Can I add 5 minutes to my easy run days every week?

Question

Hi. I am performing base training over summer. I have two long run sessions every week and the rest of the week is an easy run of about 25 minutes. Every 2 easy run days, I add 5 minutes. I am starting at 25 minutes and going to end at 80 minutes by the start of the cross country season. My high school coach told us that we need to focus on mileage over the summer and he wants us to run a large amount of miles per week. Is this a good idea? I am trying to go to far by adding minutes to my easy days? Also on my long run days, I usually add a mile every day I perform them. I started off at 4 miles and then the next time I add a mile which makes 5 and then the next time I add another mile which makes 6 and so on. Can I do this? My coach expects high mileage, but I don't want to overtrain. Thank you for your time and advice.

Answer 1

just do your best its all you can really do

Answer 2

I think personally this is to much running.....I do realize your building your base for XC, but the racing distance is only 5K.  You said your doing 2 long run sessions every week........by the end of summer that will be near 28 miles just for those two days .....not even counting the other easy running days into the mileage.  You should be good with a long run of 8-9 miles and no more.  Make sure to keep your speed throughout the summer that way you'll be much more ahead of the other runners once summer is over and do well when the season begins.   I usually only train about 20-25 miles a week and have always pulled off well under 6 min. pace for a 5K  .........don't over train yourself.  Great phrase is quality over quantity, hope this helped!

Answer 3

yes,

every time ya do your practice run, add more time to it

as long as your rhythm allows for more improvements & may not cause trouble to your exercises

do all the styles & techniques that will make a better run for ya

do them all regularly until ya feel its perfect to your body systems

good times

Answer 4

well, adding a mile per day is overtraining

by the next week, you will have to run 5 miles more than you started.

thats a huuuuuggeee jump.

i suggest you take it easy and try to pace it out.

but to make sure, search on the internet for how to run long distances

Answer 5

for a HS kid, 40-50 miles tops is all you need. when you start running super high mileage, it tends to go into no man's land, meaning= it isnt giving any benefit to your conditioning.

Answer 6

ok i ran cross country for 5 years so take it from me...

yes more miles will help you and make you stronger and build your endurance...but you can only take it so far.

what you're talking about is a LOT of miles, and while i agree that it's good to get in a lot of miles to build endurance, anything past 6 or 7 a day is a little overkill, especially if you're doing that every day, that's nuts.  your race is only 3.1 miles.  you can't just focus on running a long distance because that does you no good in a race.  you also need to focus on keeping a steady pace and lengthening and smoothing out your stride and running faster.  you may be able to run 20 miles, but if you're running it slow, it still doesnt' do you any good in a race

if you have any doubts you should talk to your coach.  they know you and how you run better than any of us on here.  and they obviously want you to do well so they will want to help you with your strategy, especially if you're willing to do extra running