Beginning runners may not know their strengths, so it’s important to understand a person’s pace and power. Time-based runs help people see their breathing rate, the feeling in their legs, and other patterns.
It depends on your goals. If your goal is to increase endurance, it’s better to run for distance. If your goal is to increase speed, it’s better to run for time.
Repeated runs help people understand how to approach running training, locate strengths, and develop a training routine. From there, you can run remotely or continue working on time.
Running distance
Most of us automatically run a certain number of kilometers because we have chosen a running goal with a fixed length. Running the full distance can help us focus more on the pace aspect of a race. As we near the end of each workout, our minds are constantly receiving visual input. This feedback allows us to process how much energy we can muster to reach the goal faster. However, many of us will get into the habit of finishing every run with a kick. If you feel this fresh at the end of an effort, start your next run at a slightly faster pace instead of continuing to develop this habit. When you train, don’t be afraid to finish because you know you had a little more to give. Keeping some energy in the tank will allow you to go about your daily routine.
Running total miles instead of time is more common when doing long weekly runs. The long run is part of any long-distance runner’s training program. This is how we measure our progress towards our goal race. For example, most marathon training programs start with a 6-8 mile long run and progress to at least a 20-mile run or more. Having the experience of running at the proper pace for distances of several kilometers close to your race goal is essential for several reasons.
It can be less intimidating.
For those who are new to running or just starting out, running any distance can be daunting. Unless you’ve established a predictable training pace (although this can also vary if you’re training after training), it’s hard to predict how long your run will last. Also, a slower pace means you’ll be on your feet longer than someone at a faster pace, which will result in a higher training load.
For this reason, it is more important to measure the time you have been exercising, your aerobic intensity than the distance traveled. Corrine Malcolm, a track and field coach with experience in Nordic skiing, says: «Time is a natural measure for training to be consistent across all modalities.» So if you’re new to running but also spend time doing other sports like biking or skiing, you’ll have a better idea of how your performance compares. New runners, in particular, might be less tempted to compare miles when time trumps distance.
Run for everything
This means you only run with effort (my effort scale would be helpful here), with no steps involved in your runs (yes, you can always panic AFTERWARD while you’re not looking).
When to run to save time
Although we usually run distances (5K, 10K, etc.), many runners prefer to do a lot of their training runs to save time. Running by time is not always the best option, but it works well in the following scenario.
When time is of the essence. If you only have an hour to split your run between other commitments, go ahead and run for time (just make sure you don’t stop your clock at stop lights). That way, no matter how far you walk, you know you won’t be working overtime and you won’t be late for anything you need to do.
