Why coaches emphasise Time on Your Feet for Runners: Benefits Beyond Mileage

Running coaches often emphasize time on your feet more than just the number of miles covered. While mileage is a straightforward measure of training volume, the actual time spent running offers deeper benefits that contribute to a runner’s overall performance, injury prevention, and mental toughness. Understanding why time on your feet matters can help runners train smarter and achieve better results.

Runner’s legs and feet on a road during early rainy morning

Why Time on Your Feet Matters More Than Mileage

Mileage counts the distance you cover, but it doesn’t capture how long your body stays active and adapts to running stress. Time on your feet reflects the duration your muscles, tendons, and cardiovascular system are engaged. This engagement builds endurance, strengthens connective tissues, and improves running economy.

For example, two runners might both run 10 miles, but one completes it in 60 minutes while the other takes 90 minutes. The runner spending 90 minutes on their feet gains more from the prolonged stimulus, even though the distance is the same. This longer duration helps the body adapt to sustained effort, which is crucial for long-distance events.

Emphasising time on your feet and not distance covered is not just about running longer but also running at an easy enough pace to ensure you are stimulating your aerobic system fully and not going anaerobic.

Physical Benefits of Increasing Time on Your Feet

1. Builds Muscular Endurance and Strength

The repetitive load on muscles and joints over a long period signals to the body to make muscles, tendons and ligaments more resilient. The  result is more muscle endurance, less muscle and joint soreness and increased resistance to cramp.

This endurance is essential for maintaining good running form late in races or long training sessions.

When we start going over 2 hours, the fatiguing of our slow twitch muscles leads to greater recruitment of fast twitch fibers giving an even bigger endurance and speed adaptation.

2. Strengthens Tendons and Ligaments

Tendons and ligaments adapt slowly to stress. Time on your feet provides the gradual loading needed to increase their strength and resilience.

3. Enhances Cardiovascular Efficiency

The heart muscle becomes bigger and stronger so it is able to pump more 

oxygen rich blood with each stroke, your lungs become more efficient and blood circulation in general improves. 

The capillary beds (which transport oxygen) in the muscles are expanded and new ones are created.

Oxygen is important for aerobic energy production in the muscles, therefore greater oxygen delivery = faster for longer.

4. MORE Energy producing capacity

Mitochondria are the energy factories in our muscle cells. Therefore the more mitochondria we have, the more energy can be produced during exercise = faster for longer. Add to this increased oxygen present to produce energy and BOOM, you have nuclear muscle performance!

Mental and Psychological Advantages

Running for long periods at a low intensity fatigues the brain more than short high intensity bouts. In the same way that muscles adapt to resist fatigue, long periods of continuous low intensity running cause the areas of the brain that aid resistance to fatigue also undergo adaptations. This adaptation is far greater than what is seen with short high intensity training where brain fatigue is not as high.

This is why the more we run long and slow, the longer we are able to go before we even think of stopping and the easier it becomes to resist that desire.

How Coaches Use Time on Feet to Structure Training

Good coaches prioritize time on feet because it offers a clearer picture of training load and recovery needs. They often prescribe runs based on duration rather than distance, especially for easy or recovery days.

When the goal for the day is distance, most of us, at some point will start pushing to get the distance done. Using time as the goal, it is easier to keep the effort easy, and this approach helps runners avoid overtraining and injury.

Tips to Increase Time on Your Feet Safely

• Start with manageable durations and increase time gradually by about 5-10% per week.

• Keep the pace chatty to avoid excessive fatigue.

• Incorporate varied terrain to strengthen different muscles and reduce repetitive stress.

• Listen to your body and rest if you feel persistent pain or unusual fatigue.