The High Mileage Test (Inspired by NIKE FREE ME) Training Log

Love this thread. Adidas / others - can you quickly comment on two things? I run 12 times per week but less mileage, looking to ramp. Also am very busy hence questions:

1) Minimal time between doubles? Is there an optimum rest given mileage? I know other threads on this but curious in context of very high mileage.

2) Any quick guidance on time per run / per day? Adidas it looks like many of your days are 60 min (8 mile) + 90 min (12+). I wont hit 140 and am running slower, but just curious how folks like to break it up. (Assume no injury or extra fatigue- just a normal day).

I saw one post that said just fit your running around life. Others saying adjust by feel. I am time constrained and need to plan these things out.

Great thread, thanks in advance.

Aspiring high mileage runner wrote:

Love this thread. Adidas / others - can you quickly comment on two things? I run 12 times per week but less mileage, looking to ramp. Also am very busy hence questions:

1) Minimal time between doubles? Is there an optimum rest given mileage? I know other threads on this but curious in context of very high mileage.

2) Any quick guidance on time per run / per day? Adidas it looks like many of your days are 60 min (8 mile) + 90 min (12+). I wont hit 140 and am running slower, but just curious how folks like to break it up. (Assume no injury or extra fatigue- just a normal day).

I saw one post that said just fit your running around life. Others saying adjust by feel. I am time constrained and need to plan these things out.

Great thread, thanks in advance.

1. In the past, before work got in the way, I was consistently getting in 13 runs a week. 4 hours should be the minimum time between doubles and optimum would be something like 6-8.

2. As a college frosh, I added in 20-30 min short runs each day and kept those there until I was doing 10+miles 6 days out of 7 on my longer runs (and a 20+ long run). I then brought those shorter runs to 30-40 mins until I was doing 90+ minutes 6 days out of 7, then worked the shorter runs to 60 mins. That's as far as I got. I did like 3 years of that, marred by injuries, before starting a job for which I have to arrive at 6 am. I still do short runs some mornings at 4 am but now the focus is on lengthening the afternoon runs beyond 90 - when I get off work in time. Adulting sucks.

When I was running that much I often had 3-4 hours between runs.

Dec. 27 - Jan. 2

Dec. 27 | 14 miles

Dec. 28 | 11.2 miles

Dec. 29 | 14.2 miles

Dec. 30 | 15.5 miles

Dec. 31 | 5 miles AM, 4.5 miles PM ( patellar tendon pain)

Jan. 1 | 0 miles + Strength Routine

Jan. 2 | 6 miles (patellar niggle) + Strength Routine

Total: 64.4 miles, 2 x Strength

Notes: felt like a stabled race horse. after 21 days off around Christmas, I was eager to get back to my work and training routine. I logged some decent mileage in the first half of the week but on a country loop, I had to tuck my tail between my legs and jog back to my truck because I was experiencing the beginnings of patellar tendonosis. I think this came about for 3 reasons: 1) I have lack of self-care/mobility/strength. I think some of my muscles went to zzz after 2 days off around Christmas. 2) for me personally, logging 0 days without active recovery like a light swim, calisthenic circuit or dynamic stretch increases injury risk (I just turned 36), and 3) I raced bikes for years and work as a courier for a few more. My cyclist nuero-musculature is constantly surprised by how far forward the pelvis is pushed as well as how elongated the upper body and side bodies are to "stand tall" and trigger big elastic returns through the kinetic chain. The irony of this is, people tout cycling as a great constraining activity to runners. But without a neutral pelvis and a tall upper body, engaging those powerful cyclist glutes during push-off and hip drive is minimal. In conclusion, cycling is great for strengthening the glutes AND putting them to sleep during the runner's gait cycle.

Not quite out of the woods but with a couple days off and a bunch of sleep and some strength work, the knee is about out of the woods. Have been logging 10-12 miles/day the last few days.

I am not going to blow this thread up again until I am logging actual high mileage weeks. I don't want to take away from the awesome stuff Adidas Free Me is doing. Best wishes all.

Adidas Free Me - I hope your training has continued to go well man. Amazing amazing weeks logged so far. Curious about the last couple weeks and how you are feeling now. Are you keeping the mileage up around 140 still? You mentioned you were going to drop it a bit for indoor? I am so lost on t&f and xc seasons right now due to COVID. How much more time you got to blast high mileage?

*2 days off around Christmas.

bump

95 miles in singles this week . 3x Strides. 2x Strength circuit. 1x Alactic Hills.

I'll aim for 100 in singles next week and see how the legs feel. If decent, I'll add in 1 or 2 evening jogs. Brooks Tempos are a great no non-sense shoe. Sadly, probably too expensive for my blood if I keep pushing Winter mileage.

I have a competitive 100k trail race in May.

In order to podium, I would probably need to hold 100+ mpw for a couple months with some workouts and continued strength circuits (I personally do well with it). Plan is to give myself until mid-march to push mileage and then dial back the volume to give room for more quality. If I am responding well to the volume, however, I might just stay high through this 100k and then consider Fall and Winter races for peaking. Open to thoughts. Hope OP is well. Cheers all.

