How often should you run? There’s no definitive answer to this question. It largely depends on your objectives, work schedule, running experience, and personal preferences. These factors should all be considered when determining your running frequency.
Your weekly running volume depends on:
- Your goals
- Work schedule
- Running experience
- Personal preferences
How Many Times a Week Should You Run At least?
If you exercise daily, you are likely to:
- Reduce the risk of developing chronic diseases
- Maintain a slimmer physique
- You will live longer than if you exercised a few times a week.
Before increasing your running frequency, consider the safety of your training routine to avoid overtraining.
Our recommendations are to help you succeed and avoid injury when training for various race lengths, from shorter distances of 5-10 km to longer races.
How to Create a Running Program?
Your goals directly influence the duration of your training. For example, preparing for a marathon necessitates long and intense training sessions. Training should be varied to achieve the best results. It’s important to alternate between interval training and long-distance runs at a slower pace.
Similarly, varying your running pace helps to boost endurance without overloading your body by constantly training at a high intensity. Gradually increase the load if your goal depends on specific indicators that need to be improved.
To prevent overtraining, follow the rule many athletes use: do not increase your weekly load by more than 10%. Your training plan should not be rigid and inflexible. If you feel tired and need rest, allow your body to recover correctly or temporarily reduce the load.
Running 3 times a week is enough to make any progress. On other days, you can swim or do yoga, weight training, etc.
However, if you decide to run only 3 times a week and are interested in progressing, you must ensure that these runs are high quality.
These 3 workouts should be:
- Tempo running to develop speed endurance.
- Speed running to increase speed.
- Long run to increase overall endurance.
In addition to the 3 running sessions, your program can include two cross-training sessions. The primary reason to limit running to 3 times a week is to minimize the risk of injury.
Running is a high-impact and repetitive activity and the likelihood of injury increases with higher training volumes.
Many people find that daily running leads to injury. If you are prone to injuries or concerned about them, adhere to a regimen of 3-4 runs per week, supplemented with cross-training. The most common running frequency for competitive non-elite runners is 6-7 times per week (daily with one rest day or daily with rest as needed).
What If to Run Twice a Day?
If you plan to run more than 100 km per week, you should run 2 times a day, 1-2 times a week. The rationale behind this rule is that any running program should include some easy runs, and if you try to cram more than 100km into 6 or 7 sessions a week, they will be challenging.
Of course, you can train twice daily if you plan to run less than 100 km a week, but this training regimen becomes necessary if you intend to cover that much mileage. As you increase your weekly mileage, add workouts to run no more than 15 km at a time. If you intend to run 150 km weekly, you should have at least 10 running workouts.
These extra runs should be very short and easy at first. Gradually increase the distance and number of these runs until you reach your weekly mileage goal, but maintain an easy pace throughout these additional sessions. Never try to do 2 hard runs in one day.
Some runners do easy runs in the morning and longer, faster runs in the evening. Others do the opposite. It all depends on personal preference.
Cross Training
Just as a competitive amateur runner can train more than 3-4 times a week, but not all of those workouts have to be running, a professional competitive runner can train 2 times a day, but not every one of those sessions has to be run.
Yes, there are many examples of very successful track and field athletes who run 14 times a week and do not cross-train. But in most cases, runners who train 9 or more times a week are better off doing 7 running workouts and doing weight training or plyometrics 2 or 3 times a week rather than turning every workout into a run.
Some studies support the effectiveness of this approach. In a famous Norwegian study, elite runners improved their 3K race times by replacing 30% of their running load with plyometrics, not just by adding plyometrics to running but also by replacing part of the runs with plyometrics.
There is no need to practice strength training and plyometrics more than 2 or 3 times a week, so if you decide to train more than 10 times a week, those additional sessions can and should be jogging or alternative forms of low-impact cardio (such as cycling).
What is the absolute maximum amount of training a runner can endure?
Many elite runners run twice daily, plus 3 strength or plyometric workouts per week. If you can train like this without injury, that’s pretty cool!
