How much mileage is optimal for life-long health and wellness?

If you are running and healthy your mileage is optimal.

Most of these studies are fairly junk.

Running 100 miles a week is still far, far better than sitting on the couch all day.

Very few olympic runners appear to die early from cardiovascular disease. Even if you back to the early Olympic games, most of the finalist lived way above the average life expectancy. The few elite runners who die younger, like Dick Quax (at 70), almost always die from something other than an age related disease.

https://www.runnersworld.com/health-injuries/a20846304/the-too-much-running-myth-rises-again/

However, there has been some reasearch lately that running might be bad for those with already low resting heartrates (as running will lower it even further).

Running for my life wrote:

I'm a former collegiate runner who used to put in 70-110mpw regularly. I'm in my late 20s now, and though I'd love to continue to train hard, there's nothing to really train for, and I've realized that it's not worth the risk of injury since I'm injury prone and need running in my life to treat depression and "feel normal." I just want to run enough to stay healthy, mentally and physically, and not so much that I wear out my joints by age 45. I've been running around 20mpw and lifting twice per week. Is that a reasonable schedule to more or less maintain for 20-30 years? Obviously there will be periods when I do less or a bit more, but overall? What do you think?

Great question.

I would say it depends.

I am running for over 30 years now with no injuries. My personal recipe is, that you can overdo it once awhile but you have to take it easy sometimes too. I had years where I focused on my running goals and I had years where I just did some races when I felt like it.

From what I have noticed from other runners is that the return on investment over 100 mpw gets pretty low. It might work for a couple of years but after that you have to step down a notch.

I wouldn't be too focused on the mileage. Just define your goals and go for them and in other years take it a little more easy.

And yes 20 mpw sounds very reasonable to maintain for a long time.

At the end you have to have fun with running. If it's just a chore you probably should do something else for awhile. Which brings me to the point that having other interests and follow them too is probably a good thing to have too.

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I'm 59 and an ex-D1 T&F/XC guy. I stopped putting in the high miles when I was 26. Took two years off and didn't run a step. I probably gained about 15 pounds. Started up running again but was only running about 4 miles a day about 5 days a week. Most of the runs were at a fast tempo, definitely not jogging. Weight came off and I was down to about 5lbs over my college competing weight. Between ages 35-42 ran about the same number of days but milage creeped up to about 5-6 miles a day. After I hit 50 and the metabolism really slowed down I started gaining more weight. Had a few injuries along the way (not from running) which curtailed the running a bit. Now I'm running about 1.5-2 miles a day 3-4 days a week. The past two weeks I've actually increased the frequency but kept the distance the same. Now both knees hurt. Right over the top of the kneecap. Won't be running today due to the pain. Pain increases when running uphill, doesn't hurt when running on level or downhill surfaces. Weight has increased to right around 200lbs on my 5'10' frame. I also cycle but during the winter months I do very little of it.

Eventually I would like to get back to running 5-6 days a week and maybe 4 miles at a time without stopping to walk like I do now. It's hard for me to run slowly like over 8 minute miles. must be a mental thing!

Without a shred of doubt. You choose not to go slower. It's a choice. Not a problem if the point of running for you is to run faster rather than longer/more, but that's entirely up to you.

Over The Hill and Then Some wrote:

It's hard for me to run slowly like over 8 minute miles. must be a mental thing!

At 67 I find that just getting a quick 5 miles in each day in a park keeps the power train going at 75% age rating for 5k. No plans on changing it for the next 25 years.

I have looked into this topic in depth.

First, let's disregard the studies done by Dr. James O'Keefe. He says 10-20mpw is optimal, based on studies with incorrect cox regression analysis applied, and based on sample sizes of literally 3-5 runners doing high mileage. His ted talk does not mention this, but his studies have been heavily criticized in the journals he published. He also had a study where he looked at coronary arterial plaque in lifelong marathon runners, and found that those who ran a lot of marathons had terrible arterial plaque. However there were also more ex-smokers in the marathon runner group than the control group... The study also didn't correct for diet, which is the #1 cause for poor arterial function. "You can't outrun a bad diet."

The largest studies available show increased lifespan for up to 90 minutes a day of "vigorous" exercise, which includes running. The graphs clearly show more exercise is always better, but there is a plateau after about 60 minutes a day of vigorous exercise. In other words, 90 min/day isn't much better for lifespan than 60 min/day, but 60 min/day is substantially better than 30 min/day.

