100 miles a week is less than 15 hours a week. That's really not that much time. Especially considering an average run is under 90 minutes and the longest around two hours. When I was still trying to make it as a cyclist I was riding 25+ hours a week while working 30+ hours a week. At that point I didn't have much life outside of training and racing, but that's what it takes. Nowadays I run like 12 hours a week and still have lots of time to do other stuff.
coachy wrote:
At one point I ran up to 150 mpw and worked 50 hours per week with a wife and kids
Nice
Hold my Hot Pocket wrote:
YESSIR wrote:
For me it is not about the actual time spent running, that is more than doable to achieve in my schedule. Rather its the fatigue - if I am running 15 miles a day, I'll definitely need a nap in the afternoon, and my wife aint having it.
The most I can run before my wife would probably divorce me is about 60-70 miles. At the mileage I am not half asleep and useless to my wife and kids by 6 p.m.
I agree with this take. Most of the responses in this thread emphasize that running 100mpw doesn't take all that much time. Sure, I get that even for a decidedly non-elite runner like myself, the actual time spent running is less than 2 hours a day - not unmanageable. But it's so tiring! I may feel good during the runs themselves, but then crash about an hour into my workday. Everybody acts like finding the time in the daily schedule is the only concern. But what about walking around like a zombie all day?
So for all those type-A folks who easily fit in 100+ mpw while also dating, renovating their home, volunteering at the local shelter, raising 8 kids, spending quality time with the fam, maintaining a small dairy farm on the side...more power to you. But in answer to the OP, I say it's very hard for some people to run 100mpw while leading a "normal" life.
You guys need to eat more
I run around 100mpw while having my own business and raising a kid. I typically run between 5am and 7am. Have breakfast with the kid, bring her to daycare, and work in the morning. After around 2pm it's family time. I bring the kid to bed around 7pm and go to bed myself at 8pm.
So I think the two things that allow me to run so much are: no social life in the evenings (even if I wanted to, it'd be hard in our small town (and there's covid)), and working only 5-6 hours a day (I'm super lucky that my business partner doesn't mind working so little either).
I'm super happy with the balance and feel very lucky: I get to spend lots of time running, have a satisfying job and spend lots of time each day with my family. I also know that if anything happens, I'll have to cut down on the miles: if at any point I'd need a real job, or if something happens with my wife/kid, or if we decide to buy a house, whatever. I'm fine with that and will enjoy the running as long as it lasts.
I did as much as 120 miles a week when I was 34. Back then, 5 children. Now 48 years old, 11 children, 76 miles a week. Worked from home the entire time as a software engineer. It does help being good at what I do as it allows me to set my own terms to some reasonable extent. Sending signal 11 to a MySQL server process will give you a sample of my technical writing in the error log :)
GettingFasterDude wrote:
Lets do the math:
There's 168 hours in a week.
Subtract sleep (8hrs per day x 7 days = 56)
That leaves you with 112 hours. Now subtract your 50 hr for work (40hr + commute).
You're at 62 hours remaining.
Subtract 1 hour per day (7) for showering, hygiene, etc and you're at 55 hours.
Subtract 5 hours for chores and miscellaneous and you're at 50.
Now subtract 15 hours for running (7+ min/mile) and you're at 40 hours per week, remaining.
Don't waste time on social media, TV, mindless web surfing, and you've got 35 hours per week, or about 5 hours per day to divide between family, friends and significant others. Or, 2 hours per day during the week, and 25 hours on the weekend.
It seems doable, contingent upon not wasting any time on stupid stuff most people waste most of their time on. I guess it depends on how bad you want it, but it seems possible.
What am I missing?
I run 100mpw.
Math is more like this:
Sleep 7hrs per night = 50hrs, say 50 hrs
Work is flexible, especially now but the hours are probably still around 50
Running is more like 11.5hrs (I do run 7:00 on average give or take) but your math is wrong - even round up to 12 if you'd like.
