Building up to 85-100 mpw over the summer, suggestions?

If you peaked out at 65 and only did that once last year I would not try to hit the 100 mark at all. Mileage increases should be something done gradually untill a 75 mile week feels like a 50 mile week. What you need to do is go no higher than 70-75 and be consistent with that during the summer. Then next year 80-85, and the next 90-95 etc. When Kara Goucher ran her first 10K on the track in 06 she was only doing 60-65 per week. Salazar upped her mileage gradually. I think you need to do the same. Good luck.

Listen to the first response. If you run 100 a week you will probably will be hurt or burned out or both. If you don't get to state on 75 you most likely wouldn't get there on 100.

25 mpw is pretty big ... that extra 25 mpw could make the difference.

25 extra mile a week times 4 weeks equals 100 miles.

This is a bold strategy, but possible if done intelligently.

Here's some of my thoughts

1. The difference between 85 and 100 is a lot. So even if you could, I would suggest taking more time to get to 100. 90 is a good goal for you I think.

2. What kind of program are you going to transition into? If you are going back to doing 60 miles per week than I wouldn't suggest this approach. Training to run high mileage, only to back off as soon as the season hits is not smart. On the other hand, if your coach will let you to continue running 90 mile weeks and back it off in the final weeks, I would say this buildup can be good.

3. Don't run slow all the time. Mix up the paces. But don't run day after day too fast either. Make sure you do 2-3 long slow runs/week and at least one long run at a moderate pace every week. By the end of your training you should start doing 5-10 mile tempo runs.

4. Find out if your body responds to double days or single days runs. I recommend running all your mileage in singles if possible. But, when you are building up sometimes you need to run doubles.

5. Build up to an 18-20 mile long run. Long runs are the most important day of the week!

Tip 6. Eat a lot, Drink a lot, Sleep a lot.

Well, when the season starts in September, we start doing a lot more quality stuff like intervals, etc. So I figure I might just keep the mileage in the 70s (70-80)... doubles will also be a little harder once school starts (have to get up earlier in the morning), but I should be able to still put in some of the mileage in the morning. I'll definitely have to extend all my runs/do longer cooldowns, warmups etc. to maintain the mileage.

I feel like one of my weaker points is also hills, so I think hill repeats would be good... I was thinking a rough schedule like this:

Day 1 - pm 6-7 easy w/ strides

Day 2 - am 3-5 easy, pm tempo run

Day 3 - am 3-5 easy, pm 6-7 easy w/ strides

Day 4 - am 3-5 easy, pm either 1200 repeats (4-6) w/ 400 jog or 200 repeats with full recovery (alternate every other week)

Day 5 - am 3-5 easy, pm 6-7 easy w/ strides

Day 6 - am 3-5 easy, pm tough hilly run such as a 7-10 mile hard/hilly run in the mountains

Day 7 - 12-14 miles long run

Does this sound good? The only thing is taking the long run somewhat easier (or 24 hours after Day 6) because of the tougher run on Day 6.

bump.

Its not a bad start, but I wouldn't do so many hard runs when you are trying to increase mileage rapidly. Like I said before, I greatly prefer doing mileage in singles only. And also since you will be dropping down to 70s, I wouldn't go higher than 80 in the summer. It is pointless to build up to 90-100 for only a few weeks (risking injury, sickness, and long term fatigue) if you are only going to run 70-80 in the season. I also recommend building miles gradually and extending the length of intervals, tempo runs, and long runs simultaneously throughout the season until its time for the big races.

So a season might look like this

Summer: Build up from 50-75 over summer with some hills, short speed workouts (200 and 300 repeats), and shorter tempos (Aerobic threshold about 30-45 minutes, Lactate Threshold 15 minutes), and some easier VO2 max type workouts (200s and 400s)

Early Season: Build mileage 75-80 with lots of hill workouts, some race pace workouts (400s, 800s, 1000s) increasing throughout the season), Lots of tempos (mostly AT 45-60min), a few races, and an occasional VO2 max workout (400-800 repeat), and don't forget that long run.

Mid Season: 70-80 miles depending on the quantity and difficulty of races: I would do longer repeats close to race pace (1200s, Miles) and I would really work on the Lactate Threshold workouts (20-30mins tempo runs). Keep up the long runs and monitor your energy level carefully (if your tired run easy, eat better, and sleep more)

End Season: 60-70 miles, Keep the long runs, maintain fitness with shorter intervals at race pace and 15-20 min Lactate Threshold tempo runs. Do a lot of strides.

I hope this helps

just monitor yourself and back off if necessary to stay healthy Don't run too many slow junk miles, do some hard runs too. You only have one senior year. Go for it.

I am going to make this short because you probably won't listen.

You are doing too many miles according to this plan. You will either A) get injured or B) Burn out far before State. Jump up to 75 mpw. That is plenty high for a high school girl (if not too high, imo). Plus I would only do one work out a week, do strides and core work 2-3 times a week though.

