Reaching 100 miles per week

Try to get more mileage, let say 50 per week and see what happens. If you go to fast to 100 miles per week you probably will get injured.

Thanks for the advice! Out of curiosity is there anyone who runs 100+ mpw who could tell me their strategy and how long it took them to get there? Thanks

XC Wannabe wrote:

Thanks for the advice! Out of curiosity is there anyone who runs 100+ mpw who could tell me their strategy and how long it took them to get there? Thanks

I started running on my high school track team. Essentially we didn't train. You probably are running as many miles in a week as we did in a season if you exclude races and maybe even if you include them. In the summer before my freshman year in college I was probably averaging around 40 to get ready for college cross country and that was probably about what I did until the summer after my sophomore year.

At the end of that track season I ran my first marathon in over four and a half hours. That told me that I needed to do a lot more mileage than I'd been doing. There was very little information about training generally available in those years but I had seen occasional mentions of people running 100 miles or more a week so I think I had the vague idea that maybe I should get to that level. But at the time running that much seemed impossible. I'd sort of checked around and found that people often got decent results at about 50 to 60 a week so that summer I set out to run that much. I think that bumping up to that level from the 40-45 I'd been doing was the hardest adjustment I made in my life. But by the end of that summer I actually got a couple 70 mile weeks in and had the best cross country season by far that I'd ever done though my in season mileage dropped. At the end of the season I took an hour five minutes off my marathon time then went back to doing 60-70.

At that stage I began to believe that I could and should get to 100 and maybe beyond. I didn't really have any sort of master plan for doing it aside from doing a certain amount until I felt comfortable at that level and then adding maybe another ten miles a week. I believe I got my first 100 mile week late in the summer of 1973 and I'd started increasing my miles in June of '72. One thing that I found helpful in adapting to a higher level, say getting to 90 from 80, was to run 2-3 weeks at more than 90, say 95-100, which was a real struggle, and then drop down to 90, which felt much less of a struggle.

That sort of mileage is not for everyone but I think it is more doable than a lot of runners believe if you approach it the right way. I think part of the right way is to not have a timetable or maybe even a set end point but rather to move the miles up a bit, adjust to the higher volume, then up it a bit more when you're comfortable at your current level. I've told people that if you can run 50 miles a week comfortably, you can run 52 comfortably and if you can get comfortable at 52 you won't notice any real difference at 54. Add a mile a week to the 25 you're doing and you'll be at 100 in under two years.

XC Wannabe wrote:

I'm looking to be more competitive in XC and know the best guys are doing 100+.

You have a selection bias problem here. A big one. You're not looking at the guys who never start because they're doing 100+ miles and get injured. Be careful.

Thanks for the great response! I want to run high mileage for sure, but the priority is still to remain injury free and your approach of increasing a mile a week seems doable.

Really appreciate this reply. Thanks!

Above comment was for HRE,

safsdfsfsdfsdfsdfsdf wrote:

XC Wannabe wrote:

I'm looking to be more competitive in XC and know the best guys are doing 100+.

You have a selection bias problem here. A big one. You're not looking at the guys who never start because they're doing 100+ miles and get injured. Be careful.

I would like to add that the goal should be to get better not to run 100 mile weeks. Chances are that the sweet spot for your training is a lot lower. Just because somebody runs 100 miles per week does not mean you should do the same.

Chances to get injured are a lot higher with 100 mile weeks. And also just running 100 miles does not make you faster. The right training does.

Don't focus on mileage, focus on time on your feet. Build up slowly to running two hours or more per day.

For example:

Month one:

one hour per day

Month two:

one hour and fifteen minutes per day

Month three:

one hour and thirty minutes per day

Month four:

one hour and forty-five minutes per day

Month five:

two hours per day

Keep your easy days easy. Don't be afraid to do your easy runs at a 8-10 min mile pace.

Once a week make sure you do some LT-intervals and tempo run with some short hill sprints.

Do some strides and drills on your easy days.

