What factors limit one's mileage?

Fear is big but impatience is another.

The most common complete I hear is people get too fatigued to run fast and there is no improvement.

The thing to remember is the improvements take place many months down the line when you are able to run better quality efforts, more of them, and recover quicker, all because of the mileage base you put in.

Injury history.

Experience. Physical and mental experience.

will.

kmh wrote:

will.

Hey, I've got nothing to do with it....

6) Lack of motivation. It's a lot easier to talk about running 100+ miles a week than it is to actually go do it.

work.

kmh wrote:

will.

Not only Will, but Frank too. Man I HATE those guys!

time and beer

family?

usually the factor "2x" although sometimes "5y" limits mileage.

engine size, aerodynamics, and total vehicle weight.

The biggest factor for myself is the distance of the races I am running. I am a 5k/10k guy with the occasional 15k or half marathon. I am currently running 75mpw and am feeling strong and consistent with it. In the next few weeks I will peak at 85mpw and then bring it back down to 70 and pick up the intensity of the workouts.

A lot of you are being idealistic saying that it's only determination that you need to run high miles. The body has limits. If you weigh 180 your bones and joints are going to be a lot more stressed by each step than someone who weighs 120. Stress fractures do happen regardless of motivation and you shouldn't try to run through them.

Also if you have had knee surgery or just bad knees, your joints may never be able to handle as much mileage as other people's, although the degree that they can be strengthened would surprise a lot of people.

It's important also to note the conditions. Running on soft trails is probably the easiest on your body. You probably couldn't handle as many paved miles without injury. Running on snow and ice is really tough too. I'm experiencing minor injuries from that right now even though I'm running 20 mpw less than my summer high.

B. Real wrote:

A lot of you are being idealistic saying that it's only determination that you need to run high miles. The body has limits.

untrue. you know who terry fox was? rick hansen? the body's limits are rarely, if ever, reached before the will, guts and drive to succeed of the competitor tap out.

will and drive are not equivalent to run-as-hard-as-you-can-results-and-consequences-be-damned, stupidly. train smart. if hurt, rest.

What comes first, the ability to run high mileage, or conditioning to do it?? In other words, does the ability to run 100+ per week in and of itself define elite status??

I have been told many times, my weekly volume is too low to support weekend long runs and that if I ran more then I could, well.....run more.

?running begets running?

GoHoos wrote:

What comes first, the ability to run high mileage, or conditioning to do it?? In other words, does the ability to run 100+ per week in and of itself define elite status??

I have been told many times, my weekly volume is too low to support weekend long runs and that if I ran more then I could, well.....run more.

?running begets running?

There is a lot to what you say, but running 100 mpw is not in and of itself enough to define elite. Getting to the level of consistently handling 100 mpw got me under 2:30 in the 'thon, but that is not elite (at least not to people reading this). With the exception of some mid-distance guys and extremely talented individuals, however, it is a prerequisite.

For me, the limiting factor is usually time. I can and have run up to 130 mpw when I had the time. Until I could find time to train at that level consistently however I'd never get strong enough to get any higher.

"The body has limits. If you weigh 180 your bones and joints are going to be a lot more stressed by each step than someone who weighs 120."

Yes, but if you weigh 180 pounds and try to run high mileage, you are going to lose weight...certainly there are exceptions, but as you slowly bump up the mileage to anything even remotely regarded as "high", you aren't going to be weighing 180 pounds. I could never weigh even as much as 150 pounds when running 70 miles per week.

Boredom