Any other high mileage female runners on here?

Yes, I run high mileage.

If you keep getting faster, you are doing it correctly. If you start getting slower, you are not.

bump

Are you having your period?

I'm a fairly new runner (coming up on 4 years). I saw substantial improvements when I bumped the mileage up to 70, and then again to 90. It all went very well for about 2 years (started at a 48 minute 10K, finished at a 68 minute 10 miler), and then I hit a year long cycle of injury that culminated in a broken foot.

So now I'm at about 35 miles per week, plus 12+ hours of pool running. The general consensus is that I don't seem to be able to handle high mileage right now, so I do what I can on land, and do the rest in the pool.

Of course, I'm in my later 30s, so I recover less well than you. But I am a HUGE believer in tons of EASY miles, if you can handle them. I ran most of mine at 9-9:30 pace (or slower, if conditions warranted) and saw major benefits.

I saw this thread and before I clicked on it immediately thought of you and jaguar off the top of my head. I'd been meaning to ask you what your improvements were with that bump of mileage. So over the course of 2 years you went from a 48 min 10k to a 68 min 10 miler? How did your 5k and/or 10k PRs improve? Was this 90 miles a week for a consistent few months?

Hope you recover soon from your injuries and keep running on those soft surfaces!

another college runner wrote:

I'd been meaning to ask you what your improvements were with that bump of mileage. So over the course of 2 years you went from a 48 min 10k to a 68 min 10 miler? How did your 5k and/or 10k PRs improve? Was this 90 miles a week for a consistent few months?

Was actually just under 3 years (I mis-typed). Started with a 48 minute 10K in June 2007, ran 68:02 for a 10 miler in April 2010.

My PRs from 5K-half-marathon have always been very consistent -- just about equal according to McMillan (differences can be explained by elevation profiles or weather). I think I'm actually naturally much stronger at the shorter distances, but the high mileage and low quality kept me equal.

Not 90 miles a week always -- I'd do a period of 2-3 months where I wouldn't race, but would do 2-3 weeks at 90, 1 at 70. Then I'd drop down to 60-70 for racing for 2-3 months.

Here's a graph of my weekly mileage from June 2007 through to the present. My injury history over the last year is painfully obvious :)

Great job on the PRs! I am currently trying to build up to higher mileage, doing around 80 mpw right now but hoping to get up to 100 mpw. Mostly progression runs for now, with some strides, etc.

OP, do you think you could post a typical week of training?

Yes females are tough and can do it. Buut.... why does the OP want to be a bony amenhorreic runnergirl with no boobs and no a$$? What's the point of this torment? If she's very close to an OT 10k qualifier OK I'd understand but to be a raging hobby jogger, there's no point at all.

Very high mileage women look worse than very high mileage men, because the proportional reduction of subcutaneous fat is higher and the bag of bones effect is even worse.

You might search the forums for posts from Patti Dillon (a.k.a. "patti"). She has plenty of experience running 100+/week and some success from it.

Genuinely cool and motivating but I have two questions and a statement.

0 - How do you feel the pool running and low mileage is in contrast to your previous training?

1 - Pics?

2- Shouldve ran 69