How bad should I feel after upping mileage?

It's normal to be tired. Back it down to 60. Take a day off and then move it back up. Make sure you are going very easy on your easy days.

You should never feel bad. Feeling bad means you're doing too much.

Given that progression, you should feel a bit stiff and slow on most days. Like you're forcing it. As someone else has said, back off and get some rest. Letting your body rebuild during a short "break" will let you come back stronger.

I'd say bring it down to 60 and take Sundays off. Upping mileage is good, but not at the expense of quality. You should only up volume as intensity remains constant.

Also, worth noting that now that you have done a few 70-75 mile weeks, you will be able to better handle them in your next base phase. For example, first time I did 60+ mpw I only held it for about 4 weeks and it was hard and I was constantly tired, then dropped it down a bunch for track season, then that summer I was back at 60 mpw and it felt normal and I managed to hold 60+ for over 3 months and it lead to some big breakthroughs.

I guess what I'm saying is that mileage progression doesn't have to be linear.

Thanks for all the quick responses.

Taking everybody's suggestions into consideration I went out for an 8 mile run today, but could only muster up the energy for a very slow 6.

I have a tough ladder workout tomorrow. Hopefully I can get through that and hit my goal splits.

How long after backing off should I start to feel normal again and feel the strength coming back? Will it be pretty immediate like at the end of my down week or will it not be noticeable for awhile?

A few days.

As to how long after backing off before you feel normal: it depends how much you burned yourself out. It could be as little as a week or as long as never (until you take a time off to recover). Time will tell, but hopefully it is the former.

If you are feeling so off that you really couldn't get through 8 miles today when you have been knocking out 75 mile weeks, that is pretty bad. You might want to make sure there is nothing else going on, such as an infection, virus, seasonal affective disorder, dietary issues, anemia, etc.

What kind of quality workouts have you been doing during this buildup? And, how do they compare (intensity & volume) to what you were doing prior to the buildup in the last cycle?

Maybe it's just me, but I never expect to build significant mileage while I'm doing serious quality workouts. Sure, I'll often (not always) keep some faster running in, but the workouts themselves are much less demanding. Then, when I'm getting late base-phase and early fundamental phase I can ramp up the quality more since I've adapted to the mileage increase by then. Esentially, I am trying to "make room" for the additional mileage.

Have you done anything like this?

Laktik wrote:

Thanks for all the quick responses.

Taking everybody's suggestions into consideration I went out for an 8 mile run today, but could only muster up the energy for a very slow 6.

I have a tough ladder workout tomorrow. Hopefully I can get through that and hit my goal splits.

How long after backing off should I start to feel normal again and feel the strength coming back? Will it be pretty immediate like at the end of my down week or will it not be noticeable for awhile?

How's your diet? That's probably the issue here.

1/11- 8 mile tempo at 5:47 pace + Fartlek

1/18- Fartlek + 15 mile long run 6:42 pace

1/25- 4x2mile tempo at 5:40 + 8x1k at 3:08 + 16 long run 6:38

2/2- 6x2k tempo 6:57 average + pace HM at 6:05 pace

2/8- 5xmile @5:11 + 17 long run 6:56

2/16- 4x2mile tempo 5:20 + 10x800 @2:20 **Started Feeling Bad

2/22- (Hills +2 mile tempo at 5:35) + 6x2k @7:03 + 17 at 6:48

Workouts during my xc season felt controlled and I generally felt like I could do a little bit more at the end of the day. My mileage at that time was maybe 60 at its peak. Compared to xc, we are doing much more tempo volume.

My coach is very hands off and doesn't communicate workout paces/weekly mileage. So often, I am coaching myself.

My diet hasn't changed that much. I eat fast food on occasion after a long run but I eat relatively healthy throughout the week. I get 8-9 hours of sleep a night.

I went to the doctors about two months ago to check my iron levels etc. and the doctor said it looked fine.

