Running high mileage is significantly easier than people think

Wowee wrote:

I fail to see why I'd need to be unemployed. Here's a very simple way I can fit my runs into my day:

Wake up 6:15

Set off 6:45

Run 8 miles, get back 7:45

Set off to work 8:30

Arrive home 17:30, get changed

Set off again 17:50

Run 5 miles, get back at 18:30

~3.5 - 4 hours of spare time

Bed at 22:15, 8 hours of sleep

It's not my fault y'all chose to have 7 kids and have to spend every minute looking after them.

8 miles in an hour? You must be in sub 27 shape to be able to run so fast....

Lmao you can't double with a full time job? Every world class american was doing this back in the 70s. As for the ravenous part of running 100 mile weeks I guess Dixon had a point when he said all he wanted to do was drink beer and train like an animal. Way easier to take in a bunch of extra calories in liquid form.

thanks for the insight here. Im currently just holding 50 after spending years at 30 and feeling great. going to do a TT in a few months but next year i may try this approach

also to everyone saying this high mileage isnt possible with a job/family is full of sh!t. if you work 10 hours a day (including lunch break + commute), sleep for 8 that leaves 6 hours for other stuff. Call it 1 hour for cooking and eating and other misc. chores like laundry. then still 5 hours left. take 1 - 2 hours of running a day, plus 2 hour long runs. the time is there, people problem is motivation

amateur triathletes will put in 10-12 hours a week just to be average at 70.3/140.6 distances and that doesnt include the commute they have to get to a gym to swim . the better ones are putting in 15-20. to run 100 mpw you really only need to be doing 10-12 hours a week

Got time to post on LRC? Binge watch TV? Play video games? Then you've got time to train!

adios99 wrote:

You must be unemployed.

Doubles?

100mpw?

Ain't nobody got time for that. Some Olympic champions aren't running that much.

Quality > quantity.

If no one but the unemployed have time to run that much how do you explain all the guys who did so when the sport was amateur and ran that much on top of having a job?

HRE > Rupp wrote:

Wowee wrote:

Some runs have been as slow as 8:40 pace. I think the slowest mile I recorded was a 9:10.

If you do most runs slower than 9:30 pace, you can build up to 150 mpw.

You may need to slow down to 10:00 if you want to go up to 180 mpw.

180 ten minute miles? That sounds like the 10th ring of hell.

My season has recently been canceled due to covid. I am currently running 50 mpw (always thought 50-60 was my cap) at 7min pace with 1-2 4mile tempos each week. As a 15:50 5k runner how fast/slow should my easy days be and what should the build up look like if I want to focus on building to hight milage this fall now that all my races have been cancelled?

Thanks!

build build 2 wrote:

also to everyone saying this high mileage isnt possible with a job/family is full of sh!t. if you work 10 hours a day (including lunch break + commute), sleep for 8 that leaves 6 hours for other stuff. Call it 1 hour for cooking and eating and other misc. chores like laundry. then still 5 hours left. take 1 - 2 hours of running a day, plus 2 hour long runs. the time is there, people problem is motivation

I see it written that your body only recognizes stress, and whether it comes from exercise or work stress, we can only take so much. So how does this line up with recovery if most free time that you're not working you're running? Wouldn't you overstress the body? Doesn't seem like there's too much real downtime here. Not saying anyone is right or wrong, just want to see what you guys think about this.

I've met several quite overweight people who have run high mileage. Go look at finisher pictures of Leadville 100, there are truly fat people who finish.

High Mileage, your basic premise makes sense to me. I increased my mileage to 50+ last year and it worked out well in racing, with several good performances and a PR.

You mention slowing down on easy days and not running to hard on "workout" days. That is where I made the obvious classic mistakes, going too fast on some of the easy days and slamming most tempo runs as hard as I could, resulting in injuries.

Now I have plenty of time to think about it, as I wait for my Achilles tendon to heal up.

As for making time to run, it's like anything we seek to accomplish in life. How important is it to you? How bad do you want it?

I will admit that as a successfully self-employed person, it's easier for me to make the time for myself than many others.

build build 2 wrote:

.....

also to everyone saying this high mileage isnt possible with a job/family is full of sh!t. if you work 10 hours a day (including lunch break + commute), sleep for 8 that leaves 6 hours for other stuff. Call it 1 hour for cooking and eating and other misc. chores like laundry. then still 5 hours left. take 1 - 2 hours of running a day, plus 2 hour long runs. the time is there, people problem is motivation

amateur triathletes will put in 10-12 hours a week just to be average at 70.3/140.6 distances and that doesnt include the commute they have to get to a gym to swim . the better ones are putting in 15-20. to run 100 mpw you really only need to be doing 10-12 hours a week

The problem is, this isn't at all accurate.

-Most amateur triathletes you're talking about are middle-age crisis folk who have jobs that allow them time to train, and the internal need to validate themselves with athletic performances, which often leads to additional trouble in their personal life as they eschew their families for the aforementioned validation. They're also swimming, on average 2x a week and depending on that wetsuit to boost their performance. The swim is the most meaningless part of 70.3/140.6. Additionally, most of the running and biking they do is aerobic, so they're not traveling to places to do workouts, which is something serious runners would do.

-"Sleep for 8 hours" yeah buddy. Everytime I see this on letsrun it completely ignores the fact that not all the time you spend in bed is spent "asleep". Depending on your sleep efficiency, you could need 8 hours of time in bed to get 6.5 hours of quality sleep. Anyone properly running 10-12 hours a week is going to need on average 9-10 hours in bed to get the quality sleep necessary for recovery. Unless you plan on burning the candle at both ends until you get injured, which is also what a lot of your "average triathletes doing 10-12 hours a week" are doing.