1 hr for hygine is probably fine but that also includes getting dressed for running
I prob spend like na hour our less per day eating (only). Hello multi-tasking. The rest of the time is kids - taking them to school, playing with them etc. I still have time for an hour or so of tv if I want (sports) which I can have in the background to doing other things. i've learned too to just turn a game off when its bed time - im old enough to have seen enough disappointments in life with pro-sports that i dont need to wait up to find out if my team won or lost.
also dont forget at least 30-45min a day pooping before going for that first run
I’m surprised you think it’s that hard. I run slightly less than 100 mpw (90-95), work 50 hours a week, and am happily engaged. I used to work more but it’s gotten better during the pandemic
I've not gone up to 100MPW yet but intend to in March of 2022. I just wrapped a cycle that had me up to 75MPW, 3 weeks in a row with no days off. it was exhausting but I probably could have gutted it out to 100 if I wanted too. It took dedication, daily schedule was 3:15 wake up, back home by 5:15-5:30 depending on length of run and bed by 9:00PM. I had a workout as a second run on Tuesday or Wednesday depending on how the weather worked out. I did all of my other mileage as singles, when I punch up to 100MPW I'll run it in doubles. I do own my company but still work a minimum of 7:30-5:30 M-F at my shop/on the road and normally a few weeknight hours cleaning stuff up or focusing on big picture.
Alexi Santana wrote:
I’m surprised you think it’s that hard. I run slightly less than 100 mpw (90-95), work 50 hours a week, and am happily engaged. I used to work more but it’s gotten better during the pandemic
Lols on being engaged.
Call back when you have 3 kids and a spouse.
This whole thread is a massive circle jerk
DorkyDinkles wrote:
Alexi Santana wrote:
I’m surprised you think it’s that hard. I run slightly less than 100 mpw (90-95), work 50 hours a week, and am happily engaged. I used to work more but it’s gotten better during the pandemic
Lols on being engaged.
Call back when you have 3 kids and a spouse.
In fairness the OP didn't ask about kids - that's a bigger game changer than work or girlfriend/wife.
Having a girlfriend/wife isn't additional work and honestly probably helps lifestyle-wise - I definitely get better recovery than when I was younger and dating.
It's totally possible if you build it into your life.
1) Run commute
2) Run early in the morning on the weekends
(FWIW: in my 40s, two kids, work as a physician, started running 5-10 years ago, I take my running relatively seriously but with no background would be in solid HJ territory as defined on these fine boards)
There are many Ironman athletes that train >= 15 hrs/wk.
As others have said, its workable if you have a family, it isn't all that much time per day if you're prepared to do stuff before/after the kids are up.
Where it gets problematic is if your partner wants to do things too (and in this case marrying another runner isn't helpful!) Realistically you can probably manage an hour or so a day each at best AND have some semblance of a family life.
You just have to prioritise and make something that can keep everyone happy. Me and my wife tend to take it in turns who has a major aim for a few months - very challenging for both of you to be going for it at the same time. When it isn't my "turn" I'm just thankful for what I can do for basic exercise / mental health reasons. It is what it is, I have had kids relatively late and spent most of my adult life to now selfishly doing what I wanted to do so its not too much of a wrench to share the time out a bit now.
I like how so many people are in denial that their 100 mpw is not damaging to other aspects of their lives.
I personally average about 75 miles year round but sometimes can spend 3 straight weeks at 100-120. I used to work from office 3 days per week before the pandemic and rely on treadmill to save some time, now I'm wfh with maybe 1 ride downtown per week and treadmill hasn't left the shed since spring 2020. I get up at 5:30 am, meditate, run, have breakfast with my wife (no kids), read a book for half an hour, maybe get a 15 minute nap if it was a hard workout day, then start working. After a day of work I would clear my ming with a short 30-40 min recovery run, or sometimes I won't (if it's, say, winter and I have to put on lots of clothing). 2-3 hours left to have dinner, watch a movie, have a glass of wine. 7:30 to 8 hours of sleep. Can go fishing or rock climbing or mushroom hunting on weekends. I also squeeze in at least 20 minutes of writing my own book every day.
