What's the difference between easy aerobic runs and junk mileage?

Junk mileage is run too fast to be an easy recovery run and too slow to be a useful workout

$0.02 please

Simple answer ... wrote:

Junk mileage is run too fast to be an easy recovery run and too slow to be a useful workout

$0.02 please

Then there is no junk mileage. Every mile has an effect. There are no "recovery" miles. You run outside? That's training.

I feel like "junk miles" are miles that you can't recover from. But the middle ground (not slow but not tempo) can be highly effective IF you're able to recover.

There are recovery miles, when the stimulus is low, so it mostly just accelerates blood circulation and metabolism. Not hard enough to cause the body any repair work worth mentioning afterwards.

Junk miles in my mind are superfluous miles at a certain intensity. Jogging at 5min/km will give you a certain stimulus. If you only run at that pace, at some point there will be little extra stimulus. That's when you're entering junk territory.

Thanks

irony and cynicism

There are two kinds of junk miles which are basically doing your easy/recovery runs wrong - either too slow or too fast. I usually think of miles that are too slow as the real junk miles as they are mostly a waste of time. Easy runs that are too fast are psuedo-junk as they are wasteful in that you are jeopardizing your real run workouts.

I kinda just think of junk miles as miles that aren't accomplishing your objective; runs that are done at the wrong pace for what you are trying to do.

One is real and the other is an excuse to run less

The 90's Called wrote:

One is real and the other is an excuse to run less

The 90's Called wrote:

One is real and the other is an excuse to run less

One is real and the other is an excuse to run easy.

Jeff Galloway eliminated his junk miles and never looked back!

The 90's Called wrote:

One is real and the other is an excuse to run less

This pretty much.

Although, if you go out and jog 2-miles with your wife, girlfriend or mom at 10-minute pace, I'd call that junk mileage too (assuming you're a 7minute easy pace type runner).

Miles J. Unk wrote:

There are recovery miles, when the stimulus is low, so it mostly just accelerates blood circulation and metabolism. Not hard enough to cause the body any repair work worth mentioning afterwards.

Junk miles in my mind are superfluous miles at a certain intensity. Jogging at 5min/km will give you a certain stimulus. If you only run at that pace, at some point there will be little extra stimulus. That's when you're entering junk territory.

It is great knowing there is so much ignorance in the running world about development. My job as a coach will always be secure.

Miles J. Unk wrote:

There are recovery miles, when the stimulus is low, so it mostly just accelerates blood circulation and metabolism. Not hard enough to cause the body any repair work worth mentioning afterwards.

Junk miles in my mind are superfluous miles at a certain intensity. Jogging at 5min/km will give you a certain stimulus. If you only run at that pace, at some point there will be little extra stimulus. That's when you're entering junk territory.

There are no junk miles. There are only mile that are too few at a given pace to hit your maximum amount of daily stimulus, or too many to exceed your recovery threshold.

There are also no recovery miles. The physiology gurus will tell you that recovery runs provide adaptive stimulus because you are teaching your body to run in a fatigued state.

Junk miles are any miles that weren't on the original schedule but that you put in anyways so you can say you ran 80, 90, 100 miles for that week.

Sunday rolls around and you have it down as a rest day, but dang, you're at 73 for the week and you'd sure like to hit 80, so you go out for a crappy 8 miler that leaves you feeling sluggish for your next speed workout. Congrats! Now you can tell all your co-workers.

Not physiology expert wrote:

There are also no recovery miles. The physiology gurus will tell you that recovery runs provide adaptive stimulus because you are teaching your body to run in a fatigued state.

Uhh... what? Research shows that easy running will speed up recovery time significantly. Check out Magness' blog.

Aerobically the answer is:

Easy aerobic runs are at between 65% and 75% of heart rate max.

Junk mileage runs would be runs were the average HR is below 65% of max

Bio-mechanically the answer is:

Easy aerobic runs are recovery runs which are fast enough that your bio-mechanics are still good/efficient

Junk mileage runs would be runs in which the pace is so slow that your bio-mechanics are poor and you run the risk of teaching the body bad form habits

Two Fold Answer wrote:

Aerobically the answer is:

Easy aerobic runs are at between 65% and 75% of heart rate max.

Junk mileage runs would be runs were the average HR is below 65% of max

Bio-mechanically the answer is:

Easy aerobic runs are recovery runs which are fast enough that your bio-mechanics are still good/efficient

Junk mileage runs would be runs in which the pace is so slow that your bio-mechanics are poor and you run the risk of teaching the body bad form habits

THIS

Read Matt Fitzgerald's "80/20 Running". You'll be able to figure it out based on where you are today...