Building cardio & endurance

Jogging for endurance.

You need both

I heard from a Peloton instructor, and he was citing some study I can't remember now, but you have to have been moving about 15 minutes or so before you start to see cardiovascular improvements. The rule of thumb was at least a half hour 3 times a week to actually see measurable benefits. So if you're only doing a half hour 3 times a week, that is about 45 minutes of warming up time, and 45 minutes of actual cardio benefits. Slowly increase that to 45 minutes per session, and now you've got 45 minutes of warming up time, and 90 minutes benefitting your cardiovascular health. Don't want to get too long and drawn out here, but jogging and increasing mileage/time will benefit your stamina more, which can then be used to sustain higher efforts for longer. If you just run 3 miles 3 times a week at a steady pace, your body will get really good at doing that, but not have top end speed. Sprinkle in sprint workouts 1-2x a week for that benefit.

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What about the 20 minutes it takes for my heart rate to come back down after a run? Do I get credit for that?

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Recovery heart rate is generally an indicator of fitness.

Yeah it's more cooling down than heart rate I guess. I'm basically all set within 10 minutes after a run in the winter. Hotness sucks for longer, but I think I'm still burning calories trying to cool down.