Today I’m writing you with a public service announcement.
Please stop running “junk miles.”
Before I go any further, I’d like to define what I mean by “junk miles” to make sure we’re on the same page (because I know I’m probably going to piss at least someone off with this)…
Junk miles are miles in your weekly training plan that serve no other purpose than to increase your weekly mileage count.
As a result, most people go into them without focus in an effort to just “get it done.”
Now you may be saying, “So… what’s the problem? I like running a lot of miles every week and I just want to enjoy my run. I don’t want to have to focus on every minute of my training.”
Fair.
I both hear you and agree with you.
Yet getting into the rhythm of a run isn’t the same as running junk miles.
Junk miles aren’t there because they’re fun.
They aren’t there because you enjoy doing them.
They aren’t even there because you’ve built up to a high volume of running and need to maintain that high mileage if you want to improve.
Junk miles are there solely to placate the ego.
Junk miles do nothing more than increase your weekly mileage total.
You could remove them from your training and see zero decrease in your performance.
In fact, you’d likely become a better runner because you’d be less fatigued for the rest of your training.
All training produces some level of fatigue.
If we train properly, we try to maintain a positive “stimulus to fatigue ratio” where we push enough stimulus to get better but not so much fatigue that we can’t recover.
It’s a difficult balance that’s often hard to achieve, but that’s the goal.
You do work that creates a stimulus (and also fatigue).
You recover from the fatigue.
You maintain the benefits from the stimulus in a less fatigued state and you perform better.
Boom.
Training.
Yet junk miles do the exact opposite.
They add very little in terms of stimulus while increasing overall fatigue.
Know what happens to most people who run a lot of junk miles?
They get injured.
In their quest to hit those big weeks, they add lots of extra miles that provide little benefit to their training.
As a result, they don’t see a ton of improvement, but they do get tired.
And when they’re constantly running tired, they’re more likely to run in ways that lead to injury.
They’re more likely to overstride…
Or lose pelvic positioning and hurt their back…
Or miss the step and turn their ankle.
“Easy miles” and “junk miles” aren’t the same.
Easy miles are a requirement for you to get better as an endurance athlete, whereas junk miles are a fast path to injury.
Or at the very least, a hindrance to improvement.
As with anything, if you enjoy the way you train and aren’t seeing a problem, then please keep going.
Happiness is absolutely the end goal here and I’m not trying to shit on anything that makes you happy.
Yet if you’re constantly chasing numbers because you think it will improve your running…
But all you get in return is a series of injuries and no real progress…
Then it may be time to rethink things.
High mileage is a great way to improve as a runner.
But those miles have to be good.
And you have to be able to handle them.