Mileage increase: how soon do the signs of too much-too soon show up??

If you've been coaching for awhile or were a runner yourself you've probably heard that it is better to be 5% undertrained that 1% overtrained and I fully believe in this. According to her buildup she has been at 70 and 75 the last two weeks after never being that high before and even if she is feeling good and fresh that doesn't mean she should keep increasing. By that logic do you just keep increasing until you feel like crap? If she is still feeling good at 70-75 miles in another 4-6 weeks then you can think about increasing the mileage again - maybe another down week of around 50 before she increases.

It is possible that she can handle a whole lot more, but it is just as likely (if not more likely) that continuing to increase would raise the risk of injury to much. There is a time whe a person may want to increase dramatically, but the first time a person runs that kind of mileage they will usually need some time to adjust.

One of the reasons that an increased mileage makes us faster is because it reduces the idle time for the legs. This means that they don't get cold and stiff and they remain coordinated. The same effect could probably be gained from the right amount of strides (thus reducing food load and opportunity for injury). Workouts make us faster, the runs in between keep us loose so we can perform to our current ability (very simplified).

You could get fast from doing just a few workouts a week if you could figure out how to stay loose and warm (It's been done).

Signs of too much?

Legs get tired or burning AT ALL from walking up stairs is a sign. I'll let other posters post other signs.

Also, instead of increasing the mileage, maybe you should increase the volume and/or intensity of the workout days.

My personal experience is it can take a month before I feel like I did too much. I always felt really good after I hit a peak week. I'd take a month of 70-75 and see how she feels. It might be better to keep it there and throw in a fartlek or progression run.

Thanks for the responses.

Yeah I realize the need not to increase every week and let the body adjust. I guess the part of the question that I failed to clarify was rather than about how high I could set the peak mileage weeks during the summer rather than in the immediate weeks ahead...I mean if she's already at 75 so after another week or two in the 70s and then a down week the next cycle will be right around 80...is that where I draw the line as the peak for the summer even if the athlete is still feeling fresh? I'm just asking because a lot of accounts that I have read seem to indicate that it's normal to feel a little fatigued even during safe mileage increase, so if she's not feeling any noticeable effect at all would it be sign that she might be able to approach 85 during a high mileage cycle in 4-6 weeks or so or is it better off to play it safe and peak at 80. My tendency is to err on the side of caution but I'm just wondering if I'm being too conservative.

All of you should quit coaching or running.

You need to ask MORE questions before dispensing advice or blathering.

How old is she?

How many YEARS has she been running?

How is her Weight, Diet???

How much sleep is he getting?

Swimming, Cycling, Core work too?

Etc. Etc. Etc.

i'm with other dude.

are you increasing volume of the interval days and the tempo runs?

you should try that instead of possibly wasting energy on easy runs.

it's just 10k. no need to go from 50 to 80mpw

Yeah, now that look at the schedule again...I don't think there's a need to go over 80 no matter good she is feeling. The goal will be be running 80 a week feeling as good as she is right now.....

Thanks for the responses...

real experience wrote:

One of the reasons that an increased mileage makes us faster is because it reduces the idle time for the legs. This means that they don't get cold and stiff and they remain coordinated. The same effect could probably be gained from the right amount of strides (thus reducing food load and opportunity for injury). Workouts make us faster, the runs in between keep us loose so we can perform to our current ability (very simplified).

This is very, very wrong. You probably shouldn't give advice to people.

OP 85/week is probably fine. Make sure she takes her easy days EASY, though. Most runners can handle much higher mileage than they run, generally, but they run too hard on days that don't need to be hard and aren't able to recover between workouts. Probably the worst thing to do is hammer out long runs every week.

Yeah one of the first thing I had her do was cut her speed back on her easy runs.....she's currently running most of her daily easy runs at about 7:10-7:15 which is still maybe a bit quick for a 36:00 10k runner....and then dropping the speed down a bit more at least once a week.

As far as the weekly long run, she's built up to 2 hour run over the course of 2 months just to help build up her base and I am going to start cutting that back and mixing in some 90 minute progressive runs, etc in it's place.

So she is running her "daily easy runs" at a pace faster than a pace she could run a Marathon? Either she is in 34 10k shape right now, or she is running much too fast.

Either of those statements could be true, I don't know which. Her moods should tell you. Watch for signs of grumpiness or obsessiveness as indicators of overtraining.

I quite often run 7:10-7:15 pace for my easy runs, and a 36:00 10k would be a pretty easy workout for me. She's going waaaaaay too fast on her easy runs.

I think it's a combination of both....not much experience racing so the 36:00 is probably not a true indicator of her fitness level right now and she's probably pushing the pace a little too hard.... I'll have her back off a little more.

Also...wouldn't a 36:00 indicate a marathon pace of under 6:30?

My thinking was that 7:10 was a little fast but since we are not doing much in the way of workouts yet so it was fine. But I'd rather err on the safe side. I'll have her dial it back to 7:20-7:30 until she runs a 10k next month as fitness test to get a better idea of her current level....

I just had to have a talk with her about not hammering her runs because she just averaged almost 7:00 flat for a 2 hour run because she said she felt good in the second half and just picked it up.....

I think it's an indicator of the fact that shes in sub 36:00 shape...and also an indicator that she needs a reminder to slow down :)

thanks for the feedback!