professional coach wrote:
Why do so many runners believe 100 miles is the magic training number? Why not 100 kilometers (it is still three digits and let's you actually complete workouts that are targeted at the various energy systems).
I am not dissing high mileage as I trained with some pretty decent world and national class runners in the old day and frequently ran 120-140 mpw. However, as a trained exercise physiologist and long-time coach, I found that different athletes respond to mileage in different ways. Therefore, 100 mpw is not correct for most runners. Maybe it should be 90 or maybe even 210.
So I would determine first what you are trying to accomplish. Building your base? Improving lactate threshold? Improving VO2max? Improving economy? After you know what you are targeting, put those workouts into a schedule with some true recovery days (not some double digit number so you can hit 100 at the end of the week) and see what happens.
Almost any runner can hit 100 mow, but most of them will not benefit optimally just aiming at some non-scientific number.
Running 100 accomplishes nothing other than getting you injured. You are not going to be a better runner than someone who runs 50. Post your name so we can verify your results and a video maybe your form sucks too.