What Are Junk Miles

[Derby Tup]

Mr Brightside mentioned this thread in passing earlier in the week. Someone who hasn't seen it before might be interested

[mr brightside]

I'd love to be at a level where i was forced to identify junk miles and eliminate them.

Wow! This means i'm making progress.

[mr brightside]

This thread's got it all- training tips, rabbits warming up, CL's job...

[mr brightside]

What's the difference between an aerobic base of many steady zone 2 miles, and junk miles? A bicycle?

[Travs]

The way i understand it, junk miles aren't just "aerobic base miles"....

They are miles which are supposed to be easy base runs, but are ran too fast, and don't allow proper recovery.

Easy miles are generally supposed to be ran at 60-70% of max heart rate (i prefer to use 60-70% of my 2 mile/3km pace, as this corresponds closely with max useable heart rate)

Then lactate threshold pace is something like 88%, VO2 max i think is around 95-97%, and hard rep sessions are quicker.

I guess junk miles come in when you're running too fast to be in the 60-70% zone, but you're not running hard enough to be doing one of the other sessions.... body is nether being allowed to recover properly, nor gaining any benefit from the session.

I'll happily run daily and call it a recovery day, so long as i'm running in the comfortable "easy" zone.

[Travs]

Just reading the first page of this thread... it's clear that a lot of people regard easy mileage as Junk Miles.

This is inaccurate.

[noel]

I completely agree.

I was just discussing this the other day. As long as you're not doing training that's too intensive too often, or too much when your body's not used to it, then surely all low-intensity mileage is useful as a base for building endurance or to then add in some faster sessions.

[Travs]

I saw some rule-of-thumbs that said hard miles should not total more than 20% of your weekly mileage. And your long run should not be more than 25% of your weekly mileage.

I guess these figures can get skewed when training on the fells as obviously flat miles and steep uphill miles can be so wildly different.

[gazb]

I do think junk (or steady) miles do have their place for building endurance, as long as they are balanced by easy and hard running in any given period. After all, a lot of longer fell races especially are run at what in reality is a steady pace. So training your body to run at that pace can be no bad thing.

[Llani Boy]

8 laps of a local, frosty moonlit field this evening. 5 miles in 45 mins.

Some people might call them "junk miles" but I thoroughly enjoyed them.

Isn't that what running is about?