 And one last quick point. I actually forgot number five. So I said how many days do I have in the training block, but also an addendum is and away we go. Everyone last crazy last long run of the training block going 20 miles and yes volume is going to be the keyword and the question of the day and we're going to dive into this topic in the studio and I'm not going to film the long run today. Just going to focus on the task at hand and enjoy the ride and and then start to really taper this upcoming week. And so volume is keyword question of the day. What is the number one factor? Maybe two factors that go into your decision making when trying to figure out how much volume to run in a given week. And if you want to dive even deeper into what's what portion or section of your training block that's good too. But that's what we're diving. This is a huge topic and I'm probably probably going to make a new playlist after pikes peak when I have a little more time actually leading up to the Amsterdam marathon where we dive into the topic of volume because a lot of people ask me on Instagram, especially Twitter a little bit about how many miles they should be running kilometers they should be running. So today is just a conversation starter around that topic of volume and I love it. It's a great topic but it's a big topic and there's a lot of factors that go into it. So we're going to figure that out and we're going to go out in the zoom fly threes have it worn these and probably two weeks maybe 10 days. So I'm excited to take these out for a long I don't think I've actually done a long run in the in them yet. So all right let's rock and roll. I hope you had a great weekend and oh man it's getting close it's getting close guys. There we go back from the long run in the Nike zoom fly threes. Oh it just feels great mentally to know like that's a long that's the last long run of this training block and knowing that I can now really start to freshen up in the next 13 days based 12 to 13 days when you're watching this and the zoom fly threes I believe they have 44 45 miles in them which means the full review after 50 miles is right on the horizon. We'll see if I get it in before the pike speak ascent I'll just well you'll know here right on YouTube okay today's run 20 miles or 32 kilometers 740 per mile or 445 per kilometer just a cruiser you know I feel good nice and easy like my legs are not fresh by any means yet but just cruising along getting the miles in all right so that was today's run and let's dive into today's topic all about volume trying to figure out how many miles oh my goodness this is a huge topic as I already mentioned and I get a lot of messages on instagram people asking how many miles kilometers or minutes yes some people go by minutes and I think that's great like you got to do what works for you uh mentally especially so miles kilometers or minutes uh how many miles or my kilometers or minutes should they be running on a weekly basis a monthly basis or an annual basis that's right sometimes folks just measure they say okay I want to run 2000 miles this year and depending on okay we're gonna get we're gonna front load it in the first four months and then I'm gonna take it a little easier the last eight months because of life or what have you most people track by weekly just so you know that's what I do but I must say as I continue to age a little bit I'm realizing the beauty of tracking also by month meaning you're not as uh risk you're not as I'll just say you're not as rigid in hitting your weekly mileage okay first let's define volume the very simple definition is how many miles kilometers or yes even minutes are you running in a given period of time and that period of time can frankly be whatever you choose most people do weekly because we live on a calendar schedule in the modern world so Monday to Sunday or Sunday to Saturday I guess it would be is that right so I do Monday to Sunday uh basically because that's what I was taught in high school and college but some people track by month and some people just simply track annually and I it's frankly I would go with whatever gives you the most mental peace meaning you're not stressed about hitting your monthly mileage or your annual mileage or your weekly mileage you got to go with what works for your mental capacity for me and also okay I'll just throw it out there and your personality for me I do I lean toward weekly because I love staying organized in my life and it helps to integrate the training into that weekly calendar schedule but I get it you might live a life that's uh really busy and you say okay I want to hit 150 miles this month because this week is absolutely insane I've got two projects for work my kids got a choir practice and a soccer practice and I just got a I'm only going to run like 15 miles this week so I'm going to catch up in the later weeks of the month all right now let's dive into the 10 points the 10 factors I hope you have your notes ready or just go back and re-watch this especially for all the beginners out there that are just getting into running I think this list actually maybe not even the veterans like I think it'll and some of them are very obvious but I think a few of them might not be as obvious and it will at least plant a seed in your mind like oh yeah hmm maybe for my next training block for a fall marathon that's coming up or even maybe the spring marathon I will consider this factor for deciding how many miles kilometers or minutes I will be running in a given week and these top 10 I am actually going to read most of them off of my phone because there's so many and I haven't memorized all of them uh but this is this these are the 10 steps basically that I ask myself uh how many miles should I should I be running this week okay and also these are in no particular order okay here we go number one how I ask myself these questions how do I want to perform on race day okay that's that's actually a very important question to ask myself when I'm building and I'm actually about to start doing this for the Amsterdam marathon as I build up to that so the question how do I want to perform on race day state championships uh the local 5k race uh maybe it's your first 10k of your life uh maybe it's your first marathon whatever maybe your training for your first 100 mile race okay so that's number one number two what is my experience level have I been running for six months and it's amazing I want I wish I could give a hug to all of the new runners out there like welcome to the running family and I just I've been running for 20 years but I just I just remember I distinctly remember those first 18 months two years when I really discovered running with my dad up in Buna Vista and it was just so exciting I was good at it so that was also nice being a middle schooler to find a sport that I was good at but like I don't know I just like relish so anyway okay I'm going on a tangent what is my experience level in my six months 10 years 20 years that really impacts uh weekly volume of training okay number three how old am I there's a big difference between 15 year olds training and 32 year olds training when as a 32 year old there's a good chance you