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Gradually increasing your weekly mileage by 10% improves aerobic capacity and efficiency.
However, don’t forget to listen to your body to avoid overtraining. -
Maintain a correct running setting and train consistently.
Experience helps you interpret body signals. -
Recovery is key: schedule rest days and unloading weeks.
Avoid an obsession with overtraining.
Somepeople run by sticking to a schedule that, for better or worse, is repeated similar every week: the same mileage, the same times, the same routes. However, if you want to try to increase your distances, do not neglect these tips. The advantages given by increasing mileage are several: by training in this way you increase your aerobic capacity, you can work on the efficiency of the athletic gesture (i.e., running setting), and you can fortify your body. The disadvantages, however, are that the longer you run, the more you expose yourself to injury: both statistically (since you are doing more running) and because you may not be doing it in the best way, that is, neglecting recovery, rest, and nutrition.
Preparation, we always repeat, comes from the balance between training, nutrition and recovery. Each of these aspects affects the others because training without eating enough leads to fatigue and exposes you to injury, just as insufficient recovery can weaken your body making it more likely to “break down.” How to do it then? Following these tips!
The 10% rule
It’s about gradually increasing the weekly training load. If you’ve always run 10 km each session, try introducing a 1 km increase (precisely: by 10%) into the week’s training. If you feel you can sustain it without special effort, increase it further the following week, again by 10%. It is important not to overdo it and listen to your body: if you feel like fatigue is taking over, reduce the load and bring it back to the initial values. In fact, one study found that those who increase their workout volume between 20 and 60 percent are more prone to injury, in contrast to those who can stay below 20 percent.
Mind the running setting
It is important to always consider three aspects: form, consistency and experience. There can be no load increase without paying attention to your running setting, the regularity with which you train and the preparation with which you do it. In other words: a good running setting (broad shoulders slightly ahead of your center of gravity, frequent small steps, the position of your head parallel to the ground and not lowered to look at your feet) will ensure that you limit potential injuries, although it should never be divorced from the ability to interpret your body’s signals. You must, however, perform these workouts consistently, not least because pushing on distances in an unplanned manner (i.e., not allowing too much time to elapse between one workout longer than the others and the next) exposes you to the risk of doing much worse, as well as not guaranteeing any outcome.
Don’t neglect the drain
During recovery, the body rebuilds itself. If you do not rest enough this process cannot happen but is constantly postponed or cancelled. You should therefore rest at least one day a week or more, depending on your schedule. If the rest day does not seem enough, you can also try rest weeks, to be placed every third training day. This is not easy, partly because it is natural to be driven to demand more and more from your body, especially when you see results and begin to believe that more physical work also translates into more noticeable results. It is important to get into the mindset of necessity or opportunity, without these turning into obsession.
Beware of overtraining
Caught up in the rush and ever-improving fitness, one can get blind to the signals the body sends, ending up training worse and getting only fatigue, low motivation, irritability and problems with sleep and concentration. (via Stylist)