In the Pursuit of Wonder

Welcome to the blog!

Thanks for the welcome. I've been reading through the training posts in the forum and you seem to recommend running six days a week instead of 3 times a week with longer mileage. I am afraid of hurting myself running that many days coming off the couch and a fairly sendentary lifestyle. But I will work toward running six days a week before I push my runs(or run/walks in my case) past 3 miles. I will also try and do some cross training for aerobic capacity on my non-running days. You've set up quite a nice little community here. So often these types of websites have an established core group and those newer to the activity don't fit in very easy. This one doesn't fit that pattern and I am glad to have found it.

The idea is that every 24 hours you run the longest possible that allows you to feel at least as fresh in 24 hours as before the run. Do not worry about the pace to much, but always err on the slow side, do not push it. For somebody with your background it could be as little as running one mile. If that is all you can do, then just do that, but be consistent - get out six days a week.

I am a very analytical person, and I guess I take your 6 day prescription as a prescription to increase aerobic capacity but would like some guidance on doing that injury free. It seems like my heart and lungs are more capable of going the distance than my muscles and tendons and that is my limiting factor right now even with the pathetic state of my aerobic capacity. My stubborn mind believes that the days off gives those pains a chance to subside for another push forward a day later. Even now I have pain in my shins and hip. If that is the recommendation I will follow it, but I do it with fear that these pains will grow without the rest.

Consider this. Compare the amount of time it takes your bones to recover from jumping from a height of 3 feet vs 6. Or even better, 6 vs 12. If you double the height, the amount of time needed to fully recover increases by more than double. As you increase the height at some point, you will break enough bones to be dead. No recovery possible until the resurrection.

The same idea applies to recovery from running. Once you reach a distance range that challenges your body in some way, doubling the distance will require more than double recovery time.

There exists a certain minimum recovery window. Recovery does not happen until you've eaten, digested the food, and slept. Thus, the most often you can run is three times a day, which is what many professional runners do. But once you are past that minimum window, you generally want to run frequently as possible.

For somebody with a full-time job and other responsibilities the minimum recovery window has to be larger but in most cases 24 hours should be enough.

To apply this to your situation. You run 1 mile and then the next day 1 mile, vs you run 2 miles and then do not run the next day. The training stimulus is roughly the same, but by the end of the two day cycle the 2 mile case will leave your body with more damage, it has not yet recovered.

Ok, I am on board. The only flaw I see is that I am currently doing a run/walk plan. Running is much more high impact than walking. Running 3 days a week I would walk a much larger percentage than running every day. Doing the 3 day plan, my heart is still beating fast enough during the walks that I think I am still getting the aerobic capacity benefits during that time. By doing a shorter distance but more often and keeping the weekly mileage the same, I have to run a much larger percentage of the session to keep my hr at a level high enough to get maximum # of mitochondria created or whatever physiologically happens and that is because I won't need to take as many walk breaks over the shorter distance. So by shortening the distance but doing it more often I increase the total time of the higher impact part of my training. Just as an FYI, I am 6'5" and weigh 234. I have bought into your argument as I think your argument is the bigger factor, but I do think the run/walk percentage has an affect on the recovery time. I've been reading some Lydiard stuff and he argues that a single long run is more beneficial than 2 runs half the time. Not sure of the reasoning behind that and don't think I am at the level to probably worry about it, but I guess that is why you said about equal and I have plenty to do before I need whatever benefit that kind of run provides. Thanks for taking the time to share your wisdom.

It may be a good idea to bike extensively in addition to running a mile a day, or possibly even just bike for a couple of months so your weight will come down. Then you can run with less impact and with stronger bones and muscles in addition.