10 miles more per week, how long does it take your body to adjust?

When you say 10 miles more per week, what do you mean exactly? Are you adding 1-1.5 miles per day? Are you adding in two additional runs of 5 miles? Adding 3-5 miles to your long run?

I usually take 3-4 weeks to adjust to higher mileage, so like: 30-30-30-30-40-40-40-40-50-50-50-50. I don't do "down weeks", as the fourth week at a volume usually feels very manageable, and I can hit the same workout paces or faster that I did at lower mileage.

When I was doing 40 it was mostly like this:

5-5-6-5-6-5-8

Now doing 50, its like this:

6-7-6-8-7-6-10

or

6-7-6-6-7-6-12

This is my first time running 50 mile weeks. I assume that's different then if you've done 50's before, and you are going back to them.

I like the guess of 4 weeks to deal with a change from 40 to 50 mpw but it has been a LONG time since I did a new number of miles that I have never done before.

Daniels paces are more like the upper limit rather than the ideal so 7:00 sounds fine.

What do you mean by struggling to do them at 7:00? Does that mean you run the first mile in 6:40, 2nd in 7:00 and 3rd in 7:20? Try running them in the opposite order. Run the first one in NO FASTER than 7:20, the second in 7:00 and the 3rd in 6:40. That should keep you from feeling like you are struggling. If that feels easy enough, try 7:10, 7:00 and 6:50 before trying 7:10, 6:55 and 6:40.

You are actually working off the effects of three new stresses. My guess is that you should have been doing a tempo run every week through the entire build up and you would feel better. In addition to the extra 10 mpw, you are also working off the change from running in the afternoon during the school year to running in the morning in the summer. The change of running time of day can be really stressful if you have also changed the times you get up and go to bed.

Struggling in that I can barely do it. I start out at 7:00 pace and try to stay there, but its almost as hard as a race. I'm particularly feeling it in my lungs. Considering I could run a 3k at 6:00 pace this spring (repeatedly), its disturbing. My coach wants 'challenging but not killer', so I'll probably back off the pace a bit.

Interesting thread as I'm also trying to build my mileage up. I had to take a couple of weeks not doing tempo runs to adapt. So like the other poster said, it is tough to add mileage and add a new workout like a tempo.

I do think tempos are important, and since your coach is wanting you to do them, I think they are worth trying out. I would consider a couple of options to help you adapt.

One, run your tempos almost like intervals. So do a mile, then recover for 30 to 60 seconds, do another mile, then light recovery. Mentally this is much easier, and the training effect is very similar to a straight tempo run. As others have said, don't worry about the pace calculators for this one. Just go comfortably hard and work on staying smooth and even.

Two, consider shifting your miles around. You've got a good long run in there, but your other days are very much the same. You might benefit from taking one or two days where your mileage drops quite a bit. Also, at 50 miles I do think a couple of doubles is worth considering. So maybe your week could look something like this:

8

4

8 with tempo

4 and 3-4 (can swap order of these)

8

12+

4 and 3-4

That would actually be just over 50, so you've got a lot you can play around with.

And don't worry about pace too much on the easy days. Especially if you end up running at hotter times of the day. My easy runs vary a ton this time of year depending on weather and what time of day I do them. They are really anywhere from 7:40s to 9:00 minutes. As a younger runner this would have killed me, now I have no problem rolling with it.

Thumbs up. Agree 100%

Thanks for the feedback. I didn't do any tempos the first 6 weeks of my buildup as I was told not to do any while adding mileage.

When I say I'm struggling at the 7 minute pace, the truth is I'm stopping at a mile and a half, feeling like its too hard, waiting a bit, then finishing, unintentionally doing what you are suggesting. I don't like it though. Makes me feel like I suck.

I do throw in a double most weeks, often on the 8 mile day when I'm doing the second schedule. I've never tried something like you are suggesting though where I bounce back and forth from 8's to 4's, so maybe I will.

Still, I would love more feedback from other's about how long it takes after you go from 40 to 50 miles a week for the first time in your life, for your body to adjust so that you feel as strong and able to run paces that you ran at 40? Cause I find it hella annoying.

That is cool you're doing some doubles already. And the break in your tempo is totally fine, just don't beat yourself up over it. I think that might be your biggest problem this summer, you feel like you *should* be able to do certain runs and certain paces. This is a hard thing to break. And you don't want to throw out paces all the time, that would not be a good idea. But a lot of the time, you are trying to get a training response out of your body. That is not the same thing as hitting a pace. It sounds like most of your summer is based on aerobic and strength stuff. Your body is changing, you are getting fitter. Trust the process.

As to your question of adapting from 40 to 50 miles. I think it could be anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks depending on the person. Which means you should start feeling good soon. If not, maybe another recovery week?

