how many miles do i need to run 2:20 marathon

It's 26.2 miles just like everyone else has to run. Go for a hard 2 hour and 20 minute run and see if you cover that distance.

you are a jerk

I think the point is that nobody can just give you a number. And no number of miles is guaranteed to make you run 2:20. It also depends upon how fast you can run already. If you're a 4-hour marathoner right now, the odds are that NO amount of miles will make you run 2:20.

Best advice. Run as much as you can, as often as you can, without getting injured.

No doubt there are guys who can break 2:20 on 70, 60, or even 50 miles a week. But I think the training logs of all 2:20 marathoners out therw would show that your best chance comes with significantly more.

But I've never even broken 2:50. If you find a recipe for a 2:20, I'd sure love to hear about it.

20000-30000

that would be my estimate

one way to approach it is by what would be the best amount of mileage needed to limit the risks of injury and overtraining.

Most coaches agree with long runs of 18-22M. It is also mostly agreed upon that long runs should be about 20-25% of weekly volume. 25% of 80 miles is 20 miles. Tempo runs of up to 10 miles are said to be needed. I feel that LT runs are best keep to 15%-20% of weekly mileage. 15%of 80 miles is 12. In my honest and NOT accredited opinion, 80 is a number you might want to work with.

I was paging through a Running Times at the newsstand a month or two ago and a number of coaches were being interviewed. I recall that the consensus was 80-90 for a sub 2:30 and 100-110 for a sub 2:20.

London is 26.2 miles, Rotterdam is 42.2 kilometers. Either distance should work. Now, what do you really want to know?

I've done as many as 155 a week and never got anywhere near 2:20. I had a friend who ran 2:16:54 off of 60-70/week.

In 1976, when Runner's World was still interested in racing, they ran an article by some guy who had gone to the OT marathon that year and interviewed many qualifiers about various topics including mileage. I remember there was one guy who'd qualified with a 2:18 that he did off of 40-45 mpw and another who qualified with 2:19 that he did off of 150-175mpw.

The obvious question here is what sort of times you've done and how many miles you did to get those times.

I've never understood how experts (or anyone, for that matter) can tell people that they need to run x miles to run a:bc:de time.

There are many highly talented runners who could probably run 2:20 off of 50-60 miles/week. Of course, they'd probably run faster with more mileage.

On the other hand, there are tons of people out there who could run 200 mile weeks for 10 years without approaching a 2:20 marathon.

So, as others have mentioned, we need to know more about TK to take any kind of educated guess. If TK is the kind of guy who ran 4:40 without training at age 14 and is currently a 27:30 guy, then, lucky you, he could probably get away with 50 mile weeks. On the other hand, if TK has been running high mileage for 10 years and still hasn't run 35:00 for 10k, I'd say that 2:20 just isn't gonna happen no matter what.

simple question - not so simple answer.

My rule of thumb - run as many miles as possible but not so many that...

...your workouts stink

...you get injured

...you get sick

In truth the answer depend on so many other variables

1/ hours sleep

2/ running background

3/ diet

4/ weight

5/ running effeciency

6/ sex

I think experts have an idea about the physiology behind different running events and experience working with lots of runners. Generally you can run about 3:30 off 50 mpw and maybe 2:45 off 65. there aren't many people running ot qualifiers or getting 10k starts at grand prix races off superlow mileage. then again . . .

I still don't see how anyone can accurately make statements like "you can run 3:30 off of x mileage, but if you want to run 2:45, you'll have to put in y miles per week." I'm sure you could calculate average mileage requisites, but these would only be close for a very small portion of the population. I know one guy who ran 2:49 with no formal running training and a 10 mile long run. I know another guy who ran well over 100 miles/week and never broke 3:00. I don't think either of these cases is particularly extreme. Personally, I could run 3:30 off of about 40 miles/week, but it would take me triple that to run 2:45 (just about my limit).

C'mon Wejo. Answer this question.

ttc wrote:

C'mon Wejo. Answer this question.

It's a stupid question, not worthy of a response.

If you seriously need to ask that question you are not ready for a marathon. Go back and learn the basics first.

I believe many people can run a faster marathon if they would vary their mileage and do key workouts that build specific marathon racing ability. You can run a 140 miles per week by doing two 10 mile runs per day and never be really a good runner. The key workouts are the real deal that makes or breaks your success in marathoning. I recall two examples of elite runners who ran faster marathons after they reduced their mileage: Benji Durden and Steve Jones. Benji dropped to 85-90 and Steve to 85 the year he ran his best marathon (running no single run past 18 miles in preparation for the Chicago Marathon race where he set a world record. Both Benji and Steve focused on key workouts and then filled in the other days with 45 minute runs. A friend of mine from college ran 2:17 for the marathon off of 60-65 miles per week with a high week of 75 (only once). He ran a lot of 4 mile threshold runs mixed with distance in the same workout to condition his body for the stress. A guy we both know who was a low 28 min 10k runner (training 150 miles per week) couldn't break 2:20. He ran lots of mileage and lots of workouts of fast mile repeats. he didn't focus on threshold and marathon paced runs. I think an guy who can run 32 minutes for the 10k can run 2:22 for the marathon if he does a bunch of race pace workouts that last a couple hours (say 10-13 miles at race pace or faster and another 8-10 at an easier pace. The other key would be leg strength. Do lots of hills in your long runs and that will make a huge difference in your marathon performance. I think you should focus on 80 miles per week with a long run every other week that simulates racing the marathon and do a hilly run on the opposite week at a pace 5-7% slower than race pace for 90 minutes, no more. Do a threshold workout every week. The rest are filler 45 minute easy runs.

Toyosaburo,

How 'bout providing a little personal history so that we could make a little bit more of an educated guess for you. How fast have you run a marathon before off of how many miles would be a good place to start.

I'm kind of leaning with mplatt... that your asking at all doesn't make your chances look so good. But, maybe you're a talented runner that has yet to try his hand at the marathon? So give 5, 10, and half-mary PRs as well. All the best for whichever one you train for.