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

Junk miles is when you are fully recovered but run at pace/hear rate that is very easy and doesn't improve your performance in the long term. Easy runs between hard workouts are to flush out the system and get you prepared for next workout. If you don't have any goals set ,than junk miles doesn't exist you are just a jogger to stay in shape.

gfdfdg wrote:

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.

^^^This^^^

ProNoexpert wrote:

Junk miles is when you are fully recovered but run at pace/hear rate that is very easy and doesn't improve your performance in the long term. Easy runs between hard workouts are to flush out the system and get you prepared for next workout. If you don't have any goals set ,than junk miles doesn't exist you are just a jogger to stay in shape.

worth it

electron1661 wrote:

Two Fold Answer wrote:

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

Agreed

I thought of junk miles as when you are adding up your strides to add a mile each day.

Or get up and jog two miles and go back home. Something that gives no aerobic or anaerobic benefit and isn't even a warm-up to begin a workout.

You can add 10 miles to your week in junk miles that don't get you any fitter.

Star wrote:

I thought of junk miles as when you are adding up your strides to add a mile each day.

Or get up and jog two miles and go back home. Something that gives no aerobic or anaerobic benefit and isn't even a warm-up to begin a workout.

You can add 10 miles to your week in junk miles that don't get you any fitter.

A 2 mile run gives aerobic benefit.

Junk Thinking wrote:

Star wrote:

I thought of junk miles as when you are adding up your strides to add a mile each day.

Or get up and jog two miles and go back home. Something that gives no aerobic or anaerobic benefit and isn't even a warm-up to begin a workout.

You can add 10 miles to your week in junk miles that don't get you any fitter.

A 2 mile run gives aerobic benefit.

They seemed to work for Jim Spivey.

rekrunner wrote:

Form.

This, and in other words: where your head is at. Are you thinking about going as quickly as possible with that easy intensity (efficiency) or are you just trying to accumulate numbers?

ProNoexpert wrote:

doesn't improve your performance in the long term.

I would argue that that is exactly what they are doing, improving your performance in the long run. 3 sessions a week are not necessarily better than 2 sessions a week, recovery is important and easy aerobic runs let you recover but still keep the mileage up (important for bones, ligaments and vascularisation)

In my opinion, if you run at about Marathon pace all the time, that is largely junk mileage. It isn't threshold, but it is hard enough to hinder recovery.

Are you saying that Jim Spivey made the 5000m Olympic team because he was doing two mile runs here and there?

I don't see how someone running 13:15 feels any aerobic benefit in a two mile jog at 9 minute pace.

I can see it maybe loosening his legs a little to stretch.

Star wrote:

Are you saying that Jim Spivey made the 5000m Olympic team because he was doing two mile runs here and there?

I don't see how someone running 13:15 feels any aerobic benefit in a two mile jog at 9 minute pace.

I can see it maybe loosening his legs a little to stretch.

I'm saying that Spivey won an NCAA 1500m title, and 2 miles was his typical morning run, as posted by Spivey himself on LR. I imagine he did them somewhat faster than 9:00 pace.