Doing your regular, weekday runs at a slow pace reduces the risk of injury dramatically while still contributing to your fitness. A weekly long, slow run will improve your endurance, enhance your fat-burning ability, improve bloodflow to your muscles, and build mental toughness.

4474 miles

Under 20 minutes and you’re faster than most people, but just an OK runner. Anything over like 23 minutes in a race and you’re still in decent shape, but nothing to write home about. If you’re talking about training, and not racing, I would say anything under 8 minutes per mile would be healthy.

When race times slow and training gets sluggish, the common response from an athlete is to do more training volume and intensity, assuming that the reductions are due to inadequate training. Runners training hard for improved times need to take at least a month off every year and at least one day off a week.

If you’re a seasoned runner and are finding that running suddenly feels hard, it might be a sign that your body is working hard to recover from a slight illness, infection, stress or exhaustion. If you’re a new runner and find that things continue to feel challenging, stay consistent and cut yourself some slack.

The main reason that the first mile or so of any run feels slow and ponderous is because you’re taking your body from an anaerobic state to an aerobic one. It is because of this natural process of the body that a lot of runners will do a warm-up run before they compete in a race.

Pre-Run Snack

• A piece of fruit, such as a banana or orange.
• Half of a sports energy bar.
• Half of an English muffin with honey or jelly.
• 15 crackers, such as saltines or pretzels.
• Half-cup of dry cereal.