Training Tip Thursday

Leap frog to improve -
Ten percent weekly mileage increase? Somehow the idea has been "written in stone" that the recommended weekly increase in mileage is 10%. Nothing could be further from the truth. Ten percent is the maximum increase, beyond which pain and injury are almost guaranteed. Better is to increase 5% weekly. Even better than that, is to leap frog. Leap frog? Go up ten percent one week, then down five percent the next week, and up ten percent the following week. This procedure challenges the body, allows for recovery, then challenges the body once more. Improvement in conditioning, be it cardiovascular, muscular or the strengthening of your support structure (bone, joints, tendons) takes place during the recovery stage. Continually pushing forward tends to exhaust the body, and exhaustion leads to trouble. Pushing forward, retrenching, then striving again will provide the best results, in the shortest time, with the least chance of injury.

Source: http://www.runtheplanet.com/trainingracing/training/distancerunning.asp#4