Yes that's quite right. If I can get away with lower mileage and achieve the same results I will definitely do that! Even if I don't do 100mpw, I will still have to dramatically increase from 25 if I ever want to be competitive, and I was unsure how to do that, hence the post. I'm following the a Jack Daniels plan aiming to peak in about 5 months time so introducing quality sessions is something I am thinking about too.

BROFESSOR wrote:

Don't focus on mileage, focus on time on your feet. Build up slowly to running two hours or more per day.

For example:

Month one:

one hour per day

Month two:

one hour and fifteen minutes per day

Month three:

one hour and thirty minutes per day

Month four:

one hour and forty-five minutes per day

Month five:

two hours per day

Keep your easy days easy. Don't be afraid to do your easy runs at a 8-10 min mile pace.

Once a week make sure you do some LT-intervals and tempo run with some short hill sprints.

Do some strides and drills on your easy days.

Makes sense, I've read stress is a function of time and intensity rather than distance. I just find using distance is something more people understand and can compare to. I use training peaks so will also monitor time and make sure there are no dramatic increases.

I'm not at 100, but have gotten up to 75 after running mainly 30 MPW for my life. I generally follow the approach of increasing 5 MPW, holding for a month, then taking a down week. After that, will go up another 5. You do need a down month or so as well after big seasons.

Youre young and so you have to be careful about stress fractures. I got one from increasing too quickly when I was in HS. At 25 MPW, I would focus on slowly getting to 75. Maybe try to get to 40 MPW by the end of this year, 50-60 in the spring, and approach 75 by the summer if all goes perfectly (it won't, something always comes up).

Realize though that not every person's body can handle high mileage so it's not cookie cutter "follow this plan to get to 100"

Taking a down week sounds like a good idea to soak up all the adaptations. Yes remaining injury free is the most important, but I'm ready and prepared for setbacks. Thanks!

When I do 100+ which I have done a lot

2 x a day

Am shakeout

Pm longer or track or intervals or hills or recovery run depending on day

Wed pm usually medium longish run

Sun

Am shakeout

Pm long long run

Caveats

Shooting for 14 miles

Running two times a day

Two warm ups and two cool downs

Less time in actual run

Running one time a day

One warm up one cool down

More time in actual run

Lots and lots of laundry

Ps Huge mileage works

In my lates 20s I was inconsistently running 20 mpw and tried to hit 100 miles one week on a whim. I made it over 70 but my knee started hurting so I stopped.

XC Wannabe wrote:

Thanks for the great response! I want to run high mileage for sure, but the priority is still to remain injury free and your approach of increasing a mile a week seems doable.

Whatever approach you use and how far along you go, don't get so wedded to it that you can't deviate or adjust f it seems necessary. If, for example, you've been adding a mile a week and for some reason or other getting to your previous week's mileage, let alone adding a mile to it, seems too much of a struggle, don't be afraid to back off for a week or two.

Mr. Bird, you're welcome.

Thanks for the reply! Currently doing singles but will do doubles once I'm at 70+, and good point about warm ups and cool downs - good place to stick some extra low stress miles. All the laundry will be expensive though living in college accommodation and paying for every wash and drying cycle!

Take your running clothes into the shower with you after each run or rinse them out in a sink. You won't need to put them in the wash nearly as often.

XC Wannabe wrote:

I've never run more than 25 miles a week, but I'm looking to be more competitive in XC and know the best guys are doing 100+.

Is it a good idea to increase mileage by 5 miles a month indefinitely until I reach 100, or is it wiser to stop at say 50, hold it there or below for the rest of the season, and then start progressing further next season.

For context I am an ex-elite cyclist who raced on the domestic pro circuit, and trained for 15-20 hours a week for 3 years. I ran a lot and had some success at XC when I was a kid, but stopped when I was 15 to pursue cycling instead due to injuries. I am now 21.

I increasd my mileage from 50 to 100 from my sophomore to senior years. It felt easy and never had even a hint of an injury. I ran doubles on weekdays totalling 15-16 miles, 8 miles of varied pace on Saturday and a long run on Sunday. In retrospect, I don't know if helped me to run that much better than i if had run 60 or so.