-I've never heard of an "average" person holding down a legit 8 hour/day job, which is 9 with lunch, and 10 hours for the average commute, and closer to 11 hours when you consider all the time spent getting ready for work as well, I've never heard of someone like that putting in 15-20 hours of training for triathlon.

-What are you cooking and eating where it only takes you 1 hour a day? It takes me at least an hour to eat enough dinner to support the training I already do.

-"the problem is people's motivation". Ah yes. If people can't do it, they must not want it enough. Classic dumba$$ libertarian thinking. Not very different from "those people are poor because they don't work hard enough to get a job". Both are often said by people with little to no self-awareness.

Truth of the matter is that you can't be on 100% of the day. Even on my best days, it takes me 15 minutes to decompress after getting home from work before getting ready to run, which is something else you didn't factor into your little 'schedule'. Running doubles, you're probably showering 2x a day, getting ready for runs, decompressing after runs - that could easily be another 1.5 hours on top of the running you're already doing. And you're saying that you've got to have the mental and physical energy to do intense workouts on top of that?

The only way this would be possible, would be if you're single, don't actually work 8 hours a day, work from home, or you're a genetic freak who can thrive off of 4 hours of sleep.

Also, nowhere in this entire thread, is a reason for why 100 mile weeks are necessary

dadsfadsfdasfdsafdas wrote:

Wowee wrote:

I fail to see why I'd need to be unemployed. Here's a very simple way I can fit my runs into my day:

Wake up 6:15

Set off 6:45

Run 8 miles, get back 7:45

Set off to work 8:30

Arrive home 17:30, get changed

Set off again 17:50

Run 5 miles, get back at 18:30

~3.5 - 4 hours of spare time

Bed at 22:15, 8 hours of sleep

It's not my fault y'all chose to have 7 kids and have to spend every minute looking after them.

8 miles in an hour? You must be in sub 27 shape to be able to run so fast....

Oh dear oh dear oh dear. You've attempted to mock me but in the process you've made a complete fool of yourself. I will refrain from mocking you in retaliation as I sympathise with those who suffer from dyscalculia. I shall explain why you are incorrect:

8 miles in 1 hour is a pace of 7:30 per mile, while a 27 minute 10k is a pace of roughly 4:24 per mile. Despite what you suggest, running 8 miles at 7:30 pace does not suggest I am in the sort of shape in which I could sustain a pace over 3 minutes per mile faster.

You crop up on loads of threads and whine about everything. As someone mentioned, there were hundreds of runners working full time jobs running 100+ per week. Breaking 2:30 in the marathon and thinking it was just normal, fun sport for them.

Snowflake society. If you want it, you’ll make it happen. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse or criticism towards those who actually do want. Nobody said 100+ was necessary but if you want to be a good runner, you’ll aim to do a few weeks like that at least.

Good on the OP for upping his mileage. And good luck to everyone else who is trying to do it

Babushka, you do realise there are 24 hours in a day, right? I have no idea how you've come up with such silly logic about how it's 'impossible'.

Let's even assume you need to spend 9 hours per night in bed (which isn't true) here's some simple maths:

9 of the 24 hours are spent sleeping, that's 15 hours remaining.

8 of the remaining 15 hours are spent at work. That's 7 hours remaining.

1 of the remaining 7 hours is spent travelling to and from work. That's 6 hours remaining.

1 of the remaining 6 hours is spent preparing and eating food. That's 5 hours remaining.

1 of the remaining 5 hours is spent performing other miscellaneous tasks, such as showering and cleaning. That's 4 hours remaining.

This leaves us with 4 hours, during which you need to spend 1-2 of them running. Now please explain to me why you don't have time. Even if you argue "It takes way more than an hour to cook" (which isn't true) you'd still have 3.5 hours to complete less than 2 hours of running.

Any other tasks, such as shopping, getting hair cuts etc. can be performed on weekends when you have the whole day at your disposal.

Like I mentioned before, if you have no spare time because you have kids to look after, that's your fault. Nobody forced you to have kids at such a young age.

It's not that you can't. It's that you don't want to.

Lion belt wrote:

Most people who do doubles are unemployed.

It is hard to get to 100mpw with singles.

Not true. I work 40-50 hours per wk and have no problem running doubles. People who say this are just making excuses.

High Mileage Runner wrote:

It's not that you can't. It's that you don't want to.

What a badass

You shouldn’t say things are easy. I’m finding out that it is offensive. Whodathunkit

no excuses. wrote:

Lion belt wrote:

Most people who do doubles are unemployed.

It is hard to get to 100mpw with singles.

Not true. I work 40-50 hours per wk and have no problem running doubles. People who say this are just making excuses.

You either are unemployed of have zero life , activities or social relations.

It s ok though, a lot of ultra runners are unemployed or part time employed. Just admit it.

It s easy to run 110 mpw doubles .... but only if you have nothing else to do.

High Mileage Runner wrote:

dadsfadsfdasfdsafdas wrote:

8 miles in an hour? You must be in sub 27 shape to be able to run so fast....

Oh dear oh dear oh dear. You've attempted to mock me but in the process you've made a complete fool of yourself. I will refrain from mocking you in retaliation as I sympathise with those who suffer from dyscalculia. I shall explain why you are incorrect:

8 miles in 1 hour is a pace of 7:30 per mile, while a 27 minute 10k is a pace of roughly 4:24 per mile. Despite what you suggest, running 8 miles at 7:30 pace does not suggest I am in the sort of shape in which I could sustain a pace over 3 minutes per mile faster.

Spend more time reading this board. Run a mere 3 mins/mile slower than your 10k pace is going to leave you burnt out and injured in no time at all. I have read that on numerous letsrun threads so it most be true.

And lets not even mention, you. aren't even hitting 100mpw. Run a more reasonable 140mpw and see where the time goes....