ya man, if you've noticed I even break up my longer runs alot lately.. imho, it's safer. So instead of 10 miles non stop, breaking it up various ways gives you the same work but perhaps less overuse, ie: (these don't add up exactly)
- 4 x 2 miles with 0.5 walk in between
- 3 x 3 miles with 0.5 walk in between
- 9 x 1 miles with 0.25 walk in between
so the point here is, even for me 5 miles non-stop can create more fatigue than if I split that up. If i'm feeling a bit wrecked, I definitely feel it takes it's toll. Walking in between sets (diced up) feels really good to me. Also feels more natural tbh.
So for you, cutting it back to 3 seems like a smart move, but you can also experiment with something like this eventually:
- 3 miles run, 1 mile walk, 1 mile run
- 3 x 1.5 mile run, light 0.5 mi walk in between each set
etc.. so if you wanted to get that 5 miles worth of work in on some days, don't be afraid of splitting/dicing it up is all i'm saying.. work is work, it has a slightly different training effect when you slice it up but it could be a little safer by allowing for some recovery etc.
peace!