How much running is enough? Here's how to keep on going...

It's a lot less than you might think, according to legendary Boston area coach Billy Squires. But you have to do enough to break through to a decent level of fitness.

When that happens, you will find yourself running like "a kite in the wind", he says in his book Speed with Endurance, co-written with Bruce Lehane.

To establish fitness, they say: "You have to work your way up to covering six miles per day on average six days a week." Now this will sound like nothing to some people here, and a lot to others. Whatever: it is do-able, isn't it? Squires and Lehane virtually guarantee that if you do this minimum, you will lift yourself beyond the ranks of "recreational running" and be able to produce "lower" levels of performance.

Adaptable to ANY training goals you are trying to achieve, their words are going up on my bathroom wall with my other inspirational quotes. (Why the bathroom? It's my "arming" room where I prepare for training and racing.) Here's what's going up:

"Initially, the extra energy that you expend to cover the extra miles will leave you tired. You'll feel yourself struggling. Don't lose heart. Struggle with it the best you can. At times, it will definitely feel like a grind. On some runs you may have to walk for a while. But get back to completing the distance as soon as you are able.

"If you persevere you will find, as the third week ends, strength gathering within you. You will find that your body will be adjusting to the increased workload -- that you will be feeling better on your runs now than you ever did when you were running less.

"You will find that by the end of the sixth week that you can reliably plan on feeling good on any run you undertake. At that point, you will have reached a liberating stage of fitness, where you run feeling good -- where you will feel like a kite upon the wind."

Quality or quantity?
This feeds into our ongoing discussion, so I've added more insights from Squires and Lehane about running "like a kite in the wind" here.

* From "Speed with Endurance" by Bill Squires and Bruce Lehane. (Self-published: available online here.)