Hi Guys,

I stupidly and not intentionally ended up increasing my weekly milege from 15 miles a week to 25....I meant a little increase but not quite that much (bloody Nike Plus challenges)!! Anyway my question to you is how best do I help my body to recover without my fitness taking a hit, whilst getting thr spring back in some really quite fatigued muscles?

I don't want to drop the distance back to much as I am trying to train for a half marathon and I am really enjoying the running, perhaps a few treadmil runs to keep the milege up but lower the stress on the body?

Thanks,
Emma

Well that was a bit more than the recommended 10% increase wasn't it Emma!

I guess we need to know when your 1/2m is before we give out too much advice.

I know I know...I was a bit surprised myself!!!

The 1/2 is March 25th (Reading)

So you have 16 weeks to train then....plenty of time to revert back to roughly where you were and build up slowly.

Perhaps this week you should drop back to say 15 miles to allow recovery time and do each run at an easy, ie so you can chat, pace. To reduce stress try a swim or two.

I would suggest doing 4 runs a week...outside or on treadmill....do 1 long slow run a week, one speed/hill session (maybe on the treadmill), one mid distance steady run and an easy run. The distances will increase each week but by no more than 10% per week and the long run itself shouldn't be more than 10% of the long run the week before.

Within these 16 weeks you will have say 3 weeks when you reduce your mileage so as to allow your body to recover.

Make the most of rest days too!

I just wanted to thank you Steve for your good advice, I dropped my training right back during the week....only running approx 10 miles during the week before have two days off in prep for my long run of 7 miles (I agree that the increase was greater than advised and what I would have liked with my previous long run being 5 miles but this was the distance my runnig group were doing and I thought I would just see how it went).

I finished the 7 miles feeling fresh and went out on a short recovery run this morning feeling about the best I have felt for a couple of weeks.....I whole heartedly believe that this was down to taking you advice on board.

Once again thank you for your help.

Emma

I'm glad to hear that your week went well. You just need to keep up the good steady work now!