Running Frequency?

ishallnotwant

Hi all. I'm doing c25k...i'm up to week 7, and able to run for 25 minutes at a time. Until now I have been doing the program mon/wed/fri with every other day + weekends off to rest my legs because I was worried about an old knee injury flaring up. I was thinking about switching it to every other day and not taking the weekends off at this point-so it would basically just be 4 times per week instead of 3...should I wait until i'm done with c25k to up it to 4 times per week, because i'm just starting to be able to run for longer times and I don't want to up it too quickly...

This is pretty terrible-i'm enjoying running so much, I want to do it every day! lol! I wake up and think about how nice it would be to go for a run! I'm still new though so I don't want to overdo it. Would 4 times per week be too much at this point?

PBmaria

You can totally run 4 times a week! That's what I do
Maybe start with very low mileage, say 1.5 mile per run 3 times and then go for a longer run on the 4th day? Try that and see how you feel. Another option is doing 4 equal runs? Personally, I prefer the first option.
But anyway you do it, here is the key advice that you should always remember: DO NOT increase your weekly mileage by more than 10% at a time. Believe me, I know how exciting it is to go out there and rock it, but running is HARD on your body and you definitely don't wanna get injured!

Toddrific

I heard somewhere you shouldn't increase your mileage by more than 20% a week or something? My memory is horrible though.

Maybe increase the days you do it, but reduce the distance a smidge?

BrianSharpe

Running 4 x per week is what I do (and have done for quite some time) but try not to increase your total training volume by more than 10% week over week (you may have to dail back one of your regular runs to accomodate this) and listen to your body, the most common reason for running injuries is trying to do too much, too soon, too fast.

Also try to make one of your weekly runs (for me it's Sunday's run) and longer, slow run - this is what will build your endurance.

Good luck with your training, as you've discovered......running is addicitve!

Still_Fluffy

I run 5 days a week. I would switch from your regular run to some speed work once a week. Just to change things up.

ishallnotwant

Thanks so much! Today I just ran 1 mile...not so great, it took almost 15 minutes lol. I think i'll run a mile 2 more times this week and then for my 4th run i'll up it to a mile and a half or two miles, longer and steadier. My mind wasn't working right, I was thinking I would do 4, 25 minute runs this week but I knew that was wrong because it would up my distance way too much at once. It never occurred to me to do 3 shorter runs + a longer one each week, and hopefully, as a previous poster stated, it will help my time as well as endurance! Thanks again for the feedback!