how to increase mileage

Yes Malmo is correct. You can reduce your effort to go from 40 to 80 but even on the reduced effort you will find yourself going faster on less effort.

My Buddy Soup Nazi is correct also. Foget all the pussy foot Runners World "Scientific approach" to increasing mileage. Lydiard says you can and should take a sedentary couch potatoe with zero training background and have him running 100 miles per week in 9 weeks.

I have read 4 of Lydiard's books and here is my summary of how Lydiard says to increase mileage.

Phase 1 ? Accent to Peak Mileage

For this phase Lydiard recommends ascending to peak mileage fairly rapidly, about 9 weeks. This is contrary to what many others say. Others say you should go much more gradually and many in fact say you should take years. Lydiard says this is unnecessary and will greatly delay your development. Lydiard found from experimentation on himself that it is possible to do this if you alternate short runs with longer runs. Lydiard does caution that when you ascend rapidly that the tendons around the knees and in the front shins can get sore and you may have to ice them after every run for a few weeks until they grow stronger but there is no need to stop running. Lydiard says to also expect muscle soreness but don?t take days off, just run slower if you have to and the soreness will gradually subside. During the accent, Lydiard recommends you run very easily and slowly at all times. The main purpose is to get to peak mileage as soon as possible and to not even think about aerobic or tempo runs at this time. The table below can be used to ascend to peak mileage.

Lydiard Buildup Program to build to peak mileage from scratch in 9 weeks

week # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

M 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 10
TU 2 3 5 6 7 8 10 12 15
W 2 4 6 9 11 14 15 18 18
TH 1 3 4 5 7 8 9 10 13
F 1 2 4 5 6 7 9 10 11
SA 3 6 8 11 14 17 20 22 22
SU 1 2 4 5 6 7 7 10 11

Week 11 22 34 45 56 66 78 90 100
total

Experiment of One

I tried the Lydiard 9 week assent in 2002. Keep in mind I have no talent, I was old (41) and overweight (185) when I started back from a long layoff. The first day I ran one mile in 7:55 and it hurt. I followed the above chart to the letter. I will admit is is daunting when you start out. You can't think about what you are going to do the next week or you will get scared. You just have to think about today's run. I remember in week 3 tuesday running a 5 mile run. I felt like crap and I averaged 7:35 pace. I wasn't sure if I could complete the run. I got home and looked at the chart and said "how the hell am I going to run 14 miles two weeks from now". Well I did and I ran it in about 7:20 pace. By week 8 I ran the weds 18 miler in 7:01 pace and it felt effortless. Lydiard is right, you can increase rapidly to 100 miles per week and as Malmo points out, you will actually be going faster with less effort.

If you want to see my summary of the rest of Lydiard's training phases, I will send it to you.