I am training at altitude. I haven't raced a marathon yet, but I plan to make the transition after graduating next spring.
I am training at altitude. I haven't raced a marathon yet, but I plan to make the transition after graduating next spring.
Last year I only did a mile a day in around 6:30. This was mainly due to the thought that my plantar fasciitis would return. I managed a 2:20 half mile race. I’d say a mile is the min if you run it fast enough every day and your just a mid distance type
My HS coach had a graduate degree in physiology. He told me that for an adaptive cardiovascular response, only the time spent on your feet after ~20 minutes contributes.
If this is true, then the "quality time" for cardiovascular improvement is the duration of your run minus 20min. Even 3 miles would be barely worthwhile.
I'm incredulous that this is as cut-and-dry as he laid it out. It's probably just a simplification that works well as a rule of thumb.
Just answering the question you actually asked, it depends on what the point of the 2-4 miles is. If you are running them as a shake-out/recovery run, that can be beneficial as it's not too long as to make your legs more fatigued, but is long enough to get the muscles warmed up and moving around as a sort of active recovery to prepare you for the next day's run. From an aerobic standpoint, running 2-3 miles isn't going to do too much for you. You'd be better off breaking your 12 miles into 6 and 6 (or 7 and 5 or 8 and 4) if that's your intention.
The pace you mentioned (7:10-7:25) is too fast for the short mileage to be beneficial as far as active recovery and preparation for the next day. Slow it down. It won't make you a slower runner; it will make you faster.
I started doing 2 mile easy runs about 5 hours before my "real" runs on harder days / workout days. Over the next 2 years I went from 16:30 to 15:30 for 5k so it's impossible to say if it helped but the additive mileage probably played a role. Sometimes I would do short 1/2 mile runs at night on the street just to loosen up while writing a paper or something, and I think it was more beneficial to fitness than doing nothing.
Value vs. Streak wrote:
Eleven wrote:
I've always been taught 30 minutes.
^ This is the correct answer in terms of physiological value. However, if you move beyond actual training value and are looking at a less competitive goal (i.e. a running streak), the a 2-mile run is the bare minimum.
So if you went out and did a 4 minute run and covered a mile that wouldn't count!
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