When you ask about my diet are you asking about my caloric intake or the nutritional value of what I am eating?

Laktik wrote:

When you ask about my diet are you asking about my caloric intake or the nutritional value of what I am eating?

Both. Calories are nutritional value. You mean "vitamins and minerals".

There's nothing automatically unhealthy or bad about fast foods. So saying you do or do not eat them is meaningless. Are you getting enough calories, protein, carbs, vitamins, and minerals? That's what eating healthy is about.

So just talking about calories, protein, and carbs. How much are you getting? Enough? You actually have to calculate this. You can't just say "yeah I eat healthy so I must be getting enough".

Laktik wrote:

1/11- 8 mile tempo at 5:47 pace + Fartlek

1/18- Fartlek + 15 mile long run 6:42 pace

1/25- 4x2mile tempo at 5:40 + 8x1k at 3:08 + 16 long run 6:38

2/2- 6x2k tempo 6:57 average + pace HM at 6:05 pace

2/8- 5xmile @5:11 + 17 long run 6:56

2/16- 4x2mile tempo 5:20 + 10x800 @2:20 **Started Feeling Bad

2/22- (Hills +2 mile tempo at 5:35) + 6x2k @7:03 + 17 at 6:48

Workouts during my xc season felt controlled and I generally felt like I could do a little bit more at the end of the day. My mileage at that time was maybe 60 at its peak. Compared to xc, we are doing much more tempo volume.

My coach is very hands off and doesn't communicate workout paces/weekly mileage. So often, I am coaching myself.

So the week you started feeling bad you did a 4 x 2 mi tempo at 20 sec per mi faster than 3 weeks prior? That is a big jump in pace... Is there an explanation for that? Add in the 5 miles of 800s is also a big workout. Are all these well within your capabilities? Did you feel ok prior to that week?

Guess I need to check and actually see how much I'm eating. What number would I check that against so I can see if I am eating enough? Is there a calculation?

My coach said that I was not running them fast enough and that I needed to increase the pace and thats the pace I should be running them at.

My Prs are:

1500: 4:01, 3k: 9:11, 5k: 15:22, 8k xc 25:45

Like I said before he doesn't give us paces he just says go faster or slower.

It sounds like your body is not getting enough recovery given the mileage, your job, and other stressors in life. I agree with the posters above that you should take a "down" week of 60 then go back up to give your body a chance to adapt.

+1 to lowering your mileage for a week - possibly dramatically (as low as - gasp! - 50 for a week).

Yes, you'll feel "trashed" after some workouts while upping your mileage, but if that feeling lingers for long, you're asking for trouble.

Hell, now that you're doing serious workouts on the regular, you could probably cut it back to 65 for the rest of the season and be fine.

I recently strayed from this advice myself. I upped my mileage during a high-intensity phase of training and kept at it, despite feeling wrecked for a week. Now I have a strained calf and am looking at zero miles for the next week, bare minimum.

Your long run is too long. If you're doubling 5-6 days a week your long run should be about your daily average. Like a marathoner doing 120 mpw should have a 17-18 mile long run. At 75 mpw your long run should be around 13-14 miles. Now as you drop the mileage don't allow the long run to exceed 12 miles.

So my take is that its the long run and overusing the same energy systems. A lot of your workouts seem to be threshold, so the problem could be that you're overusing that system and then add in your disproportionate long run, and it makes sense what the problem is.

I would advise only doing 1 threshold workout a week, and 1 speed workout, and drop the mileage to around 60 and bring long run down to 12 miles. If you're training for 5k maybe have your speed workout be some 400s, 600s, 800s at 3k-5k pace or something.

NotAustin18 wrote:

So my take is that its the long run and overusing the same energy systems. A lot of your workouts seem to be threshold, so the problem could be that you're overusing that system and then add in your disproportionate long run, and it makes sense what the problem is.

How can you overuse a specific energy system? That concept doesn't exist. Your muscles are either ready for action or not. The energy system doesn't matter.