how do people run a 100 mpw

Uhm no wrote:

"Assume you're already going to be running 50 or so for general fitness/health/sanity"

You don't need to run 50 miles per week for fitness or health, maybe 20 at most. If you need to for sanity, well, that pretty much says it all.

Exactly.

14 mpd x 6 ( 2 or 3 runs / day ) and one at 16. I did 110 in HS and 111 in college. Now in late 50's I did 3 x 80 - 84 over the winter , had 4 x 13 one week but too tuckered to go 91 for the week along with work.

Started out at 1/4 2x / day and worked up to 6 twice a day back in HS, and went nuts one week....

performance or just miles? wrote:

How about some performance comparisons for those years?

26:10 freshman xc 8k.

25:20 soph

24:57 junior

24:20 4th year, same course as soph

24:30 super senior on a slower course

Also ran 30:20/14:40 but the flu took me out earlier that season and I missed 2 weeks. I had 6 weeks to go from 2 weeks off to 30:20. Those lifetime miles really helped. I think I was looking at a 29:40-50 if I had been connected to the training from before by more than 6 weeks, but that's woulda coulda BS so you don't have to believe me.

To the guy asking why I started getting injured later on: it just started with PF going into my 5th year track season and has been unrelenting since. Both feet are mildly messed up right now so I don't know if I will ever return to form.

I averaged around 60 miles a week for several decades...

I only did 6 weeks in a 40 year career at over 100.

My problem was a really vain one.

i couldn't stand the thought of having people in cars go by me as I am running slow.

So, I'd say I had many years where my pace every workout was close to tempo pace.

Really embarrassing.

But, it's true.

One of my 120 mile per week buddies used to tell me..

"Your running your mileage too damn hard every workout!

If you wanna run 100 mile weeks consistently and expand your aerobic base you gotta slow a few of those workouts way down and run longer"!!!!!

But, I would never listen.

That brings up an interesting point, weds.

Whenever I have run 100, the bulk has been over 7:00/mile even when I was running 24:20-24:30 consistently.

If you need to slow down to be consistent with your training, by all means slow down until it becomes faster naturally.

I feel your pain weds, I stopped running on this bike path that has cute girls on it everywhere because I'd just run 5:30 pace the whole time.

doo doo, off topic but have you tried super feet? Unfortunately one of my feet gets PF and spreads to Achilles issues if I don't wear them all the time. I'd like to strengthen my feet running barefoot as you have said in other threads but like you something always comes back. Also, went from neutral shoes to stability even though by my gate it wouldn't look like I need it. It's helped and I'm at around 2,000 miles for the year. I still have some pain but it's kept it under control.

It can definitely be worked into a 40 hour work week (also married). Try to look up Dan Vassallo. He's been grinding out 100+ mile weeks for years. He just achieved his OTQ in the Marathon. However, he also realizes that its really hard to do/isn't for everyone, but he suggests most people to try it for a good amount of time to see if they can handle it.

Slowly

Let's say his easy pace at 9 minutes a mile, which is likely for someone that can't take more than 30-35 mpw, that's over 2 hours a day on average.

How many of you 100 mpw runners have logged over 15 hours per week?

I don't understand anyone who takes the sport seriously and would choose NOT to experiment with very high mileage (100+). Like the poster above, obviously he trained and raced up to his celing, THAT makes sense. Get the best out of yourself and move on with life. There are more important/rewarding things in life (relationships being #1 IMHO) and you can still be a lifelong runner, probably healthier too at 20-40mpw. I also understand that some people need to continue high mileage just to survive...that's a whole other issue and my heart goes out to them.But to the guy who says he runs 2:45 off a peak of 75mpw....why wouldn't you run more and go for 2:30? Isn't our sport all about self-actualization? It may turn out that the guy isn't a high mileage responder, but don't you have to at least go for it? Like HRE did.

How many runners actually run 100 mpw any ways. According to running USA the average male "core" runner runs a rounds 30 mpw. "Core" runner are people who runs year around and enter local races.

jack love wrote:

How many runners actually run 100 mpw any ways. According to running USA the average male "core" runner runs a rounds 30 mpw. "Core" runner are people who runs year around and enter local races.

Not many of them on lrc.

Uhm no wrote:

"Assume you're already going to be running 50 or so for general fitness/health/sanity"

You don't need to run 50 miles per week for fitness or health, maybe 20 at most. If you need to for sanity, well, that pretty much says it all.

50 miles/week is just 45 minutes of exercise per day. That's like one episode of a TV show. All the guidelines and research say 30 minutes per day is the minimum that adults should be doing, which is definitely more than 20 miles. It's probably even more important for people with sedentary jobs.

Anyway, the reason I assumed 50 miles/week is because I think it's reasonable to expect that someone with a background as a high level runner will probably want to do a little more than just the absolute minimum that doctors say you should be doing for health.

Randy Oldman wrote:

Let's say his easy pace at 9 minutes a mile, which is likely for someone that can't take more than 30-35 mpw, that's over 2 hours a day on average.

How many of you 100 mpw runners have logged over 15 hours per week?

I did, but I was between jobs at the time. It was really draining, though I was actually going out and partying a lot at the same time. I'm hoping to manage a few weeks at that level during my next marathon buildup, but it all depends on whether work cooperates. My girlfriend is cool with it so long as I only do it once per year, which is fine by me, because I've never wanted to do a spring marathon (too much running in the snow, ice, and darkness).

I worked a full time job often clocking 50-60 hours a week. I ran 70 mpw consistently for ten years. I ran in the morning and at lunch. Okay, it's not 100 but I trained with guys who often ran 80-90 the same way. Doubles. Morning and lunch and if they missed the lunch run then they ran right after work. No going home. Run right from work. Change into dry stuff, towel off and then drive home.

The weekends were easy. Medium run on Saturday and longer on Sunday.

I always had a running bag and running shoes in my trunk.

No excuses.

This is how I run 100 mpw:

Day 1:

AM 14 miles

PM 3.22 miles

Day 2:

AM 10 miles Moderate Effort

PM 4 miles

Day 3:

AM 12 miles

PM 4 miles

Day 4:

AM 8.2 miles

PM 8.4 miles

Day 5:

AM 1.5 mile Warmup + 11 Mile Tempo + 1.3 mile Cooldown

PM 4.2 miles

Day 6:

AM 9.2 miles

PM Rest

Day 7:

AM WU 3 Miles + 3x1200+3x800 w/2:15 recovery jog + Cooldown

PM Rest

Weekly Total: 105, no long run that week due to fatigue from previous week. I'm guessing that's how most people run 100 plus miles per week.

Randy Oldman wrote:

Let's say his easy pace at 9 minutes a mile, which is likely for someone that can't take more than 30-35 mpw, that's over 2 hours a day on average.

How many of you 100 mpw runners have logged over 15 hours per week?

150 miles at 6-6:30 plus speedwork.

100 was a cutback or rest week.

I was replying to you and now I think we do pretty much agree completely. I didn't have kids in the 100 plus a week years but found I could get in 80 or so even when they were little. Someone else might find that a bit much. If it had seemed too much for me I'd have dropped to 50 or 60 or whatever. I did do some stretches of big miles again after the kids came along and found that I could do it but it seemed much more of a chore and the improved results were marginal so I let ti go.

The time is A LOT more than you people are estimating. It's not just the time to run, there's cooling down post run, shower time, and if you have to drive to run... well 10 min here, 15 min there, you're talking about a lot of time.

Any way, 100M isn't a guarntee of success. Think about what a sucker you'll feel like when you've been living like a running hermit, and some dude that runs 60M crushes you. What then 200M weeks?

Run smart, not just more.