are nearing your peak uh cardiac efficiency okay it's been tested by science like right around that I'll just okay I'll say that 30 to 35 window is really the prime time especially for marathon racing okay so that's a big uh big factor number three how old am I number four what race distance am I preparing for kind of what I already mentioned but am I getting ready for an 800 meter race on the track or 100 mile race in the San Juan's of Colorado the San Juan Mountains of Colorado so big difference impacts your volume a ton number five how many days do I have in the training block leading up to the race for example leading up to pike's peak I'm in a condensed training block of I'm just going to call it eight weeks I it's actually it actually is going to end up being a little under eight weeks because of the phantom pain so how many days do you have to work with and that also connects back to number one how do I want to perform on race day which also connects to what I keep telling you all about I'm taking a little bit of a risk in this training block in order to reach my goal of number one how do I want to perform on race day so okay so number five how many days do I have in the training block number six what is the terrain of the course am I getting ready for a grass cross country course a a an 800 on the track uh once again 100 mile race with you know 25,000 feet of vertical climbing so uh the type of course that you're racing yes or or maybe it's a road marathon it will impact how many miles kilometers or minutes you're racing so that's number six what is the terrain of the race course number seven what is your injury history oh this should probably be a little higher on the list for me but oh man because of my injuries with my bone injuries I have to be very careful of how many miles I'm running okay so this is an important one number seven what is your injury history number eight uh what this is an interesting one I don't hear many people talking about this but if I live so there's a couple people in the demore global running group on Strava if you're not a part of it you should join it's a fun group we get to see where everyone's training around the world but there's probably a half a dozen people in the group that live in Manhattan and I know they live in Manhattan because every single run they do is on the island of Manhattan and the access to dirt might not be readily available so I actually if I lived on the island of Manhattan or maybe in Tokyo or maybe another big city around the world I would drop my volume I would probably have to drop my volume in order to stay healthy by 10 or 15 percent because of the surface availability for me to run on now I know there's probably grass baseball field soccer fields in Manhattan but anyway that's a factor factor to consider and that is number eight did I say that yeah number eight what surface availability do what access do you have to different types of surfaces like grass like the other day I was running around grass just to get on a very soft surface okay that was number eight number nine two to go um this is a little crazy um and might be a challenge and I don't want to be uh anyway it's but it's a reality okay all right I'll just do it I'll do it all right all right remember two I'm just going to call it two years ago my family and I were trying to you know pay off some debt and I was buying shoes off of Craigslist this Hoka Clayton uh yes Hoka Clayton was off of Craigslist for $20 and I wore this shoe for it was a lot I'm going to say five to 700 miles somewhere in there I'm not exactly sure I wore it a lot and so number nine is what kind of access do you have to shoes with a good midsole and I know that but that's I'm just telling you you got to be you need to monitor and I you know I'm kind of bringing up a tough subject but it it's impacted by money unfortunately and that's why you know we try to do the running shoe giveaways here but if you're running in shoes that are beat to a pulp and you're trying to pull off some high mileage you have to be careful you there's just no other way especially if you're running on pavement or concrete a lot it's just asking for an injury so again number nine what kind of access do you have to new shoes with fresh midsoles it does make a difference and I've learned the hard way a couple times so I don't want that to be the case for you guys out there okay that was number nine number ten okay this last one and it's actually kind of two points combined into one but I think they're really connected basically how much can you sleep and what and how and how healthy are you willing to eat all right so how much can you sleep and how healthy are you willing to eat and again like food is expensive and you know vegetables and it adds up like if food adds up so but it does again it impacts our bodies and if we're putting our bodies through higher volumes of training oh my goodness like the importance of sleep and I need to do better just so you know it's so critical and with the sleep with the eating of course that is impacted by your job your family your budget how much you know healthy food can you buy but the sleep thing maybe you're an entrepreneur and you're starting a brand new business I bet you're working 12 to 18 hours a day I know what that's like okay so that will cut into your sleep time which might mean you might need to reduce the volume of your training as you're getting your business going all right all these things are connected in life and one last quick point I actually forgot number five so I said how many days do I have in the training block but also an addendum is at what stage am I at in the training block so early in the block is little in the in the middle and middle to late of a training block it gets pretty high and then right now as I start to taper the volume comes down so that was a little addendum that I missed for number five and there you have it those are my 10 factors that I look at when deciding and figuring out my weekly training volume and I already gave you the keyword of volume and I yes I did ask the question of the day already but you might not need to re-listen to this now but maybe down the road like if you're next if your current training block is almost done and you're going to take a break and then start up another one maybe before your next one starts you if you want you can come back and revisit this vlog just to reference and have a little refresher for okay I'm starting I'm starting my my grad school maybe I need to back off my volume a little bit because I know I'm not going to be sleeping as much or whatever the case may be and yes thank you for being here thanks for watching this vlog we are in for a good week like it's taper week baby it's like we're really starting to come down and freshen up so it's exciting and if you want to dive more into how to run faster click on the playlist on the left you see it on the left there in that box or if you want to talk about or learn learn more about my thoughts on the long run which is what I did today click on the box on the right all right love you guys thanks for being here thanks for watching seek beauty work hard and love each other see you tomorrow