But that also brings up other questions about recovery. Are you getting 8+ hours of sleep a night? Are you eating enough food (solid protein intake, a good snack/meal immediately after workouts, plenty of veggies)? Are you working a lot during the day and getting to runs tired or shorting recovery from morning training? If those things aren't dialed in, you might never adapt to the higher mileage.

It takes me about 3-4 weeks.

I built from nothing after 5 years of zero running in March to a little over 60mpw, and every bump HURTS :) Meaning, the week after that bump week, I am just exhausted and not feeling like running.

My biggest problem is I maintain the pace even though I increase, even though you're supposed to back-off a bit on the pace since you don't want to introduce two new stresses at the same time (longer runner, and faster running for longer).

My solution has been to do an "off-week" every 2 or 3 weeks. On these weeks I dip maybe 70-80% of the average mileage of the prior 2-3 weeks. I still maintain the pace, and that week still kind of hurts, but the following week I am generally feeling "almost" (but not quite) 100%.

I've never been injured or overtrained and I ran through college, and even I know you're supposed to be tired when building mileage :)

Three weeks. According to Daniels.

Your tempo pace needs to be based off current ability. So if your having a hard time at that pace maybe its the high dew point or the pace is wrong. Do a time travel or 5k road race to help with this. And with the increase in mileage everyones different but a month or so before you start feeling better.

Citius5000 wrote:

Do a time travel or 5k road race.

This definitely helps with proper tempo pace.

I tend to take a down week every fourth week, reducing by ~25% or having 1-2 days off if needed.

One thing to consider is whether you've been at this mileage before or if it's completely new. There are a number of adaptations that occur, and not all happen at the same rate. You probably will feel tired for a couple of weeks, but as long as you're not overdoing it too much (and getting enough sleep and food) you'll get used to that quite quickly. The muscles also adapt relatively quickly. However bones in particular (and also tendons) take rather longer to adapt. This means there will be a period in which you may feel like the new mileage is comfortable, but the increase in bone density/strength that comes with higher mileage has still not happened and you are at increased risk of developing a stress fracture. The process of bone remodeling may take 2-3 months, but it also takes a long time to lose the extra bone density so if you're building back up to the same mileage as previously after a track season it won't take so long.

All that is to say - if you're going from 40-50 mpw for the first time in a long while, it's probably a good idea to spend a couple of months at that level before making any more changes. If you're just building up to the same level as before, 2-4 weeks is usually OK to make the 10mpw jump before adding extra stress (which might mean mileage or intensity or a change in surface).

Thanks people, this is the type of feedback I'm looking for. I'm trying to get enough sleep (8 hrs a night), but really I normally need 9. Busy summer. I'm not doing anything else physical, but busy with indoor mental stuff (classes and camps). I eat well. My iron's good (I get tested every 4 months and take Flora iron every day). I do a lower volume week every two to three weeks. I'll try to be patient.

Have any of you taken seriously longer than 4 to 6 weeks to adjust to 10 miles more mileage? Like gone from 40 to 50 over the summer, reached cross country season, and still haven't adjusted really so you have to drop mileage in order to be fresh enough for cross season?

I'd be asking my coach this stuff but its moratorium week.

So your coach isn't applying Daniels correctly now that i have the book in front of me. First all his workout paces are based on current race pace. Now a 5:13 gives you a vdot of 52 which means your easy pace should be 7:42-8:41/mi and your threshold pace is 6:38/mi. Now i doubt your in 5:13 shape right now unless your newer to running and improving a ton. I really recommend you slow down your tempos and worry less about your easy run pace being slower. These runs should be by feel. Like i said above jump in a 5k road race or do a time trail to get a more accurate measure of your fitness. Another thing to try is do 3xmile at threshold pace with 1:00 rest on alternating weeks instead of the 3 mile tempo. Maybe it is a mental thing doing a longer hard run alone. Make sure your well hydrated going into your runs as this could be a cause also.

I ran that 5:13, a 5:14, and a 5:15, as well as right around 11:10 3k several times this past track season, which yes would put me solidly in Daniels' vdot 52.

As soon as track season ended I did a 30 mile easy week and then started building mileage up to 50 without any workouts included. My assumption is that my overall fitness is the same or better than it was during track (I ran those times two months ago in May). I certainly shouldn't have lost fitness, other than racing specific fitness. So wouldn't my vdot be the same?. Its not like one needs to go race once a month in order to know one's current Vdot is it?

You probably didn't lose any general fitness. But in 2 months of base building and no interval work or racing, I can almost guarantee you lost 1500 specificity fitness. How much? I don't know. If I didn't do speed stuff for a couple months I'd probably lose 20 to 30 seconds on my mile time.

That makes sense, but does that mean my Vdot is lower and so my tempo pace should be slower?

I mean I realize that since I'm fatigued from this buildup that my first few tempo runs should be run slower, and will feel harder. But my goal was to work my way down to 6:40 before my season started since that is what is recommended. Doesn't that make sense?