Marathon Training in mid to late 30's? Do you still hit the big mileage?

Bump in case someone wants to talk about something other then German and Obama.

I don't have any specific recommendations, but as you get older you should expect to reduce your mileage. If you're focusing on the marathon, there's no shame in cutting back to more moderate mileage - say in the 170-190 mpw range. The extra rest will only do you good.

Go to Kenyanway.com and look at the archives for Sean Wade's blog. He ran a 2:20 at age 40 to qualify for the US trials by running about 80 mpw. Constantina Dita Tomescu said that she doesn't do the big mileage anymore at 38. But mid 30s is peak marathoning age. Haile G, Paul Tergat, Jaouad Gharib have run their best times and most competitive marathons in their mid thirties. So, maybe pushing 40 is time to drop the big mileage, but you might miss out on your best times if you cut back on the miles in your mid thirties.

I'll be 35 tomorrow and my last two years mileage has helped me to a 6 min Marathon PR 2:33.08, and last summer a 10k PR of 31:25. Both years I was hittig around 100MPW in two-a-days. Last summer half of my runs were pushing a jog stroller. Got to where it really didn't make much difference. I want to run a marathon this fall and my goal is to run 80-100 MPW with a peak of 110-115.

In Keith Livingstone's "Healthy Intelligent Training" there's a story from Chris Pilone, a one time 2:16 guy and currently coach of hamish Carter who won gold in the triathlon in the Athens Olympics.

Chris did very big miles as he was working his way to the 2:16. Eventually he thinks he overdid and was struggling. But at one point in his late 30s he ran 2:28 or 2:29 at Rotorua, which is "worth" a faster time on most other courses. He writes that his weekly routine was a good two hourish run at the weekends and a hill session. Pretty much every other day was a 30-40 minute easy run. He wrote that he didn't know how many miles he was doing each week but that it wasn't "a hell of a lot."

It all comes down to stress and recovery. The more you do the better you'll be until you reach the point where you're doing so much that you're not recovering.

On the other hand, John Campbell was going into the neighborhood of 140 or so in his late 30s and early 40sa nd got 2:11 out of it. If you can do big miles and recover you'll run faster.

I've maintained my marathon race times by replacing some of the mileage with more MP runs.

Here is my log. It has been pretty much the same over the last 7 years.

Monday - a 20 miler to get the week started off right.

Tuesday to Sunday - 12 miles a day usually with some faster stuff on Thrusday (800s and miles) and Saturday (5 to 15 miles at marathon pace).

41 years old

6 marathons in 2008

Best was 2:33

Average was 2:35

And of course, all my miles were on concrete.

What kind of results have you gotten?

I was not elite but this is a subject that I could write about forever even though it all happened 35 years ago. I began running marathons at age 25 (which was considered a little too young by some at the time) and ran just under 2:32. I continued to run the same times (under 2:36)) until I was well into my 39th year. During the first few years I averaged less than 55 miles a week with no long runs. The training was all interval training on a dirt track and geared for track racing. At age 29 I did 120 miles a week of interval training all on grass for a year or so and ran a few minutes over my best. As I slipped into my 30s I gradually found myself going 55 to 75 miles a week of just plain running on grass with long runs on the roads on the weekends. For speed I raced many weeknds. I ran as I felt. I sometimes surged and do fartlec. From the very beginning I often took a day off and as I moved into my 30s I sometimes took 2 days off a week. I was lucky to run at a time when I could run to win and did so but as I aged I just loved to run and race. It was all great fun. Some of my training is posted on various threads on this web site. If you are not a professional runner just do what you enjoy, listen to your body and have a good time. It's a great hobby!

I was running 100-130 mpw from late 20s to early 30s. Finally retired from serious, competitive running and training at 31 due to job and family pressures; so I can't really talk about the 35-40 age range; but at 30, I had no trouble with the mileage. In fact, if I had to do it over again, as I got older, toward retirement, I think I would do more quality and less mileage; to get a better racing result.

All my marathons are in the 2:28-2:43 range. The 2:43 time came from a completely disasterous race.

Thanks guys. I guess my question is not so much of can you hit big mileage in the mid to late 30s as much as it is do you need to? If you have hit the mileage for years do you still get anything out of it by still doing it? Or does it become counterproductive?

Anyone in the low 2:20s or faster willing to answer or anyone have more examples?

HRE wrote:

On the other hand, John Campbell was going into the neighborhood of 140 or so in his late 30s and early 40sa nd got 2:11 out of it. If you can do big miles and recover you'll run faster.

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John Campbell was a monster. He actually went on a group run of 8 hours every Saturday!!

8 Hours! He said his wife would drive to a cabin where the group would run to. They would spend the night, eat large, and drive back the next day.

Even if he ran 8 min miles, that's 64 miles right there.

Mid 30s wrote:

Thanks guys. I guess my question is not so much of can you hit big mileage in the mid to late 30s as much as it is do you need to? If you have hit the mileage for years do you still get anything out of it by still doing it? Or does it become counterproductive?

yes. me. in retrospect, i think i would lower the mileage from 110-130 to 90-100 and not run so many 'junk miles'; more quality, faster workouts. i think i could have run faster towards the end of my career.

Anyone in the low 2:20s or faster willing to answer or anyone have more examples?

What are your goals?

Do you think you still have some PR years ahead of you?

You may have to work harder just to maintain.

Don Kardong said some people like round numbers when trying to run 100 miles in a week, he reminded people that 88 miles is much rounder.

If you want to stay above 100mpw, follow JK and Wejo's lead and just slow it down a bit on the pace. Yes, that means more hours spent in training.

I am one of the cursed ones. You know, the guy good enough to make nationals in college but finish second to last? The guy who sneaks into the final but gets stompped...

That said I had been running strong for a number of years. 17 to be exact. Then the high mileage started taking its toll. I can no longer go out and hit 100 mpw but I do hit 70-ish once in a while and the endurace has stuck with me. It took about 4-5 years until noticed that I started losing my speed. But that could also be because I get injured a lot easier now days too. A track workout takes 2-3 days to recover from...

Oh the good old days!

Are you still near your best times?

You are what you trained the last years. You can probably get away with a 30-50% mileage cut if you increase the intensity for 1-2 years until you start declining. If you need to do less miles due to being injury prone, do strength training and cycling. if you do the right strength training, you won't gain unwanted body mass.

if you cut the mileage due to time constraints you will have to watch your diet very, very carefully. the older you get the less you can eat anyway due to a slower metabolism. don't kid yourself and downplay the first lbs you gain. more weight=more injury risk (and sure enough slower times).