So one might take a medical approach to running as medicine, and ask the question, "what is the minimum effective dose?" or, the optimum dose before negative side effects start to occur.

Running more than certain distances and certain intensities leads to negative health impacts, such as a temporary drop in immune system function, and a temporary drop in testosterone production. Note that this may not decrease lifespan, but is it optimal to have suppressed testosterone levels, given that testosterone is so important for sex drive, concentration, and feelings of wellbeing? I think not. Large volume intense work-outs (races of 15K or more, high volume VO2max workouts, long runs of ~2 hours) seem to have these effects. There are many studies that show reduced testosterone after 60 minutes of exercise - it seems to be true for many different sports.

A study of BC distance runners from the year 2000 showed that those who ran more than 40mpw had low testosterone, though it was in the normal range. But it was a small study - just a few dozen participants.

So I think the cut-off is somewhere between 40-60mpw, and runs beyond about 60 minutes have marginal improvements in health/lifespan.

Short answer is walk when you can, run when you have to or want to.

Puh, I am not sure that you want serious injuries at this age. Think about priorities, to stay healthy or to keep your activity)) But I as see in this thread, some people do the same amount and have no bad consequences. I know that it might be particularly, but have you consulted a doctor? Maybe your tendons have suffered from too intensive trainings. Try to rest for a while. Stretching also gives amazing results. I was going to https://scottgoodingproject.com after some years of incorrect gym workouts and they helped me to be back on track. I would advise you to rest for some weeks and see a doctor.

Disregard all previous replies. The correct answer is 32.16 .

jesseriley wrote:

Short answer is walk when you can, run when you have to or want to.

That's too funny. Coming from a guy who "organized" the most grueling footraces on the planet.

I asked an exercise physiologist, "What is the optima volume for health purposes?" Here is the response:

"In regard to your question about optimal training volume, it’s a bit elusive to me because of varied individual responses. I drift back to the Harvard Alumni Study where the authors indicate that the risk reduction for CVD and all-cause mortality plateaus around 3,000 calories of energy expenditure per week (lowest risk around 2,000 calories per week).

For a 70 kg man running an 8 mph pace this would equate to about 23 miles per week. This study was not specific to running and included all sorts of physical activity derived from self-report data. I don’t take it that more than 3,000 calories of energy expenditure per week is necessarily bad, just that risk reduction isn’t likely to continue to drastically improve after this point."

If you really want to enjoy your running, you don’t need to run too many miles. But if you run one workout per week and a long run every week or two, along with some easy miles, you will feel much better and probably satisfy your running habit.

Running for my life wrote:

I'm a former collegiate runner who used to put in 70-110mpw regularly. I'm in my late 20s now, and though I'd love to continue to train hard, there's nothing to really train for, and I've realized that it's not worth the risk of injury since I'm injury prone and need running in my life to treat depression and "feel normal." I just want to run enough to stay healthy, mentally and physically, and not so much that I wear out my joints by age 45. I've been running around 20mpw and lifting twice per week. Is that a reasonable schedule to more or less maintain for 20-30 years? Obviously there will be periods when I do less or a bit more, but overall? What do you think?

This question is so wrong in so many different places it's just funny to read at this point.

So you're asking this and then you say what mileage you should do to stay healthy? Wow really?

I'm pretty sure everyone on here can agree to distance running and the damage it causes you overall.

What you should be asking is how many 60 to 100 meter dashes you should be doing per week.

I have no clue why you're asking us how much mileage you should do. As if doing mileage was healthy or something.

Every runner on here is training for something for the most part. They already know that distance running is going to destroy them from the inside out and already know what the lactic acid accumulation effect is going to do to their bodies over the long run.

So this isn't probably a good question to ask. I mean depending on how much damage you want to do to your body then yeah do anywhere from 50 to 100 miles per week. Who knows. It's up to you on how much damage you want to do to yourself in the long run.

30-45min of cardio 3-4 x a week

30-44min of resistance training 2-3x a week.

Longer if walking.

I've been doing pretty difficult hikes here in Korea the last few weeks. It's amazing to see so many people out hiking. I spend 2-3 hours hiking up and down these peaks.

Alan

...and unless you like running stairs don't bother running! Lots of 1000 step stairs going straight up!

Alan

Don't tell him 20.

He should be good for at least 58 mpw.