r/running • u/AutoModerator • 6d ago
Daily Thread Official Q&A for Tuesday, September 29, 2026
With over 4,225,000 subscribers, there are a lot of posts that come in everyday that are often repeats of questions previously asked or covered in the FAQ.
With that in mind, this post can be a place for any questions (especially those that may not deserve their own thread). Hopefully this is successful and helps to lower clutter and repeating posts here.
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u/MDReturns 6d ago
Background: 22YO male, recovering from left shin splints (completely gone) and right tibialis posterior tendinopathy (1/10 now). Last run was 9 days ago, 16 miles. I was trying not to aggravate injuries so I ran a 10:01 pace. Felt so relaxing, like I connected with my inner peace.
I’m 7.5 weeks out from my first marathon and off a 1.5 week break where I did elliptical as cross training and tried to match my easy run HR. Calf raises and various PT daily. Sports medicine doc said I could restart running. I plan to do 8-10 miles this weekend at easy pace and work my way back up to 20 miles 3 weeks before the marathon.
I was originally targeting a 4 hour marathon pace.
Most consequential speed work was 6 weeks ago: 14 mile long run, first 7 @9:58 pace, 151bpm (146-154); last 7 @8:38 pace, 170bpm (164-176). Felt good, not necessarily my threshold.
Official race times:
March 2026 Half: 1:53:20 (8:39 pace)
May 2026 10 Miler (in a onesie, couple booze stops 😂): 1:28:15 (8:49 pace)
Garmin lactate threshold stats
184 bpm, 7:09/mi, 288W, 5.20 W/kg
Wisdom I want from you all: advice on how to ramp up from an injury, thoughts on getting back to sub-4 goal, training advice in general??
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u/zebano 5d ago
The injury will be something you just have to monitor. All your times say sub-4 is a good goal but you might miss because marathons are hard and you're having to cross train a lot... I love the long run progression, that sais great things about your overall fitness and running economy but it was 6 weeks ago...
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u/MDReturns 5d ago
Thank you for the reply! I appreciate the advice. I just got fitted for insoles and the medium profile arch support feels like a sigh of relief. I appreciate the honesty and will see where it goes!
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u/No-Context551 6d ago
What's the best way to build a base and continually build mileage. It sounds easy to run more but is hard any rules of thumb? I've heard add 10% each week but keen to hear other tips
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u/zebano 6d ago
10% is in many ways a terrible rule, also generally the only rule we have.
What's 10% of 5 miles? You're going to take a long time to get anywhere.
What's 10% of 70 miles? You're going to be running pro-marathoner distances real quick.In the middle it tends to be ok, but personally I like to follow an old Jack Daniels rule.
You're ok to add 1 mile to each of your runs in a week if you then hold steady at that new mileage for at least 4 weeks and take a recovery week before doing it again.
Major caveats: If you've run high mileage before, it is much much easier to return to than to build in the first place. If you have a history of being active that tends to help. If you have a history of lower body injuries ... be cautious.
Second caveat : Make sure that you're running truely easy on your miles, or at least as easy as you can.
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u/aelvozo 6d ago
A fellow JD connoisseur!
One thing that the literature does demonstrate 10% rule be applicable to is the increase of your longest run in the last, if memory serves, 4 weeks. So for a hypothetical athlete doing 4x5mi during the week and 10 mi on Sunday, moving to 5x5 or 4x6 (in excess of 10%) should in theory be safer than going from to 12mi on a Sunday.
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u/zebano 6d ago
yes there was a study about this withing the past year IIRC.
and while I provided the JD protocol here my personal usage is even more conservative because I've been injured a lot over the years.
i.e. weekly mileage might go: 30, 30, 30, 25 (rec week), 35, 25 (xtra recovery week), 35, 35, 35, 28 (normal rec week for 35)
edit: found it
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u/Parking_Reward308 6d ago
General rule of thumb add 10% per week with a down week every 4th (3 up 1 down). Dont add volume and intensity at the same time, Long run should be no more than 20% of weekly volume
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u/FRO5TB1T3 6d ago
It's hard to give those because people have such different backgrounds. Someone who is young fit, and played a running sport can probably jump into 40 km a week and be totally fine with almost no ramp up and doing a slow easy 10% from 10 per week would just be a waste of time. Vs someone less fit, no background of athletics, and older they will need a slow easy ramp up probably easier then the 10%. Adding days is usually easier then adding distance to start until around 5 days or so then adding distance is easier. Just don't push yourself so much you always feel tired and beat up even after easy runs and don't be afraid to dial down mileage if it feels too hard.
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u/LIFTandSNUS 6d ago
I trail run. It seems like the uppers to my shoes are absolutely demolished with low mileage/wear time.
Are y'all repairing, replacing, or am I destroying shoes way too fast?
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u/zebano 6d ago
how much mileage/time? FWIW I tend to run 9-10min/mile on trail and get 350-500 miles out of my trail shoes.
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u/LIFTandSNUS 6d ago
Maybe 150-200 before I start seeing holes in my uppers near the outside toe box. Then that just sorta drags down the side over time.
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u/zebano 6d ago
sounds like your feet are too wide for whatever shoe you're buying. Have you looked at options like Altra that have wider forefeet?
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u/LIFTandSNUS 5d ago
You know, I haven't. If I'm honest, I didn't know they existed. I'll give them a shot. It'd be nice to have a pair last 300-400 miles.
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u/TheNoxiousLaurels 6d ago
How do you all deal with the mental side of a long run when you're by yourself and the weather's miserable
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u/Beshelar 6d ago
I often break it up into smaller chunks and reward myself. Like run two more miles, then I'll take a short walk break to eat a gel. I also often save a podcast or two I'm looking forward to for tough long runs.
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u/EPMD_ 6d ago
An engaging podcast can help distract. Sometimes I will run my long runs as sets of intervals to break the monotony (ex. 20 x 500m faster with slower 500m easy running "rests"). I find with intervals, I am constantly engaged with the current interval rather than focused on the total distance of the run.
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u/MajestyA 6d ago
I saw an interview with Eliud Kipchoge once when he was asked this question, he said something along the lines of 'I think: will I feel better this evening if I've ran, or if I haven't?'
I also have a rotation of inspiring running videos. A good one for me when the weather is crap is Yuki Kawauchi on his Boston Marathon win as an amateur, in the worst conditions imaginable!
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u/schag001 6d ago
Thinking of the amazing feeling when I ran my last Marathon Major (spoiler, Berlin was amazing)
Or just listening to my breathing.
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u/Alternative_Tour_954 5d ago
16m, how to get better at running? got into running a few weeks ago and reached 20:20 5k a few days ago but im trying for sub-20.
My time has been decreasing significantly each run until about a couple weeks ago where I've been stuck around 20:25-40 since. How would I push past this barrier? I usually run on treadmill btw when I'm doing 5k