Mileage Increase

The general rule is that you are not supposed to increase your mileage more then 10% at a time from week to week when you are starting out.

I am starting out, yes I have run in the past but post baby I am back at square one. My first week of the streak I just wanted to see how far I could go in 20-25 minutes a day. I did a little over 9 miles. I decided the next week I would shoot for 10 miles, and I just barley made it at 10.01. I wasn't focusing on the mileage at that point. For week 3, I went up to 11 miles following the 10% guideline. So far, I am on track to make my goal but I have to stay on top of it and not get lazy.

Yes, I know its 20-25 minutes a day of running how can I get lazy? Well, that is easy I can walk. Especially when my garage is HOT!   I was looking for tips to determine how much I should increase each week and found some good ones on Best Running Tips. Some of the tips I really agreed with, besides the obvious of listen to your body are:

• Increase the length of half of your runs Do not increase the length of all your runs at once. Instead, increase the length of about half of your runs. When you do four workouts per week, then increase the length of only two of your runs. When you run three times a week, increase the length of every second run.
• Increase with only one mile at a time Be cautious with adding too many miles to one

These are two rules I am going to implement next week. This week, I figured if I just ran a minimum of 1.5 miles every day I would be fine. Because I am sllllooooooww that means running everyday and a few days going over 1.5 miles. I think next week, I will increase by 1 mile, but then work out a schedule for the mileage. Making 3 days longer days.  I will see how that works as I continue my streak and improve my running.

Do you follow any rule when you increase mileage?