Now I could say this is a 'full life' but that would be a lie. It's a schedule I'm currently comfortable with, it even seems pleasant most of the time. But you have to follow it and that's pressure. Some days you're just too tired to work. Sometimes you want to meet some old friends or maybe make new ones but you just can't fit that into your schedule. To get up at 5:30 you'd better be in bed by 10pm. Some people only leave their office to bar hop at that time.
I like running and I enjoy this life – for now. I'm also painfully aware it is not sustainable in the long term. There are races I want to try and win and times I want to hit, and I should do it before I'm 40 or have kids, and I'm prepared to become uncompetitive and recreational at that time, even though I don't particularly like the idea right now.
That's me right now wrote:
I'm married, work full time, running 120 miles this week with one strength session already done that lasted a solid hour, might do another one tomorrow. I'm pretty fast so a 10 mile normal run barely takes over an hour. A 20-24 mile long run takes between 2-2.5 hours on Sunday. So it's about 2 hours per day of working out, nothing crazy. If I was only doing 100 per week it'd be less than 2 hours of work per day. When I think about what it'd be like running only 70 miles in a week, it seems so easy to average only 10 miles per day or barely an hour. I work from home most days so that saves nearly an hour on the day from the pre-covid days, so that helps. I imagine having kids would make it more difficult, but then again is it really so bad to have your wife watch the kid for an hour while you run, then you can watch the kid for an hour while your wife does something she wants to do? Or better yet, push the kid in a running stroller a couple times per week. I know someone who was still training heavy after having their kid and was literally pushing a stroller for near 100 miles in a week, only doing the workouts and long run without them.
I had the same thought...until I had a kid. Bought the running stroller and was ready to go, unitl my kid didn't like it and screamed to get out. Then I had to leave the kid with my wife on every run, and sometimes all she wants is a break from our daughter. When you're in a relationship pre-child it's a lot of individual time, when you have a kid it's a fight for individual time.
That's me right now wrote:
the100mileoverkillweek wrote:
100 mile weeks are overkill for most runners.
Kipchoge probably runs less on average through the year.
What are you training for?
LOL if you think Kipchoge isn't running 100+ mile weeks on the regular. Here's his training log before Berlin a few years ago. This is the 6 weeks leading up, so admittedly he's during his high mileage part of his training, but he's running back to back 120 mile weeks, then a 112 week and a 115 week before doing a taper into the marathon. I'd bet that he has another couple weeks of above 100 before his 120 mile weeks, and then a couple weeks of 100 before that. Meaning there's a chunk 8 weeks where he's averaging around 110 miles per week. Doing that twice per year means 4 months of the year is an average of 110 miles per week. I'd bet that a lot of the other weeks at the beginning of a buildup are still in the 70-95 mile range. Interesting thing, his 'easy' 10k runs he does for doubles he typically runs them in about 40 minutes, which is about 6:20 mile pace. And easy-moderate half marathon runs the days after workouts where he ends up running an average of around 6:00-6:10 pace, meaning he is running sub 6:00 mile pace on a good portion of those runs. An elite US runner shouldn't expect to go that fast, but shouldn't be more than 10-15 seconds per mile slower, running some 10 mile runs at 6:20 pace and the easiest of days is still like 6:45 pace.
It´s clear that you don´t know what average means.
Good god, running a 100 miles a week is easy, seriously. Not surprised you millennial think it will destroy your social life or life in general. Try this, put your offing phone down, that will save you enough time for 100 miles and anything else you want to do with the extra 30+ hours you will have each week.
And, if running 100 miles per week is that hard, you aren't cut out for it.
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