Increasing distance how far and when

[LemonieJ]

I am increasing my distance by 10% a week with a cutback week every so often. I run 3 times a week but am not sure how far to run on each one.

Run 1 is the increase run which this week is 8.2 miles

Run 2 is the one I'm not sure about.

Run 3 is usually a parkrun or a faster 5k

What would you suggest for me to run on run 2?

[Tomas Graduate10]

I would recommend you ensure that the longest run is never more than 50% of the total weekly distance, and ideally closer to 33% if possible.

With that in mind, your long run is currently 8.2 miles = 13.1 km, run 3 is 3.1 m = 5 km, so you should make run 2 be around 5 miles at least.

In my training I try to keep the second longest (your run 2) around 2/3 of the longest. That rule of thumb also makes run 2 just over 5 miles.

The reason for the ratios is that this ensures there isn't too much of an increase for the long run, and psychologically you can always run the first 2/3 of it thinking to yourself "hey, this is no worse than I did earlier in the week, so the extra bit is really not that big a deal.

[LemonieJ in reply to Tomas]

Thank you. I will keep to that ratio and see how I go on.