The Best Exercises To Improve Endurance While Running

The best exercise for endurance while running is the act of running. One of the wonderful, simple things about running is being able to lace up a pair of running shoes, and head out the door for a run. Having the desire to run successfully for longer and longer periods of time takes a little more structure and training. Lacing up the running shoes is the easy part, following a set of endurance training principles is the hard part, but one that yields productive results.

Build a Training Base

Before runners can hit the road and run for long durations, they have to build a solid foundation or training base. As Dr. Jack Daniels says in "Daniels' Running Formula", a runner establishing a base needs to subject the body to low-intensity stress to prepare it for higher quality training. He states that the logical base-builder starting point for a distance runner is the amount of mileage run per week. Beginning runners may run 15 miles per week, and over the course of many weeks and months build up to 40 or 50 miles, depending on their endurance goals. Experienced runners may hit as high as 80-120 miles per week, but only after years of running base-building mileage.

Submaximal-Endurance Training

In what Dr. Tim Noakes in "Lore of Running" calls Submaximal or Endurance Training, he points out that the runner's body makes metabolic adaptations. The goal is to increase maximum oxygen uptake or VO2 max, increase the ability to store complex carbohydrates or glycogen as fuel, and burn fat quicker--all without letting the muscles accumulate lactate acid that can cause sore muscles. All of these elements are key factors in successful endurance running, and they're achieved with slow but sure increases in weekly running mileage that's still in the low-intensity range.

Tempo and Interval Training

After the runner has established a solid weekly mileage base, Dr. Daniels recommends doing tempo and interval workouts to increase speed and performance. Daniels describes tempo runs as running at a comfortably hard, steady pace for a 20-minute duration during the middle of a daily run. Interval runs, he says, are much more demanding and should be performed for a minimum of 30 seconds but not for more than five minutes each. This time restriction is because they are run at or near VO2 Max or maximum effort. Any more than this will lead to decreasing returns in performance and possible injury. These workouts teach the body to deal with longer durations of hard effort running at race-intensity levels, and are the icing on the cake of endurance training.