Here's a little update in case anyone is curious. I've averaged 106 miles/week the last 11 weeks (dropped down to 90 ish miles weeks after another at 105 after my last post) and picked up the pace and workouts and started racing. So far I've run an 8:43 3k (so a pretty large PR for indoors). I have a 5k soon and will probably update in a little while. My plan is to keep mileage lower until march and then I'll probably get back over 100 for a bit to prep for 10ks.

I'm really glad you're still pursuing this challenge as this thread has really intrigued me. Good luck with everything.

adidas free me wrote:

Here's a little update in case anyone is curious. I've averaged 106 miles/week the last 11 weeks (dropped down to 90 ish miles weeks after another at 105 after my last post) and picked up the pace and workouts and started racing. So far I've run an 8:43 3k (so a pretty large PR for indoors). I have a 5k soon and will probably update in a little while. My plan is to keep mileage lower until march and then I'll probably get back over 100 for a bit to prep for 10ks.

Glad to see the report. That seems like a nice 3k indoor race.

It looks like your mileage is quite a bit lower than your original goal (not that I'm saying you MUST train at 140 and only 140). I'm curious, how is the make of those miles compared to the big weeks? Faster training runs? More workouts? About the same but just less miles?

keepgoing wrote:

It looks like your mileage is quite a bit lower than your original goal (not that I'm saying you MUST train at 140 and only 140). I'm curious, how is the make of those miles compared to the big weeks? Faster training runs? More workouts? About the same but just less miles?

Yeah, my coach and I decided it was probably best to come down in mileage while upping intensity for the indoor season. I do tend to go a lot faster now than I did. I had a week where I did 95 miles at 6:30 average, but it's usually closer to 7 flat (so easy days are a little slower because that includes workouts). Workouts are more intense, but nothing crazy and about the same frequency (2x/week). I also don't double on long run days and probably only do 4-5/week and they're not 8:30 pace, they're also around 7:30 or faster now.

So basically fewer miles and generally faster.

Sounds like you've found a nice sweet spot in the training and it's working really well for you.

I'm excited to see how you continue to tweak things for the 10k. And then maybe some big base work over summer before XC?

adidas free me wrote:

Here's a little update in case anyone is curious. I've averaged 106 miles/week the last 11 weeks (dropped down to 90 ish miles weeks after another at 105 after my last post) and picked up the pace and workouts and started racing. So far I've run an 8:43 3k (so a pretty large PR for indoors). I have a 5k soon and will probably update in a little while. My plan is to keep mileage lower until march and then I'll probably get back over 100 for a bit to prep for 10ks.

So as expected, you failed at running the megahigh mileage just as most people suspected. There is a reason why most college kids end up in the 80-110mpw range with 2 workouts rather than running 140mpw. And it isn't because they are lazy... And as you can see it does give results.

keepgoing - honestly, I felt worse on that lower mileage, I don't think it was a sweet spot tbh. After indoors I immediately upped my mileage from my 80 ish to 120 ish and felt way fitter almost instantly, kinda weird. I just ran a 10k and it went pretty well for my first one ever, went roughly 16:30 - 15:30 for a 32 flat, but I am pretty sure I can go a lot faster than that. The plan is to actually do the 140 mile weeks this summer, I think it will continue to make me fitter.

adsfdasfasfsafadfa - True, I sort of failed, but mostly because I'm not entirely stupid, I still want to race fast and got a little worried about being able to race well off that mileage. I now know I can probably run well off that mileage (my 2 weeks before the 10k were 120s and the week after 130). This summer I will probably be able to follow through better and really hit the miles.

Thanks for the update. And that is a mega negative split on that 10K. You can definitely go faster.

Also a timely bump for me. I've been upping my own mileage this spring (for a 40 year old) and also just started struggling between the idea of keeping this going or dropping back and doing more workouts. Always hard to know what is right. I think you made the right call by testing out the drop in mileage and increase in intensity. It didn't seem to work for you. Maybe you didn't blend things perfectly. Or maybe you should just get out and run tons of miles and that will work. Certainly seems to be trending in that direction at least.

Even with the 10k negative split you’re still running 100+ miles and would probably struggle to break 31

I don’t want to put you down man, and you can run as much mileage as you want, but there’s a difference between “feeling fit” and running fast times. The two don’t always coincide. Good luck.

No problem with the high mileage if you can handle it and enjoy it. Over time, I think it will pay off. However, you do realize your 8:43 3k indoors (which would be faster outdoors) is the rough equivalent of 31-flat for 10k? I think it’s really hard to run mega mileage and race well. You could try the every other week season with a high week and then a down race week, or, you could do the typical periodization with higher summer and winter mileage but lower during racing season to really achieve peak fitness.

I think the latter is better, and the key to it is keeping the long run in the schedule as long as possible. Also, I’m a big believer in a day off every week, preferably after the long run. But, I do think you will get fitter if you can sustain the mileage for a couple of years and avoid getting injured.