How many miles per week?

A lot of factors go into determining your weekly run mileage—background of athleticism, total hours you have per week—but this guide can help you find your ideal number. Start by choosing your race distance and continue to add or subtract from each category.

4 Things to remember:

1. If you periodise your training correctly, you should be running more miles during peak weeks vs. recovery weeks.
2. If you’re including many hard efforts (intervals, track work, tempo runs), total mileage should be lower than if you’re strictly doing easy aerobic runs.
3. You’ll avoid injury by loosely following the 10 per cent rule (don’t increase mileage by more than 10 per cent per week) and listening to your body if it says, “Hey, I’m exhausted. Give me more time to adapt.”
4. Try to break up your running days to give your legs a break from pounding.