Is the 10% rule for max increase in weekly mileage BS or a good guide?

probably BS, but if you are the type of person who will run yourself into the ground, maybe it helps to have an arbitrary rule that stops you from hurting yourself.

Just Curious2kno wrote:

What do you think?

Depends. If you've never been there before, 10% per week is smart.

If you've been into a certain mileage before and just took a short time out, I would listen to your body and get back up quicker than that.

(Calculate how many weeks it would take to get up to 100mpw after taking few weeks' recovery!)

It's a good general guide. You may be able to handle more than a 10% jump, but sometimes it's good to be more cautious. Just listen to your body, it'll tell you soon enough if you are running too many miles.

There is no max rule. 10% is probably a safe cautious approach but every runner is different. I'm in my 50's and just coming off a year off with no running due to injury. I recently bumped up my weekly mileage from 30 to 40 mpw. That's a 25% increase in one week. I didn't die and I didn't turn into a pumpkin. Nor did I even feel a hint of discomfort. But yes, 10% is probably a good guide for most.

30 to 40 MPW is an increase of 33.3333333333%, but glad to hear you didn't turn into a pumpkin!

Per Daniels,

He says go up the same number of training sessions you have per week (every 3rd week that is). So if you train 6 days a week, go up 6 miles. If you train 8 times a week, go up 8 miles. For a max of 10 miles.

However, if you read his chapter on XC. He specifically says, (during base), go up 10 miles every 3rd week, without any other specifications.

(/daniels)

I've also heard go up 1-5 miles per week depending on what your body says.

But really, it's whatever you're comfortable with.

I've gone up as much as 50% (45->90) without getting hurt. It really seems like things other than mileage lead to injury.

If you are coming off the couch or have little or no training base then, yes it is wise. If you are trained and going through differing training phases then, no.

Mover wrote:

Per Daniels,

He says go up the same number of training sessions you have per week (every 3rd week that is). So if you train 6 days a week, go up 6 miles. If you train 8 times a week, go up 8 miles. For a max of 10 miles.

However, if you read his chapter on XC. He specifically says, (during base), go up 10 miles every 3rd week, without any other specifications.

(/daniels)

I've also heard go up 1-5 miles per week depending on what your body says.

But really, it's whatever you're comfortable with.

I've also heard Daniels say it is OK to make bigger jumps, but to give your body 3 weeks or so to adjust before making another big jump. Kinda what you said but he didn't mention number of workouts a week. They had this on a Flotrack interview with him. If I can find it I will post it.

Basically, don't do more than your body can handle. This will be different for everyone. I think the 10% rule was written for the crowds of newer middle aged runners.

That's a 100% increase

I've also heard Daniels say it is OK to make bigger jumps, but to give your body 3 weeks or so to adjust before making another big jump. Kinda what you said but he didn't mention number of workouts a week. They had this on a Flotrack interview with him. If I can find it I will post it.

___

This is a good answer - I think Daniels said something like 'the 10% rule just shows you the maximum weekly miles you can run before you get hurt'

in other words, he suggested doing a big up week or two, then a down week to rest. So a progression might be 40-55-55-35

or something like that.

You could never start running in the first place if you followed this rule. At some point in your life, you ran zero miles per week. Going from zero miles to any positive number of miles is an increase of infinity percent.

The problem is that people react so differently to training. Some adapt faster than others.

If you do the math (and let's leave aside the 0 issue above),if you increase mileage by 10% each week, you will double your mileage in a mere 8 weeks.

Total BS.

Toshtastic wrote:

30 to 40 MPW is an increase of 33.3333333333%, but glad to hear you didn't turn into a pumpkin!

Moron alert!!!!!

Next! wrote:

There is no max rule. 10% is probably a safe cautious approach but every runner is different. I'm in my 50's and just coming off a year off with no running due to injury. I recently bumped up my weekly mileage from 30 to 40 mpw. That's a 25% increase in one week. I didn't die and I didn't turn into a pumpkin. Nor did I even feel a hint of discomfort. But yes, 10% is probably a good guide for most.

What is a pumpkin?

Bump

Been a while since I read daniels, but I remember the three week waiting period being related to increasing vdot intensity, not mileage.

I call BS on the 10% rule, which allows you to increase from 100 to 318 mpw in a mere 12 weeks. Think you could survive this conservative ramp up?.:.

100

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133

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288

318

Vdot wrote:

Been a while since I read daniels, but I remember the three week waiting period being related to increasing vdot intensity, not mileage.

I happen to have Daniels' Running Formula 2nd in front of me.

"Stick with my recommendation not to increase weekly mileage more often than every 3rd week." ~pg 75

"Stay with a set amount of mileage for at least three weeks before increasing your mileage. This gives your body a chance to adjust to and benefit from a particular load before moving on to a more demanding one. When it comes times to increase your mileage, add to your weekly total as many miles as the number of training sessions you're doing each week, up to a maximum of a 10-mile total adjustment." ~pg 92

"Increase mileage every third week by 7 to 10 miles (40 to 60 minutes)" ~pg. 230 (chapter on cross country)

... question is... Does anyone here actually follow the 3 week rule?