To become an overall better runner, should I focus on running shorter distances faster or, longer distances slower?

Question

Drew Wartenburg · Answer

To become an overall better runner should I focus on running shorter distances faster or longer distances slower? The easy answer is that you want to vary your training over a range of paces to get the most out of your running and to create the most sort of robust fitness that you can possibly have. Now the specifics and sparing you a long lesson on physiology or training theory. The specifics are going to depend to some degree on how much running you're doing. So if you're running three to four days a week you're gonna have a little less wiggle room to do a lot of pace variation. For someone running five or six or even seven days a week you've got a little bit more flexibility in there. Most of your running you want to have land right in your aerobic zone and you can easily look up what that means but that's going to be just sort of steady training pace from day to day usually out of conversational conversational effort level which means you could hold a conversation while you're doing that. As you develop fitness and want to build out your training more you can begin to play with paces that are more akin to mile or 5k 10k or marathon pace and in that way you're going to work different systems within your body and have a more well-rounded fitness level overall.

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"To become an overall better runner, should I focus on running shorter distances faster or, longer distances slower? "