how do people run a 100 mpw

I have come to believe that durability is almost as genetic as innate talent. Almost. Lifting weights, plyometrics, massage, eating right, and getting lots of sleep can help, but at the end of the day some runners are just more durable than others.

There was a post on here a few weeks ago from a runner who had been running for a couple years and had jumped his mileage successfully to 70 mpw. I've been running for 15 years and it is a rare, rare week when I crack 40. And overtraining symptoms soon follow, along with a cold or sore throat.

Now that I coach beginning runners, I have seen a wide disparity in athletes from the get go. Some absorb workouts and can make training leaps with astonishing speed. Others recover slowly and can only make modest training increases over time. Some plateau at modest levels and encounter their personal mileage asymptote pretty early-- that point at which the injury risk and overtraining no longer make it worth grinding out those few extra miles.

People who are durable, much like people born with lots of talent, often simply want to ascribe their prowess to their hard work. With durability, some of that is true, as you do have to go out and pound the miles. Some bodies, however, were born to take the pounding more efficiently than others.

geetar wrote:

.....If I were a collegiate runner, or someone getting PAID to run, then yeah, but I'm not willing to put THAT much time and effort into a hobby. And seriously, if I run a 2:45 marathon on a peak of 75 miles, how much difference is that extra few miles going to make, and does it even matter?

This guy gets it.

Charlie Freak wrote:

Local Hero wrote:

Success breeds greater success. Once you win a local 10k you want to go to a larger locale and do the same. You need to do what you have to do in order to accomplish that.

The irony....

Translation: you can't even win a local 10k

Charlie Freak wrote:

Possible troll thread but I'll say this...

Anybody with a family and a non-running related job who runs 100 mpw is a running obsessed dork and needs to reassess their life priorities. The time and dedication it takes - usually in two-a-days - is unbalanced. There's no need for it unless you are a national- to world-class half or marathon runner who has a goal to run for a living. It's not necessary for general fitness or even to win your local 10k. I think it's a compulsion and addiction for Lydiard disciples and the like.

I'm with this guy and I have run many 100+ weeks as a working father. In college, it was easy as a 10k guy to pound big weeks. Lots of teammates to train with and plenty of time to rest. Got into the real world and it got a lot tougher. Like someone else mentioned, it's the physical exhaustion that was an issue for me. Not so much tired muscles as just being tired (like sleepy) all the time. I felt like I needed to keep high miles to compete in the marathon, so I worked out a way to run to and from work. It actually gave me more time because running 7.5 miles in DC took me LESS time than driving or taking the bus 3 miles. So I was actually able to figure out a way to log 15 miles a day without using any free time. It was all commuting time.

Anyway, I did that for a few years, ran some sub 2:30 marathon times but realized I was never going to be a pro runner (I knew that all along, it wasn't even a goal to begin with). So eventually I realized that it was just some weird masochistic ritual. I cut it back to like 50 and I'm still running 10 years later and feel better everyday. I don't know... There is a weird "good" feeling that comes with total, chronic exhaustion, but it's no way to live a life. Certainly not a productive life.

But to each his own.

Yes u are right. The ability to handle I mileage is genetic as the ability to recover quickly. Thats why you see flashes of brilliance vanish. They cant train at a high enough level consistently enough. Ability to endure and recover from high volume or high intensity training is much overlooked at the moment. A definite prequisite to be a champion.

Local Hero wrote:

Charlie Freak wrote:

The irony....

Translation: you can't even win a local 10k

Ha! Keep 'em coming!

If you could do it all over again, would you not?

Yes. I tried to come off as someone who isn't anti high-mileage. I'm not. I wouldn't have done it for so long. I think I stalled a bit at work and socially, but I was fine. It just took me a while to see the futility in my own life.

High mileage is great for building ridiculous strength, but it isn't a good lifestyle... That's what I'm trying to say.

It shouldn't be done just to be done. Have a plan/goal.

I am gonna give your question a serious answer because i used to wonder the same thing. i am also not gonna proof read b/c i have othger stuff i should be doing right now, so buckle up.

in my teens, 20s, and even early 30s, i would get extremely tired on a 40 mile week. eventually i found two things i was doing wrong.

one was not keeping my hr low enough on easy runs. go look up the hadd threads on this site and find the one where he talks about how low your hr can actually be and still get endurance adaptations. i tried this and even though my runs were embarrassingly slow, i certainly go longer with less fatigue. eventually i was running faster off the same low hr, which was a great sign of progress.

by keeping my hr in the 130s and 140s on easy days i could suddenly go twice as far with the same relative level of fatigue. my race times started getting faster. i ran Prs in everything from 400m to marathon in my late 30s. not that i was that well trained when i was young, but i was always in the sport. i wasn't really expecting the results i got.

the other thing was that i found out i was walking around nearly or fully anemic...probably for my whole adult life. get your serum ferritin tested. take enough iron to keep it b/t 50 and 100 and watch how much better you feel.

so i was a 30-40 mpw guy until i did these things. sudeenly 80-90 a week became easy (with low heart rates) and i aved 100+ a week for almost an entire year. it was hard, but I ran great also.

good luck.

This winter I was running 100mpw while working 55 hours standing on my feet in a skilled trade.

I did it by eating a lot and sleeping a lot. But also not having a girlfriend or a social life.

Yearly mileage build up was like

2005: 30-40mpw (first running season was soph track)

2006: As much as 70, mostly 40s for the first half and 60-70 for the second half of the year.

2007: 60-70 spring, 80 fall.

