Increasing to 40-45mpw

25 mpw ---> 45 mpw is almost double your current mileage, so it is a very significant increase. If you feel ready to try, give it shot with a planned rest week every 4th week. Don't just increase your mileage week after week. Try four-week blocks like this:

week 1 - 27

week 2 - 30

week 3 - 33

week 4 - 25

week 5 - 33

week 6 - 35

week 7 - 37

week 8 - 27

week 9 - 37

week 10 - 40

week 11 - 43

week 12 - 30

week 13 - 43

week 14 - 45

This gets you to your goal in 14 weeks. You actually run your first 40 mile week in week 10, but will likely still be pretty tired and looking very forward to your upcoming easy week (week 12 - 30 miles).

Having given you a plan, I will caution you that running close to twice your current mileage within 14 weeks just may not be doable yet. Or it may - only you will know. Give it a go. Learn the difference between being a little more tired (and hungry) because you are positively challenging your body and slowly adapting to the increased workload, or injury and overtraining.

Your legs will likely feel heavier at the start of your runs as you deal with increased mileage, but they should warm up. Don't worry about how slow you run. The goal is always to increase mileage first, so later you can back off a bit and add the quality back in. Your easy run pace will speed back up again once you have adapted to the higher mileage.

damn dude do you recommend this crap to newbies too? "Okay you're doing 0 mpw now and you want to do 20, so that's infinity times more, so I recommend really increasing slow and taking lots of down weeks so maybe you can go 0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0 and really roll the dice with a 1 or 2 mile week here and there after that"

datsy wrote:

I'm planning on increasing my mileage from 25 to 40-45 this summer and I'm just wondering if it's okay to do that in 12-14 weeks for someone who's kinda injury prone?

Also, is 40mpw a lot harder on the body than running mileage in the 20s and will I feel tired all the time?

What should my progression be if I'm starting in May and want to get there by July?

I'm a freshman girl by the way.

If you can run 25 now, go up to 30 for a week; see how that goes. Drop back to 25. If all is okay, go up to 30 again. If all is okay, stay there for a few weeks. Then go up a bit or down a bit, depending on how you're feeling.

Haven't you asked about this before?

You can increase mileage faster than the 10% rule, but you need to listen to your body. If you are feeling more tired or sore than normal, then change a moderate run to an easy run. If that doesn't help then the next day do a recovery run, if that doesn't work then take a day off. It's really about listening to your body, who knows it might be okay for you to run 45 mpw next week.

25 -> 45 might be a bit too much. You'll have to find and fix the source of your injuries before making that jump if you're injury prone. I don't know your specific case, but you might have to do some form of strenght training DAILY, combined with some form flexibility (AIF for example). Also keep in mind what you do the other 22 hours a day have an impact on you as runner.

In my experience tendons/bones/ligaments/etc. take +/- 4-6 weeks to adapt to a new stress level. Back in the days I increased my mileage a solid 10mi/year.

It kind of happened with a 5mi jump every six months. If you want quick results, go find yourself another sport. Every time I tried to increase my mileage faster, I got hurt...

Maybe it might be better to shoot for a time based goal, like five days a week 60 min runs, a long run of 90-95min and a rest day (total rest) It all depends on your specific goals, or lack thereof.

Don't forget to add some RELAXED tempo's/ RELAXED fartleks add the end of the summer & keep in mind you have to do RELAXED strides almost daily.

'Train relaxed, run fast' ;)