Intensity question

Member

About 80% of my running is hard or interval work.

I read somewhere that 95% of your running should be easy running. Is this accurate???

I do low mileage, and I was thinking - if I did high mileage, I would just add in easy runs any way, so surely what I'm doing can't be damaging compared to doing what I do now PLUS the easy runs (which would give a lower % of hard/interval)

Thoughts?

Member

Wow, 95%?

I would guess that it would vary dependent upon what your goals are (e.g., if you have a race coming up). If you are running most of your runs hard and do not feel fatigued and are not injured then keep doing what you're doing. Adding more easy runs in addition to your hard ones will probably not be difficult to do. I only run about half of my runs hard, maybe more at times. But now that I think about it, "hard" for me might not be hard for someone else. It all seems very subjective!

Smile

Member

The whole percentage intensity thing seems like a weird guideline to me.

I could say do 20 miles of hard running, interval, or speed work, and 5 of easy, and my % hard would be 80%

I could do the same 20 miles of hard running, interval, or speed work and 40 miles of easy running, and my % hard would be 33%

People are saying that with a higher % you get injured more easily, but they don't take into consideration the amount of miles you do in total. Surely if you are running 60 mpw and 80% of that is hard, it is different to running 20 mpw and having 80% of it as hard.

FWIW I am increasing my mileage, by adding easy runs in.

my boys could swim

I would agree with most of what's been said here.

You should run a couple of hard runs a week, and probably like 3 easy runs, with some time off. It all depends, of course, on what "hard" is.

I would shoot for "hard" running @ 30% of the time or total distance.

Intensity question

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