2008: 80-90

2009: 80-95

2010: 85-100

2011: 90-100

2012: Hurt, 70s then nothing, 6 months off, then 40s again by the end of the year.

2013: Mixed bag, as much as 80

2014: started off hurt, reached 90 by end of year

2015: Started off great, ran 85-100 then got PF. Doing better again, back to 60 now.

2014/15 have been working 7 days a week. It's hard to stay uninjured for any significant period of time.

How about some performance comparisons for those years?

doo doo, why do you think you have been getting hurt the last few years? By the years it looks like that's when you were out of college? Less resources? Body took a toll from high mileage?

I always found the buildup the hardest part. Once you've managed to hold 90+ for about 3 weeks, it just feels normal, and you won't feel especially tired. The key is to make running as mentally easy as possible -- make a route for your morning run (or whichever is your secondary run) and do that every day. Get your running stuff together before you go to sleep. That way you don't have to make a bunch of decisions when you get up, which will inevitably lead to skipping runs. Routine is key.

Charlie Freak wrote:

Possible troll thread but I'll say this...

Anybody with a family and a non-running related job who runs 100 mpw is a running obsessed dork and needs to reassess their life priorities. The time and dedication it takes - usually in two-a-days - is unbalanced. There's no need for it unless you are a national- to world-class half or marathon runner who has a goal to run for a living. It's not necessary for general fitness or even to win your local 10k. I think it's a compulsion and addiction for Lydiard disciples and the like.

Of course these people are "running obsessed dorks," but it doesn't follow that their priorities are wrong. Who are you to tell people what they should value? Over the years I've known many, many high mileage runners with happy families and successful careers in demanding fields.

As for whether it's "necessary," that really depends what you mean. (Leaving aside the possibility that some people might do it because they enjoy it.) Obviously high mileage is important if you want to come anywhere close to your potential in the marathon. At shorter distances, it's less important PROVIDED you have years of high mileage training behind you. But everyone is different, and many experienced runners have figured out what works for them. I certainly don't think that only national class runners have the right to train seriously.

And in any event, iIt simply doesn't take that long to run 100 miles. Assume you're already going to be running 50 or so for general fitness/health/sanity, then another 50 is just 6 more hours. People with jobs and families have many hobbies that they spend more than 6 hours/week on. Heck, people spend a lot more time than that watching TV.

People find different ways to make it work. Some run-commute, some use baby joggers. One friend of mine has a young son who loves pacing him on the bike, so they go together in the evenings and get some quality time together. Also, just because someone is running 100 mpw at a given point in their life doesn't mean that they're doing it every week for their whole life. Most people have stretches when they focus on running and long stretches where it's less of a priority. I know a lot of age groupers like to have a really serious year of racing when they enter a new age group. If people are running 100 mpw every week of their lives, then it's entirely possible that they're doing it to hold themselves together mentally. The most fitness obsessed person I know is a recovering alcoholic. He fully admits that his compulsion isn't healthy, but he knows that he's the kind of person who has to be addicted to something, and he thinks working out is better than most of the alternatives.

I did not keep on to 200 miles a week. I imagine I could have done so and sort of wish I did but eventually found that I didn't seem to race faster at 140 than I'd done at 120-130 so that seemed a place to stop. In hindsight, maybe if I'd gotten to 170 plus something would have kicked in.

And why do you think that's relevant to the topic at hand? In theory one could keep adding a mile a week indefinitely. That wasn't the question.

Weared out - lol!

I half agree and half disagree. High mileage is a good lifestyle when you want to do it and not so good when you don't. I wanted to know what would happen if I ran in the 100-150 range. I loved doing it but it was demanding and once I thought I had my answer I dropped to lower mileage, usually 80-90. That felt like retirement but I raced pretty well off of it for a few years.

It's a sport. It's supposed to enjoyable. If someone enjoys doing it for a couple hours a day and can fit doing so into their life reasonably well, why not do it? If a couple hours a week turns out to be more enjoyable and much more seems burdensome then you're better off at a couple weekly hours. There really are no mandates,

800 dude wrote:

At shorter distances, it's less important PROVIDED you have years of high mileage training behind you.

Tell that to Lagat.

HRE wrote:

I half agree and half disagree. High mileage is a good lifestyle when you want to do it and not so good when you don't. I wanted to know what would happen if I ran in the 100-150 range. I loved doing it but it was demanding and once I thought I had my answer I dropped to lower mileage, usually 80-90. That felt like retirement but I raced pretty well off of it for a few years.

It's a sport. It's supposed to enjoyable. If someone enjoys doing it for a couple hours a day and can fit doing so into their life reasonably well, why not do it? If a couple hours a week turns out to be more enjoyable and much more seems burdensome then you're better off at a couple weekly hours. There really are no mandates,

You responded to my post, so I assume you're talking to me. I think we agree 100%. I guess the only thing most of us are arguing is whether it can be worked into a "normal" lifestyle. I enjoyed running 100+ weeks but felt I was dragging on normal daddy duties and even at work.

Absolutely nothing wrong with getting a few weeks of 100+ leading up to a race. I'm talking about 100+ weeks every week. That is what was draining...

In the end, do what you love and find the balance. Running is a good thing as long as it doesn't mess up other parts of your life, especially parts that should be priorities (parenting/spouse).

I find that I can run 50s year long and still feel great. When I train for a specific race, I'll bump it up, but that is for weeks at a time, not just ongoing.

I'm also getting older. I will admit that I would not have been able to run my marathon PRs without those ongoing high-mileage weeks. They made me a beast.