Conventional wisdom say to increase your running mileage 10% a week. If you ran 10 miles last week you can run 11 miles this week. This will keep you safe from injury they say.
A big problem with that idea is that it isn’t based on anything.
An article published in the journal JOSPT (How to Safely Increase Your Mileage) looked into how much you should be increasing mileage each week in order to avoid injuries. The answer was a little more nuanced.
The research found that runners that increased their mileage less than 10% over two weeks had lower rates of injury. Also, that if you increased your mileage more than 30% over two weeks your chance of sustaining an injury was higher.
There are lots of ways to hurt yourself running but increasing mileage too quickly is one of the most common. Good, practical advice is to have an individual running plan tailored to your body’s capabilities and running history.
Looking to get started? Fortunately, this (and much more) is included in a Sport Science running analysis!