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From Fellrnr.com, Running tips
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There are arguments against the 'Toxic Miles' philosophy.
* '''Clearing the Head''' Running has mental benefits beyond 'mental toughness', including a time of peace, freedom, and meditation. (See [[Stillness in Motion]].)
* '''Calorie Burn''' The benefit of extra running for [[Weight Loss|weight loss ]] is less clear. The extra calorie burn is likely to be fairly small, but the exercise may improve the [[Muscle|muscle]]'s sensitivity to insulin. See [[Nutrient Timing]]. Doing cross training may be more beneficial however.
* '''Base Miles to Support Quality''' There is a belief that to perform quality training, you need to do slower miles so 'support' the speedwork. While I can see the value in building up endurance before embarking on speedwork, I have found no evidence to support the idea that doing slow running between speedwork sessions is useful.
* '''Base Miles to Support [[Long Run|Long Runs]]''' There a similar belief that to perform long runs, you need slower miles as 'support'. I have seen no evidence to support this idea.
* '''Long Term Fatigue''' It is possible to do several shorter runs where the fatigue builds up to mimic the fatigue of a longer run. For instance, it's not uncommon for ultrarunners to do several ~20 mile runs with insufficient recovery instead of one longer run. This can work well, but there needs to also be a longer period of recovery to allow [[Supercompensation]].
== See Also ==
