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How to increase Endurance

How to increase Endurance – Running Workouts to Build Endurance

As a runner, we know that endurance is important. However, to improve our endurance we need to vary our workouts more than just running easy and long. But that doesn’t mean you should jump straight into more strenuous workouts.

In this article, we look at how to increase endurance if you are a beginner. We also look at the best running workouts to build endurance for the more experienced runner. So keep on reading if you want to increase your stamina and endurance by running.

How to increase Endurance Through Running

Even though running is a rather unpopular form of exercise when starting out, if you stick with it, you will find your endurance will rapidly improve over time.

However, if you are a beginner starting out and wanting to increase your endurance through running, it is important to start slowly.

This means building up the distance of each run in a safe and consistent way that lets your bones, tendons, heart, and muscles adapt to the training. So, during this adaption your heart will grow stronger, muscles become more resilient, and tendons will be able to handle the growth and development of the muscles.

A good rule of thumb when trying to increase your endurance through running is to follow the 10% rule. That means you should not increase your weekly hours or mileage by more than 10% from the previous week. However, that doesn’t mean you should continue to increase the mileage by 10% every week.

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Your training needs to be broken up into blocks and the end of each block should include a recovery week. A good plan would follow something similar to this

Week 1 – Same volume as 3rd week as the previous block.
week 2 – Increase in volume.
week 3 – Increase in volume.
week 4 – Recovery Week.

Following a similar plan will not only help to improve your endurance but will also allow adequate recovery. So, if we were to add distance to that layout it would look something like this:

Block One
Week 1 – 20km
week 2 – 22km
week 3 – 24km
week 4 – Recovery Week.

Block Two
Week 1 – 24km
week 2 – 26km
week 3 – 28km
week 4 – Recovery Week.

You can see we start the second block of training at the same volume as the previous 3rd week of the block. Following this type of structure when you are building endurance will help you have consistent training and also prevent any overtraining or injuries from appearing.

How to Increase Running Endurance

How to Increase Running Endurance – Experienced Runners

When you become a more experienced runner and have more running hours behind you, you probably won’t see the point of running more. This is true to a point, and often most experienced runners won’t have the time to do more. They may even have maxed out the mileage the body can handle, and doing more may put them at the risk of getting injured.

So, what happens when you cannot increase your running mileage more?

Luckily there are other running workouts to build endurance than running for hours on end. Or adding more mileage to your week.
Some of the best running workouts to build endurance are:

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– Tempo Runs
– Fartlek Running
– Hill Repeats

Not only do these types of workouts help improve your speed, lactate threshold, and strength. They also help improve your endurance. But, it is important to remember these types of workouts should only be added 1-2 times per week. And if your goal is primarily to build endurance from running, then move into these workouts once you tap out your ability to increase your mileage or length of your long run.

How to Increase Running Stamina For Beginners?

How to Increase Running Stamina For Beginners?

Just like a regular runner trying to build their endurance, a beginner may want to improve their stamina so they can run for a certain period of time.

Luckily there is a simple way of how to increase running stamina for beginners and this requires time and patience.

If you are completely new to running and would like to build your stamina up enough to run for 20 minutes or more, it is important to implement running and walking for a period of time. The time frame usually takes anywhere from 4-6 weeks. And by the end of that, you should be able to run 20 minutes comfortably without stopping.

Below is a great chart to help you follow the run-walk method safely. For more information read our article below:

Run Walk Ratio Chart – UPDATED 2021 – A Complete Guide

Week

Walking

Running

1

4 minutes

2 minutes

2

3 minutes

3 minutes

3

2 minutes

4 minutes

4

3 minutes

5 minutes

5

3 minutes

7 minutes

6

2 minutes

8 minutes

7

1 minute

9 minutes

8

2 minutes

13 minutes

9

1 minute

14 minutes

10

Walk when needed

20 minutes

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Endurance Vs Stamina – What’s the Difference?

When it comes to endurance vs stamina, they are often thought to be interchangeable. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Stamina is classed as being able to sustain an activity for a period of time (often long) both mentally and physically. Endurance, on the other hand, refers to the body’s ability to sustain exercise for an extended period of time. This is largely controlled by our cardiovascular fitness and muscular endurance. These both require your heart, lungs, and muscles to fuel your body with oxygen.

Endurance Vs Stamina

Endurance Running Training Plan

If you are still looking at how to increase endurance through running, SportCoaching provides a range of endurance training plans that can help improve both your cardiovascular fitness and muscular endurance. This is done by providing custom-built training plans based on your current fitness, lifestyle, and goals. We have training plans for all levels of athletes and for all distances such as:

– 5km
– 10km
– Half Marathon
– Marathon
– 50km
– 100km
– Ultra Distance

We also have plans like couch to 5k and couch to 10k that can help build your stamina up so you are able to run both of those distances.

Alternatively, SportCoaching provides a monthly coaching service that gives you 7 days a week contact with your coach. As well as a custom-built plan that adapts consistently around your fitness and lifestyle.

To see our current running training plans click here.
To see our monthly coaching services for running click here.


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