As a running coach, one of the most common questions my beginner and competitive runners alike pose is, “How often should I run?”
Knowing how many days a week you should run will help you plan your time and choose a training program that works in your schedule while helping you achieve your running goals.
Although there isn’t a single answer, examining where you fall along the continuum of the various factors that influence your ideal running frequency makes it possible to understand how many days a week you should be running. The answer can range from 2 to 6 depending on your current situation.
In this guide, we will examine the factors that determine how often you should run to meet your fitness goals and individual needs so you can optimize your training schedule and get started right away.
Factors That Affect How Often You Should Run
You want to run as many days a week as necessary to reach your goals while simultaneously running as few days a week to reduce the risk of injury and maximize your time.
However, while it is a key question to consider when structuring your running schedule, it is not easy to answer because there are many factors to consider.
The most important factors to consider when determining your training frequency are:
#1: Your Running Goals
Your running goals will largely determine how often you should run.
Ultimately, the question needs to be fleshed out: “How often should I run if I want to ___?”
The blank is the placeholder for your main goal.
- How often should I run to finish my first 5K?
- How many times a week should I run if I’m training for a marathon?
- How often should I run for weight loss?
- How long should I run if I’m trying to improve my health and well-being and reduce my disease risk?
- How long should I run if I’m trying to get a 10K PR?
The list of hypothetical questions goes on and on, but the above examples demonstrate that it helps to be as specific as possible with your goals when determining how many days a week you should run.
Someone training for a marathon will likely need to run more often than someone working towards his or her first 5K.
The guidelines for the amount of exercise you should be doing for health are probably inadequate if you’re trying to train for a big race or want to lose a significant amount of weight.
We will consider specific answers to how often you should run for various goals later on.
#2: Your Fitness Level
Your current fitness level must also be considered when determining how often you should run.
If you have been sedentary for a while, whether injured, sick, or simply not training, you won’t be able to run as many days per week if you had been active.
It would be best if you didn’t jump from little to no running to running 5-6 days a week.
Start with 2-3 days per week, taking off every other day, to give your bones, muscles, joints, and connective tissues adequate time to recover between runs while your body makes the necessary adaptations to the stressors of running.
You can consider doing low-impact cross-training on your “off” days to continue to build strength and improve aerobic capacity without the impact.
#3: Your Experience Level
If you’ve been running for years, your body can handle running more frequently than if you’re new to the sport.
Interestingly, although your experience level is often conflated with your current overall fitness level, they are not actually the same thing.
Someone might be running for the first time but very fit because they cycle or participate in another type of cardio workout nearly every day of the week.
However, even if they are aerobically as fit as a more experienced runner, the new runner will still want to take a more measured approach to transition to running, only running three days per week as a starting point.
Again, because running is a particularly high-impact activity, it takes the musculoskeletal system time to adapt to the stresses of your workouts.
#4: Your Injury History and Overall Health
Some people are more injury-prone than others, particularly if they have biomechanical abnormalities or poor running form.
If you’re someone who often gets injured or has a history of overuse injuries like stress fractures, IT band syndrome, runner’s knee, or plantar fasciitis, it’s a good idea to run fewer days per week than you might otherwise.
Here again, supplementing with low-impact cross-training, like cycling, rowing, swimming, or deep-water running, can greatly increase your training volume without increasing your injury risk.
#5: The Distance and Intensity of Your Runs
In fitness training, there’s a principle known as the FITT principle, which stands for Frequency, Intensity, Time, and Type.
The FITT principle basically takes into account the various factors that constitute your training plan. Each of the four factors must be considered as a complete picture.
- Frequency is what we are discussing here: How often should you run?
- Intensity refers to how vigorous your workouts are. Are you just doing moderate-intensity distance runs every day, or are you also doing speed workouts such as tempo runs?
- Time is the duration or distance of your workouts. How far or how long are you running?
- Type refers to the type of exercise, which, in this case, is running. However, it’s also important to consider what other types of exercise you do during the week (cross-training, strength training, etc.).
To determine the frequency—or how often you should run—you must consider the other FITT principle components.
The longer you are running per day, the fewer days you may need to run (or should run), depending on your goals.
