High Mileage and real improvements

I ran about 80-100 mpw for three months in high school and went from mid-17s to 16:10-ish in the 5k. Also was able to run 4x1600 at my previous 1600 PR. Unfortunately, I kept right on growing and my body would no longer handle the mileage and I started to get injured quite a bit. I had some success reducing my mileage and adding biking to boost the aerobic work, but I never regained the same speed (I was in the 16:40s later on).

Who needs high mileage? I run a 10.2 100m on 4 miles per week.

DougM, real good point about a lifestyle balance. That should also factor into this discussion topic. 90-110 per week mightbe optimal to a 25 year-old marathoner with nothig much ging on in his persoanl life, where 40-50 might be better suited for 35+ with demanding job, family, etc.

fall 2001 averaged 50mpw....biggest week 65 miles

10K PR 37:15

Marathon PR 2:57

Spring 2002 averaged 65 miles a week.....biggest week 105 miles

10K PR 34:43

Marathon PR 2:42

Fall 2002 averaged 75 miles a week...biggest week 105 miles

10K PR 33:48

Marathon...injured :-(

New Marathoner, ouch.... 1:21 halfways to a 3:09... not baggin' on you, just lamenting with you that that had to be some freakin' long last few miles.

My highest mileage week was capped off by my 8K PR. Its after a few weeks of a lot of running that hills start to level out and 1hr turns into a very short run. This can't be bad for racing, esp. for long races... see the Japanese threads... or see threads about running in the early 80s... read Lydiard... I think it would be hard to dispute high mileage as an integral component of training.

Here is my monthly mileage in miles from Feb1/82(age 24) when I weighed 205(5'7") and took up running. Started running to lose weight. Completely incompetent all my life in sports. Last guy picked for teams, good at chess, etc. etc. Base work prior to this included a lot of drinking and partying. Got my schooling out of the way so I decided to clean up my act. The improvement is obviously due to mileage AND weight loss-68 pounds druing this stretch.

f-110

m-133

a-105-1st 10km-40:27

m-189

j-150.5-2nd 10km-37:19

j-193.5-3rd 10km-36:19

a-312-4th 10km-36:01

s-291-5th 10km-34:59

o-251-1st marathon-2:45:59 on oct 2-then stopped going 20 on Sundays so the mileage dropped-6th 10km-34:19

n-290-7th 10km down to 33:53

d-244-short injury

j-291

f-304

m-335

a-308-10km-33:20-biggest week-102 miles-73:49 half-got a coach-says I can go 2:25-started doing more regulated workouts

m-345-32:59 10km

j-343

j-386 and started back to the 20+milers-31:56 10km

a-426-31:36 10 km

s-409

o-400-2:25:41 marathon-21 months off the couch

-50-60mpw (high 70, once): XC PR 29:54; winter 60-70 mpw 3K PR 9:54, 5K PR 16:52

-70-80 mpw (high 80): stress fracture XC season, no running except on race day PR 28:11; winter 70-80, long run 1:30:00-2:00:00 every week, 3K PR 9:11, 5K PR 15:57

SI, reading your mileage and races is very inspiring for many people on this board..i hope you keep up such tremedous work!

I'm a slow runner coming off an injury, and I'm planning on moving my way up to doing high mileage to see what happens. I'm also going to keep up to date reports at this sight...

http://www.geocities.com/trackman02/training.html

feel free to check out my progess or the lack there of anytime.

coop wrote:

SI, reading your mileage and races is very inspiring for many people on this board..i hope you keep up such tremedous work!

Ancient history but when your role models are the workhorses of the 70s and early 80s, it's routine stuff.

See

High mileage is not right for everyone, but I would say that it is for the vast majority of runners. My dream is for the U.S. to stop running indoor track competitively and instead focus on base mileage during that time. Assuming I stay healthy this winter, I'm looking at a peak of 90 mpw (hopefully). Last year, I did 70 mpw during my base phase and without any speed workouts I ran a 9:03 indoor 3K. I know thats not world class or anything, but it shows what higher mileage can do. (70 isn't even that high, but it is higher than what I had been doing)

You might try doing something like this:

Week 1: 80-90

Week 2: 85-90

Week 3: 60

Week 4: 80-90

etc

Focus on longer workouts (LT, long runs, longer intervals) the first two weeks, and then cut down the mileage (especially on recovery days) but keep up 60-100% volume of speedwork as the previous two weeks. Also, be sure to keep dynamic exercises and some sprint training (800-1000m of 50-150m sprints @ 400m pace) every 7-10 days. The idea is to stress the body w/ high mileage for about the amount of time it can take it, then let it recover.

