Phillips Running

Hello, 2018!!!

With welcoming in this New Year, I wanted to start the year with a run down of my Running Top-10; a list of tips and advice to help you become a better runner in 2018!

So, without further ado, here is my Running Top-10 — #1 — run more this year.

For those who know me, I am an advocate for running higher mileage; but don’t stop reading there. My belief is that ‘higher mileage’ is a relative term.

If you ran 20 miles/week in 2017, then doing 25 miles/week in 2018 would be higher mileage, right? It’s the same with someone who might have run 100 miles/week in 2017 and shooting for 110 miles/week in 2018.

I just believe that the more you do something, the better you get at it. Remember, running is a very simple sport and it’s very similar to other sports in the regard that repetition improves efficiency.

When I was first starting out as a runner one of my mentors, Gabriel Rodriguez, said to me, “How do you get better at running? You run! If I asked you to get better at shooting free-throws, you would go and shoot more free-throws…the same is true with running.”

So, how much more running should you do in 2018?

Well, there is no 100% correct answer here. The truth is that you’ll to have to experiment week to week and month to month over the whole year. You’ll need to keep a training log (diary) and pay attention how you respond to different loads of volume over different lengths of time (day to day, week to week, month to month, etc.).

My encouragement would be to balance higher mileage weeks with lower to moderate mileage weeks as you increase your mileage. You should never run more mileage for the sake of running more mileage, so with that in mind, you should not be increasing from one level of mileage until you have comfortably handled the previous training load.

But to sum it up and to make this as simple as possible…if you typically run 4-5 miles/day, then spice it up by adding 1-2 miles/day on every other run, while still maintaining your typical 4-5 miles/day on the other days. And if your long run is typically 10-12 miles, then every other week try going 12-14 miles. Be sure to run easy and relaxed as you are increasing the mileage and have fun with the new challenge. (This same example can be used for someone running 8-10 miles/day and 14-16 miles for the long run…experiment with a 12-14 miler twice per week and an 18-20 miler every 2-3 weeks for the long run…)

So, tip #1 in this New Year…RUN MORE.

Here’s to more running in 2018! I hope you’ll follow along over these next 10 days as we continue to count down the Running Top-10.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!