you will end up running 5-6 times per week.

junk wrote:

What is considered "junk mileage"? I hear people saying if you're going to run more miles, make them about quality.

Right now I'm running in the mid 50's for mpw with 2-3 workouts per week (or substitute one of those workouts for a race). Also, I'm doubling 1-2 times during the week (shakeout run in the morning after a workout or race and then my regular run).

I don't double to get more miles in. I do those little shakeout runs of 2-4 miles because I really feel like they make my legs feel better for my other run after school

No such thing as junk miles, as someone said.

There is no such thing as junk miles, but there is nothing more common than junk thinking.

I would consider these examples to be "junk miles":

1. Runs of less than 15 minutes

2. Runs with frequent, pointless stops in the middle

3. Cool downs after very hard workouts that are so long that they hamper recovery

Other than that go nuts. The nice thing about upping your overall volume is you'll soon be able to tolerate longer workouts as well, so your 4 mile tempos can become 6 miles, 3x1600 can become 5x1600, etc.

What about long cooldowns after races? During xc I would do somewhere around 30-40min cooldown....

edumacator wrote:

I would consider these examples to be "junk miles":

1. Runs of less than 15 minutes

2. Runs with frequent, pointless stops in the middle

3. Cool downs after very hard workouts that are so long that they hamper recovery

1. and 2. definitely not "junk"

3. rather vague. What is "so long that they hamper recovery"?

Junk miles are miles that have no purpose.

Eh, I don't even know to be honest. I don't really believe in the concept of junk miles, I was just trying to brainstorm up the most pointless types of run I could imagine. As far as long cool downs go, I've seen people do 3 mile warm up, 3 mile workout, 5 mile cool down, but refuse to do any second runs. Running that extra mileage, slowly, on aching post-workout legs, seems unproductive to me. I'd rather do a double. But it's not an objective truth or anything, just my opinion.

Now that I think of it, the true junk miles are any miles run with a heel strike. Is it too late to change my answer?

Junk miles are where you show your junk after, yelling, Gobble, Gobble M***********rs!

LOL, If you are heelstriking your junk miles then you must be an elite.

so it seems like many people believe there's no such thing as junk mileage, and that people who added more miles have had positive results. so thanks

Junk miles are miles that you run faster than you should be running them, drastically increasing your odds of injury, sickness, or staleness. Hammering all the time, week in and week out, despite your body's protestations otherwise, would probably include plenty of junk mileage that, while it seemed like a good idea at the time, will likely jeopardize your training.

malmo wrote:

edumacator wrote:

I would consider these examples to be "junk miles":

1. Runs of less than 15 minutes

2. Runs with frequent, pointless stops in the middle

3. Cool downs after very hard workouts that are so long that they hamper recovery

1. and 2. definitely not "junk"

3. rather vague. What is "so long that they hamper recovery"?

If you are stopping all of the time for no reason, I would have to think this qualifies as junk.

I have to agree with aghast. You can build up your mileage as long as it is easy and keep the workouts the same+long run. Meaning on non workouts days if you stay under 65-70% of your Vo2 Max then you are fully recovering an not tapping into your glycogen system so you technically could run as much as you want as long as you have built up that mileage slowly. Junk Miles are actually miles that are to fast on your easy day! Then what happens is you would be using the glycogen system everyday and that is not good, you can only go to well so many times. My 2 cents.

Junk miles are miles that make you fat.

Anything in a car.