What are junk miles?

Last week: 24 total miles
Saturday: 9 miles

The past month, I've been running pretty steadily — 5 miles, 6 miles, nothing over 10, no speed or tempo — with the plan to keep running while getting over a pulled hamstring. I'm averaging about 25 miles a week.

The term junk miles popped into my head.

Am I running junk miles?

Of course, I googled junk miles and found two articles, one from active.com and the other from competitor.com.

Cut out the junk miles to get faster and stronger

What are junk miles? Junk miles are the ones you run that don't produce a specific physiological benefit. - active.com

Is there a such thing as junk miles?

Runners who use the term “junk miles” tend to subscribe to the high-mileage philosophy of training. They believe that a high training volume is the most important characteristic of an effective training program. “The more miles you run, the better”—within reason—is their motto.  By contrast, runners who use the term “junk miles” negatively typically subscribe to a quality-over-quantity philosophy.  They believe that fast-paced running should be the first priority in training, and that the point of diminishing returns in mileage is reached much sooner than high-volume advocates believe it is.

Evidence from the real world also does not clearly favor either the quality-first or the quantity-first philosophy. - competitor.com

Interesting.

I'm running to stay in shape. I'll bump up the pace, but not until it won't be a set back for my pulled hamstring. At this time, I'm not training for a specific goal, so in my case, no, I'm not running junk miles.

I'm thankful just to be running!