For example, if you’re training for a competitive 10K time and running at least an hour a day, you might only need to run 4-5 days per week, but if you only have time to run 30-45 minutes most days, you should probably run 5-6 days per week.
Regarding type, if you’re supplementing with cross-training exercise, you should run fewer days per week because you’re getting in enough training.
On the other hand, if you are strength training, you might be able to get away with running more often (if you want to!) because you’re reducing your injury risk.
#6: What Other Types Of Exercise You Do
As just mentioned, your running workouts and weekly mileage need to be considered in the context of the rest of your training plan.
#7: Your Health Status
If you have acute or chronic disease, musculoskeletal injury, or contraindications to vigorous physical activity, your running frequency might be affected.
#8: Your Age
Although there are plenty of exceptions, our bodies become more prone to injury and fatigue as we age, so it takes longer to recover from workouts.
Senior runners may want to run fewer days per week than younger runners but add in more strength training sessions to compensate and build muscle.
Even with the non-exhaustive list of factors above, it’s clear that determining how often you should run is best answered on a case-by-case basis, but let’s make some general guidelines:
How Many Days A Week Should I Run As A Beginner?
As an experienced running coach, I prescribe 2-3 days a week for the first week or two and then 3-4 days per week for my beginner runners. At least one day of complete rest is included in the program, and optional cross-training is included on the other days.
The duration of your initial run/walk sessions should be 20-30 minutes, increasing the percentage of time spent running in subsequent workouts.
If you’re already fit from other types of exercise, you can probably increase the duration of the workouts and handle four days per week more quickly into your foray into running.
How Often Should I Run To Improve My Health?
In terms of how often you should run to improve your health, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services‘1U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2018). Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans 2nd edition. In health.gov (pp. 1–118). https://health.gov/sites/default/files/2019-09/Physical_Activity_Guidelines_2nd_edition.pdf recommendations are for adults to be active on most days of the week and to accrue a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise per week.
These guidelines can be thought of as running at an easy pace for 30 minutes five days per week or running more intensely for 25 minutes three days per week, but you can certainly divide it up differently as well.
What Is The Recommended Frequency For Running To Lose Weight?
To lose one pound of stored body fat, you must create a caloric deficit of roughly 3,500 calories, equating to 500 calories per day.
You can generate this caloric deficit by consuming fewer calories, burning more calories, or a combination of both.
Like all forms of exercise, running factors into the calories you burn side of the equation, and running has indeed been shown to be an effective means of losing weight.2WILLIAMS, P. T. (2013). Greater Weight Loss from Running than Walking during a 6.2-yr Prospective Follow-up. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 45(4), 706–713. https://doi.org/10.1249/mss.0b013e31827b0d0a
The number of calories you burn running depends on your body size and composition, pace, and how long you run.
If you’re trying to lose one pound per week only through exercise, you might aim to run five days a week, burning 700 calories per run, or six days a week, burning 600 calories per run.
You can estimate the number of calories you burn running by wearing a heart rate monitor or using a calorie calculator.
How Often Should I Run To Improve My Speed?
Most of my non-elite runners run five to six days a week. In general, a rest day is important to reduce injury risk, but more experienced or advanced runners may run every day or at least cross-train on all non-running days.
In terms of getting faster, your total running volume—that is, how long your runs are and whether you are doing high-quality workouts (intervals, hill repeats, threshold runs, long runs, etc.)—is more important than simply how often you run.
80% of your weekly running should be run at an easy pace, and 20% should be fast running to improve your speed, such as intervals and threshold workouts.
Cross-training on non-running days will help augment training benefits. The more variety you have in your training, the better.
Deciding how often you should run is a personal decision based on your fitness level, goals, running experience level, and body.
Remember, some running is always better than nothing, but too much of a “good” thing can actually be harmful as it could lead to overtraining syndrome.
Striking the right balance and finding that sweet spot involves considering the complex interplay of the different factors surrounding your personal situation, and is likely to constantly evolve as your circumstances change.
Working with a running coach who can craft a plan specifically for you can also be extremely helpful.
If you need a training plan for more guidance, check out our training resources.
