I’m often asked “How much should I run?” or “Why am I running 5 km everyday and I don’t get any improvement?”.
As a coach and an ex-competitive runner, I feel the duty to give precise instructions about this topic, although please consider there’re many more factors to be evaluated when you approach to running.
First question to ask yourself: why are you running? What’s your goal?
Certainly you understand that running a marathon is different than jogging at the beach.
Not just in terms of distance, time or whether if you’re competing or just willing to burn off some kcal: YOUR GOAL MATTERS ‘cause your goal will determine (among other factors I won’t discuss here) your STRATEGY and INTENSITY.
In general, bear in mind: the longer the distance you want to run, the lower your average intensity will be, and vice versa.