Also, don't try to keep this high a mileage level when you get into serious speedwork the 8-12 weeks before competition, cut it down to maybe 50-70 mpw.

i like the idea of cycling mileage. i generally try to go in four week cycles of 3 weeks at 100-105, a recovery week or 60-70 miles. of course, i just started hitting 100 miles+ on a consistent basis this fall, but running over 80 miles in cycles like this has worked for me. i dropped my track 5km by 18 seconds to 14:10 this year, and dropped 20 seconds the year before.

quality over quantity anyday

i ran 70mpw last season with my runs around 630pace and my prs in xc were 8k-2527, 10k-3215

this yr avg 60-65 with my runs around 550pace any my prs are 8k-2452 and 10k-?? (we'll see this weekend)

If you had upped your mileage to 90-100 MPW, you'd have a 24:15 8K PR now instead of 24:52.

Just because you improved with lower mileage doesn't mean you wouldn't have improved more with higher mileage. Lydiard is right.

I'm 18.

My PRs in HS went as followed:

9: 5:05 mile

10: 19:30 5k, 18:35 3 mile, 4:58 mile

11: 17:46 3 mile, 17:50 5k (This was probably short). Never broke 5. Around 11 for a two mile (don't remember)

12: 18:00 5k, 4:53 mile, 10:41 2 mile

Never ran a decent 5k at all (one time under 18? And I don't think that course was legit). In track I started improving a bit, relative to the past. I was never very good. But I liked the sport.

All those years it was pretty much 25-35 miles a week, and 35 was a high week. Running 6 days a week.

I had finished indoor track with the 10:41 2 mile PR. I never PRed again? Why? Too much speed work in the winter, and never had the endurance to carry me through anything. I finished my high school career, and I just loved to run so I decided not to quit, even if I wasn't going to be good enough to run for the University I'm at, but I decided to start logging miles.

Started out at 40, worked up to 70 by 5 a week. Every 3rd week I dropped back a bit. This was all really slow running, an occasional tempo run thrown in.

Within 1 month of just 45-55 miles a week, I ran a 10k PR, breaking 18 on the last 5k. Just a small dose of more mileage relative to the past, and I basically PRed in the 5k on the way home from a 10k. I was not prepared for this race at all.

A month of 50-60 mile weeks or so later, I ran a 5k. Still just slow running. PRed 17:35.

About a month and a half later of 60-75 mpw, I ran a hilly 10 miler in the heat. 62:40 or so. Not a blistering fast time, but it's a testament for more mileage, considering before the summer I never ran 10 miles under 70 minutes before.

I went to college, dropped the mileage a bit. I ran a couple XC races, one I had calf problems so it didn't work out. The next was an 8k. Times weren't too fast.

I ran a 5 mile road race recently. 28:32. I went through 3 miles in under 17, probablyhit 5k in right around my current PR.

Since going to college I was running around 50-55 mpw on average. No double runs.

Compared to most the people on this board, I'm slow. And I will admit that. But I changed my program to more miles, less anaerobic, painful intervals and I've gone from not being able to run 5 miles in under 31, to 28:32 in about 4-5 months. I hardly run any speed work, some longer intervals every once in a while. I've done a lot of my old workouts, not as hard, and PRed in them.

I plan on running 70-90 a week this winter, with double days, and improving some more.

I still have a long way to go, but without just putting the time in on my feet (and this is low mileage compared to most people on here--but high relative to my past), I have felt great improvements.

Chris Carmicheal, Lance Armstrong's coach, uses a 4 week cycle as well, with the first two being buildup weeks, the 3rd is an overload week and the fourth is a recovery week. The "overload" isn't high-volume necessarily, Carmichael says, "If you want to a better sprinter, work on sprinting. If you want to work on being a better climber, focus on hills." Then, after the four weeks, you can either work on the same "skill" (basic aerobic fitness, LT, lactate clearance, power & speed, etc) or move on to the next one.This could be the infamous "crash" training (http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0236.htm); in any case its similar to some training system Marius Bakken sites on his message board (http://www.mariusbakken.com/forum2000/default.asp).

kitty wrote:

i like the idea of cycling mileage. i generally try to go in four week cycles of 3 weeks at 100-105, a recovery week or 60-70 miles. of course, i just started hitting 100 miles+ on a consistent basis this fall, but running over 80 miles in cycles like this has worked for me. i dropped my track 5km by 18 seconds to 14:10 this year, and dropped 20 seconds the year before.

ive been running 80-90 per week for the last 4 months with three hard days per week(tempos or fartlek) and i have improved my 5k from 16:42 to 15:08 and my 10k from 34:01 to 32:08

I have found that, for me, raising my mileage has been the key to better and more enjoyable running. After running for more than 15 years at the 40-50 mile-per-week range, I have upped my mileage over the last two years to the point where I ran 3,000 miles last year and should end up at 3,500 for this year (assuming the rest of this month goes well). Although I was only only a middle-of-the-pack runner in high school, and didn't run at all in college, for me the key is that, at age 46, I am if anything getting faster. This year I have set PRs for both 5 miles (27:50) and the marathon (3:02:33).

I realize, of course, that these times are hardly earth-shattering. But my point is that I am having more fun and running better at age 46 than I did at either age 26 or 36. I can only hope that I will still be able to do the same at age 56.