Running...back to the beginning.

check out runnersworld.com, or halhigdon.com. both offer great plans for running. I have used them, and know many others who do. I do have to tweek it though to fit in all the other swimming and biking, but it will give you a good indicator on how to structure your running. I normally do a easy day of 5 or 6 miles (about 45-60 min) one day, a 4 or 5 miler with pacing or speed intervals, and then a long day of 7-9 miles. Then the other two days of training i do biking/swimming since I am more run focused. Hope those sites get you started! and yes, 10% increase on the long run each week to get up to the 90min is accurate

I think the 10% means your total mileage for the week or total time. My understanding is that this "rule" is there to help prevent overuse injuries. So, if you have three runs divided into short, medium and long, you could increase your long run by whatever it took to increase the total time by 10%, if your other runs remained the same. There may be better ways to divide your training time and there are lots of programs online. My question was, if I'm starting at 0, how do I increase by 10%? Since I can barely walk these days, I obviously didn't get that one right.

Do you have a specific race in mind? If not, running a 6 day block for 30min-45min for one month will help you in a major fashion.

I think one of the most important things is to listen to your body and avoid ovedruse injuries. Some people will be able to add more miles on than others.

I am currently trying to increase my total mileage and long run as well. I am increasing my long run every other week (current long run is 9.5 miles) and increase my total mileage every week. One thing I have been doing that I believe has helped a lot is running hills. There is a hill about 2 miles from home. The hill is about .48 M up then over the other side about .2 M down the back side. I take just a short walking break at the top to let my heart rade come down a bit and no rest at the bottom.

Hope that helps!!!!

But every third or fourth week you sould step back your mileage and make it a "light" week so that you can recover and build to the next level.

Bottom line, there is no substitute for getting out there and just running. Listen to your body and don't go all out or at 90% each run. The trick to gaining distance is LSD (long slow distance).

By doing a marathon training plan I went from never having run more than 11 miles in my whole running career to being able to complete the marathon in about 7 months.

I think the 10% rule stinks. It doesn't give your body enough time to adapt.

I like the Jack Daniels "Running Formula" plan:

Every 3 weeks you can increase you weekly total by 1 mile for every running workout you do during the week. For example, a person who runs 5 times a week can increase their weekly total 5 miles at the end of 3 weeks. I believe he says that 10 miles is max for those ultra, high mileage runners.

Randy