So in summary, while doing this many miles sounds attractive and like it will lead to a big jump your odds are much better with a solid summer of 70-75 mile weeks.

If not too high? Would you be saying the same thing if she was a boy?

Girls can handle the mileage just as well. Look at Doris Brown Heritage, 200+ mpw.

couple things... if the most you have done jumping to 75-80 will do a lot for your time- remember it is not all about the miles... a couple things-

1-i would cut out the hard hilly run in the mountains- just alternate your tempo over flat and some rolling hills and you should be good

2- i would cut out the am on day 3 & 6 to give yourself some more time just to recover

3- i would work the long run up to 13-14 (don't need to go over that)

4- also to help recover make sure to have down weeks- 3 weeks up then 4th down (85%)

5- so that works out to this, keeping may and june the same then in july do 70-70-70-60 and then in august do something like 75-80 with a down week of around 65.

at peak the day to day would look like this: monday-sunday

day 1- 3-4 easy am, 7 easy

2- 3-4 easy am, 10 pm tempo

3- am off, pm 7 easy

4- 3-4 easy am, 10 pm 1200s/200s

5- 3-4 easy am, 7 pm easy

6- 8 miles easy

7- 13-14 progressive/easy

Get your mileage up, THEN add intensity. Cranking up both at the same time is begging for injury.

Over the summer, whether in HS or college, you should focus mainly on running consistent mileage. What I mean by that is if you're planning on increasing your mileage, you should just focus on increasing your mileage.

If you do all those workouts you have listed, a couple of things will happen: 1. You'll overtrain. Increasing your mileage and doing such intensity is very likely to get you hurt. 2. You'll be in fantastic shape for the start of the season (if you get that far) and not do much after that.

It would be best for you to shoot for 70-75mpw, get in strides twice a week and do a fartlek or tempo once per week (and a long run, no need for it to be longer than 13 -14mi as someone else mentioned). That will help you maintain some speed and leg turnover as well as good speed endurance without overdoing the intensity with the increase in mileage. However, first you need to get used to running the increased mileage.

For anyone who thinks I'm saying any of this because this is a HS girl, I can tell you it makes no difference, male or female. Building up mileage will be very helpful, but consistency is more important than anything else. If you can run one or two 80 mile weeks, but then have to take the next week down to 40 or 50 because you're so tired (or you have to take time off b/c you get injured), then the 80 mile weeks are doing you very little. Run the mileage you can consistently hold for the majority of the summer and you will gain much more fitness.

As one person already mentioned, do either two weeks higher and one week lower or, ideally, three weeks higher and one week lower (much lower to allow for true recovery). This differs from what I wrote above because this is a _chosen_ decrease in mileage, not a _forced_ one due to fatigue/overtraining.

Also remember that if you are interested in running at the college level, unless your times and places are stunning, having run more than 70-75 mile weeks will actually be a detriment to you when talking with college coaches. Most of them want someone who has a lot of improvements yet to make and if you are running a ton of mileage as a high schooler, unless you are running absolutely amazing times, they will be less interested in you as a strong prospect for their team because they will assume that you have less potential for great improvement at the collegiate level (which may or may not be the case, but only time can tell that).

Hope this helps. I wish you the best in your pursuit. It's great that you have such goals. Think long-term and consistency and you'll put yourself in a very good position.

Personally I think 100 mpw is too high for you based on what you've told us so far. How long have you been running? What are your times? Are you running in college? There is nothing magical about 100 mpw, but it's different for each person. The problem isn't the amount of mileage, but the intensity and time period. You are talking about nearly doubling your mileage in a couple of months. I'm sure you can run that much eventually, and your times will improve, but it's not smart to increase it that fast and include workouts at the same time. The first step to running well is to stay uninjured.

After looking at the last few comments, I guess I'll focus on the mileage first before adding the 1200s, 200s.

So I should be able to build up to in the 70s (with just one tempo a week, the rest being easy/medium runs) by around the end of June, just increasing conservatively (like 5 miles a week).

Then, at this point, I can keep it in the 70s and add in the second hard day of 1200s or 200s (alternate every other week). By the end of July, I'll still be maintaining around 70-80 mpw. And then in August, maybe add in a few hill days, staying around 70-80 mpw again... perhaps reach a high of around 85.

When the season starts, there will be more intensity such as mile repeats, more hills, etc. I'll probably drop down to ~70 in September, and then ~65 in October and 60 in November. I know it's a bit early to plan all this (as things can change, etc) but I like having a rough outline.

To the poster above, yes, I would really like to run in college. The thing is that some of the colleges I would like to go to also have pretty good teams... and the only way to reach those certain times for me is to run high mileage and improve more.

Learn to be humble. What's the point of running 85 miles a week (if you even get there) if you have a stress fracture in the fall? Exactly. Don't throw put in jeopardy what may be your last XC season of your life.

so during an xc season ur almost never doing 1500 meter pace work or faster?