90 mpw = mental killer

You know, if you ever aspire to do the marathon, the higher mileage is a mental builder, NOT a mental killer. It's long, boring, and requires a tremendous amount of patience. Easy and long, very long. The higher mileage teaches you how to train properly too on your easy days, which are the most important days of the week.

Personally, I like 20-40 min. loops, do those 1-2 times, and then branch onto roads (~run to a neighboring town, campus, park). I'll also find grassy areas and do 20-30 min. of a run barefoot (1-3 times/week). Out and back runs aren't bad either, if the scenery is varied and the run stays steady (~doesn't cross too many streets/stop lights). 20+ mile long runs are fun cause you literally run everywhere!

Mountain Goat wrote:
Rolled up Aces over Kings wrote:
[quote]Lazy Llama wrote:
but...have you ever tried just not going out for that next run? [quote]
I disagree, and I should have put this in my longer post. When your mentally tired, DON'T skip a day. As long as nothing is physically wrong with you, make sure you get out there and do something. Start slow, or take off a mile if you know you can make it up later, but skipping a day just gives yourself license to skip more days. If you do something, and stay "obsessive about training," it'll make it easier to get out next time your feeling down. Missing one day is no big deal physiologically, but it kills your routine, and the next day will be worse, not better. It would take several days to recover mentally and want to run again, and by that time your opponents will have dropped 40 (or more) miles on top of you.
I disagree with your idea, but understand where you are coming from. Habits are usually a reinforcer of habit; however when someone's focus begins to blur and motivation becomes less potent, it is usually a sign of physiologic burnout.
Mileage is great, within bounds of a person's ability to " absorb" it. This will change when the protracted stress of miles/ speed or combinations thereof become greater than the bodies ability to adapt. The mind will signal that the body isn't doing well and will turn the motivation to run down and conversly the motivation to stop more potent.
Typically the person that continues to think that they need to tough it through because this is part of the training process and by backing off a terrible habit of laziness will take its place is grossly misdirected.
What usually happens if someone continues he or she will experience a reduction in performance, with motivation continuing to wane. After some time depression sets in, because the investment isn't giving the returns.
After a while this person will become injured or get sick. All this hype about keeping the pressure on and not backing down is counterproductive.
Summer is usually a time that people "overtrain" as the added stress of heat overwhelms the physiology of that person.
Not all bad days are grounds to take a break; however if it becomes a pattern, there is no other choice than to break. The continuous persistence will cause the performance well to deepen and more time off will be required.
Addressing the original post, please don't take my word or the word of anyone else in this thread. Do some of your own research on "overtraining". Use that term in a Google search and see what you find.

Moutain goat -

This is a very good post.

TiredXCrunner -

Why don't you take a easy/down week? maybe a 50 mile week with a day rest. It's a mistake to train and train without taking any down weeks and some days off from time to time.

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