How many miles a week would it take to break 2:50 in the marathon?

Jason K. wrote:

i've run 2:46 on 40 mpw, 1 easy day, 1 steady and 18-22 miles on weekend

I did something similar to this. 2:48 when I was 39

Sunday : 2hrs (25km or so)

Tuesday: 8x 1k @ 10k pace ~3:45

Thursday 1hr steady 13.5-14km

Saturday 12-16 x 200 @ 3-5k pace

Had been running for 2yrs, after 15yrs of weight gain, drinking, smoking and inactivity (i.e. work).

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”, a quote often attributed to Einstein.

But in your case I think it makes sense to do the same thing again. Try another couple of training cycles with similar mileage and you will most likely get there. Cumulative mileage is worth a lot.

if ur a normal size man...i e 5'10 200 lb...it should be like 70 miles per week. If youre like 5'8" 120 i dont think you even need to train

Two pages of responses to a dumb troll question--not bad.

You've been running for a long time and have put in a ton of mileage. It's unlikely you will get a huge improvement at this point in the game. Not impossible. Just improbable.

You can change a few things:

1. Increase your mileage. Even at your mileage you can do more. Going up 10 or 20 a week will make a difference. Not likely 6-7 minutes improvement, but some improvement.

2. Change your quality of mileage. Honestly to do this with as much experience as you have, I recommend getting a coach. You need someone to critically analyze what you're doing day to day if you expect to improve at the level you're at(I'm talking experience not talent).

3. Lose weight if you're not at ideal running weight. If you're already there, cross this off the list.

All I know is that you need to run 5x18 if you want to break 2.55 in the ‘thon.

I mean, MPW is just way too simple a measurement. Are they junk miles, tired miles, hilly miles, quality miles? Are all the workouts easy? All hard? A mixture?!

Respectfully, I'd say that 2:56 off 85 mp/w is really below par. It suggests theres a deficiency somewhere else in your running, whether thats the training plan, strength, core, running technique, wrong shoes, sleeping, nutrition etc.

weeklymileage121212 wrote:

How many miles a week would it take to break 2:50 in the marathon? Currently I am 25 years old, been running since I was 18, and roughly average around 85 miles a week, peaked at 95 before. My PR is 2:56 and want to better that greatly. Any suggestions on weekly mileage? or any good marathon training schedules out there? thanks

What's your 5k time? Perhaps you should work on that. You're 25, so at 85-95 miles per week, you could smash the 5k by adding some speed work. Once your 5k is down to 16:30 or 15:50, you'll be so much better at the marathon. 2:49 will be a joke with that speed and endurance. You don't need more miles. You need to get faster.

mol_42 wrote:

Respectfully, I'd say that 2:56 off 85 mp/w is really below par. It suggests theres a deficiency somewhere else in your running, whether thats the training plan, strength, core, running technique, wrong shoes, sleeping, nutrition etc.

Lack of talent?

Agree about depends on your PR’s.

I had ran 16:23 and 33:21 and ran low 2:40’s on no more than 54 weekly. I was never able to handle high mileage without breaking down. But that’s just me.

One long run per week is more important than mileage total.....start with 60 minute long run and add 5 minutes to it once every week........goal would be 2 hours done aerobically..... should take you 12 weeks to go from 6o minutes to 120 minutes (2 hours.) In mileage that would be weekly long runs of 10-11-12-13-14- etc. up to 20...then cut back to long run of 8 the last 2 weeks before the race.

Of course 2 x a week of intervals, tempos, hills etc would complement the long run........hey, best thing you could do is

get an endurance based coach to give you the best balance between the long runs and the all important quality runs.......as it is foolish to coach yourself or coaching via the internet.....good luck!

Can'tnova style wrote:

Miles per week has virtually zero correlation to how fast it will make you run.

You just need to shape your miles for specificity.

The specific pace long run is likely the most key run you can do.

Did it off about 50-55 per week, but it was way slower than my shorter distance times suggested. Ran even splits about 45 seconds per mile slower than half-marathon pace, and about 70 seconds per mile slower that 10k pace.

Just wanted to get one done under 2:50 - way too fast twitch and heavy to run a decent one.

Speaker of Hard Running wrote:

weeklymileage121212 wrote:

How many miles a week would it take to break 2:50 in the marathon? Currently I am 25 years old, been running since I was 18, and roughly average around 85 miles a week, peaked at 95 before. My PR is 2:56 and want to better that greatly. Any suggestions on weekly mileage? or any good marathon training schedules out there? thanks

What's your 5k time? Perhaps you should work on that. You're 25, so at 85-95 miles per week, you could smash the 5k by adding some speed work. Once your 5k is down to 16:30 or 15:50, you'll be so much better at the marathon. 2:49 will be a joke with that speed and endurance. You don't need more miles. You need to get faster.

You must be running on *some* kind of marathon training schedule, but perhaps a basic one. Sounds like you have a lot of potential to cut a few minutes. 2:50 is only 2.5% faster than 2:56. Work on speed and strength (core, hills, intervals).

sub_3_is_the_goal wrote:

mol_42 wrote:

Respectfully, I'd say that 2:56 off 85 mp/w is really below par. It suggests theres a deficiency somewhere else in your running, whether thats the training plan, strength, core, running technique, wrong shoes, sleeping, nutrition etc.

Lack of talent?

I wouldn't say so. There's a whole chunk of people in this world who simply cannot run sub-3.

mol_42 wrote:

I wouldn't say so. There's a whole chunk of people in this world who simply cannot run sub-3.

And almost none of them have ever run 85 mpw. I agree that it's fairly rare to be consistently running that much and not get yourself in shape enough to run under 2:50. I had a friend who was like this, he was up around 70 mpw a lot, but couldn't break 3:30 to save his life. It was a real mystery.

Honestly for most decent, but clearly sub-elite times (like sub 2:50), the "talent" required is just not getting hurt.

Back in Track wrote:

mol_42 wrote:

I wouldn't say so. There's a whole chunk of people in this world who simply cannot run sub-3.

And almost none of them have ever run 85 mpw.

Correct.

According to the Tanda predictor, you can run 85mpw at 8:14min/mile average and break 3 hours.

OR

60mpw at 7:30min/mile and break 3 hours.

To break 2:50 with 85mpw, Tanda says you need a 7:37min/mile average.

It should be easily doable.

2:43:10 ..1st marathon, 6-18-83. Looking back on my log book I averaged 38-39mi/week during the time leading up to the 2:43:10 with a high of 64mi the first week of March & 65mi the 3rd week of March & 66mi the second week of April. Longest run of 18.6 miles about two weeks before the race.

Though I haven't done marathon yet, I ran 1:14 half recently which should be enough to run sub-2:40 marathon. I averaged about 50 mpw during buildup.

When I was in about 2:50 marathon shape I was consistently doing about 40 mpw I think.

I also think that quality is more important than mileage. I focus on running economy and lactate threshold by implementing customized Daniels/Tinman plan