CONVINCE ME I'M WRONG: People struggle with mileage because they go too fast on easy days

Yes.

100% true. Anyone that disagrees with this is wrong.

Yes. You hit the nail on the head.

Some people might just break down if they run high mileage, even if it is slow, but I think those people are few and far between.

Yes, most people who don't run high mileage are doing something wrong, usually running too fast.

Other reasons include running in the heat of the day/too early - not in the evening, overworking (in their job), or doing ridiculous strength training or stretching that sap them.

Don't you know this is Let's Run . com??? You can't just post stuff here that actually makes sense where no one can argue with you!

Totally agree.

On an even more basic level, a lot of hobby joggers run their easy runs so fast to the point that it's painful to extend them longer than ~30 mins. Because of the current emphasis on HIIT training, everyone thinks they need to die a high-intensity death or their time is "wasted". That's why you see people psyching themselves up and bouncing around with headphones before their morning "jog". They might accidentally build up some aerobic capacity working so hard, but they'd have a lot more fun and see more progress by slowin the F down.

I'm frustrated that somehow after all this time, very simple training knowledge has yet to catch on in the mainstream. The concept of long, slow distance is not at all popular outside of true running communities.

Yes. It's been brought up and said MANY times before on LetsRun.

Lydiard observed this well before you were born, kid.

lol, sorry. I don't get on here as often as I should.

I felt like I discovered something revolutionary when I realized how easy it felt to add mileage and benefit from it after reading about people say they take years to progress from 50 miles a week to 80 miles a week.

Why do so many people on these boards talk about "junk" miles in reference to slower easy days and "quality" miles in reference to faster easier days?

I never would've thought I'd be able to consistently handle high (relative to me) mileage, but it's been surprisingly easy by just keeping my easy runs nice and easy.

No. My sister got a stress fracture in her foot last month. She walks 3 miles per day, 5 days per week. Really slow runners take twice as many steps as fast runners and are on their feet twice as long. Higher risk of injury in a 12 minute per mile 4 hour run than a 6 minute per mile 2 hour run.

always a loser wrote:

No. My sister got a stress fracture in her foot last month. She walks 3 miles per day, 5 days per week. Really slow runners take twice as many steps as fast runners and are on their feet twice as long. Higher risk of injury in a 12 minute per mile 4 hour run than a 6 minute per mile 2 hour run.

Two factors are important: time on feet (relating to # of steps), and speed (relating to the force generated by each step). The slow runners are not generating and absorbing the high levels of muscular force that fast runners are, and that's good because their muscles wouldn't be able to handle it. It's not just about time on feet.

I always got injured near 60 mpw. Wish I could go back to my youth and just try to slow it down and be patient.

It’s not like I was running fast all the time. If you just read my training logs you’d think I was a 16:30/17:00 guy rather than 15:30 since I’m more of a middle distance runner. But I never could handle the mileage or doubles. Wish I could start over and try though.

Yeah, I started running more seriously again because I had a chip on my shoulder from not running in college.

It's been nice to put effort towards something like this again.

ShilohDoesntCare wrote:

100% true. Anyone that disagrees with this is wrong.

Plenty of professionals run their easy mileage faster than what's described by the OP. 1:30-2:00 over marathon PR pace for Galen Rupp is 6:19-6:39. Leading up to London 2012, Salazar is quoted saying, "Now the average pace that he (Farah) and Galen run is about 5:45, and that’s 17 to 20 miles a day. They sometimes do 20 miles and go 5:30 pace, and that isn’t a particularly hard day."

Most of us also just read about or watched Solinksy's 10k AR and the training that led to it. He wasn't playing around. A lot of days were 5:30-5:40 pace.

Bernard Lagat also runs quick mileage, although not high mileage.

So, America's best from 1500-Marathon all train faster than described in this thread. Are they wrong? Their results speak otherwise.

My issue with Letsrun.com's obsession with slow mileage is that most posters here think there are only two types of running- work outs (tempos, intervals, etc) and easy days. And that's simply not true for most people. There is such a thing as a normal day, a maintenance day, a just go out and run how I feel day.

If your goal is to accumulate mileage, have at it. Do it however gets you to your number. If your goal is racing faster, I think there is definitely room for debate in this training philosophy.

utah_runner wrote:

lol, sorry. I don't get on here as often as I should.

I felt like I discovered something revolutionary when I realized how easy it felt to add mileage and benefit from it after reading about people say they take years to progress from 50 miles a week to 80 miles a week.

discovered something revolutionary????

nothing new under the sun friend. you are regurgitating what's been said for decades. trust me, you've discovered nothing new at all, except to yourself;)

I'll be honest I've been running competively for years and done a ton of 100+ mile weeks and a lot of 120+ mile weeks. I don't think easy day pace makes that much of a difference for me unless I'm really stressing the system. In my mid 20's my easy day pace was 6:15-30. Now its more in the 6:30-45 range. I think running to much slower takes me out of my natural motion and makes me more susceptible.

I think it just comes down to the injection of workouts. The stress put on your body for the 15-20% you hammer each week is immense and to me has always been more than a contributing factor than the easy pace. If I only did high mileage at 6:30 pace I doubt I'd get injured very frequently but I wouldn't race very fast. I believe injuries are part of the sport when trying to compete at a high level. You should take steps to minimize them. I think as long as your not overtraining easy day pace isn't a big factor. Note: if you are overtraining you're just asking for a breakdown in performance or injury.

I really don't think its an ego thing to run easy days at a certain pace, its a personal comfort thing. Most of the guys I've trained with in competitive running who wanted to run easy days at a significantly slower pace than most of the group on a D1 team, usually the slowest guys ran was 7:00 pace, did not perform well and ended up not making it for the record.

Not enough recovery, increasing mileage too fast, too much variance in weekly mileage and not enough strength training for hips/core etc. that prevent injuries.

Plenty of other reasons people struggle with high mileage in addition to running too fast on easy days.

To do it right it takes more time and consistency.

Also for someone who runs as a hobby, 80+ miles a week feels more like a chore, 50 is more enjoyable.

I think you are correct. And I think people who are more inclined to be natural middle distance runners understand the ideology of very slow easy days more than your general hubby jogger or even your general serious marathoner. Sprinters are on the extreme and might not even do easy days but rather take it completely off or cross train.