Post your Marathon Progression relative to mileage run per week in the build up

Why would you assume that most people could run a 2:50 marathon on 50 mpw just because you could?

80/90-2:42:39 debut

90-2:40:59

100-110- 2:33:30

Age 35: less than 10 miles a week-DNF

Age 38: 10-15 MPW- 3:53:xx

Age 39: 10-15 MPW- 4:35:xx

Age 40: 30- 35 MPW- 3:07:xx

Age 41: 30-35 MPW- 2:53:xx

Age 42: 45 MPW- 2:45:xx

Age 43: 50 MPW- 2:43:xx

The mileage is for 8 weeks leading up to race day. Currently, I am 44 and have a little over 6 weeks to the next marathon. The average should be closer to 60MPW on this one, and hoping for sub 2:40.

Robin Hood 2009 47MPW - 2:58

Bungay Blackdog 2010 61MPW 2:55 (ill)

Abingdon 2010 66MPW - 2:39

London 2011 73MPW - 2:33

Liverpool 2011 81MPW - 2:39 (ill)

Edinburgh 2012 63MPW - 2:29*

London 2013 82MPW 2:29

Edinburgh 2014 72MPW 2:28

York 2014 99MPW 2:22

London 2015 92MPW 2:22

Berlin 2015 94MPW 2:21

Toronto 2016 105MPW 2:25 (Was in c2:18/2:19 shape but 98% humidity and 20 degrees Celsius put paid to that, was probably a little jet lagged too).

This is the 10 weeks leading up to race day including taper.

*this one looks low but that is because I had originally been training for London and tapered down for that but was ill so canned the race before building back up a little and did Edinburgh in May instead. Had averaged 70MPW for the 10 weeks prior to London.

Running in London this year, hope to get 2:18/2:19 from c110mpw average.

Mileage is definitely important to me but agree that the cumulative effect over a number of campaigns has a big bearing on the outcome!

examples are all over, look at the guy a few posts above who is able to run a 2h4X under 45 or 50 miles. 2h50 is not particularly fast, and my experience tells me that anyone thinking that needs 70+ miles to run 2h50 is choosing the hard way to do it. a runner maintaining an average of 40-50 mpw for say one year is able to significantly drop the 10k / Half Marathon times and then with a few adjustments in training, keep the same mileage and transfer that to the Marathon. Of course your background and talent will determine how many time you need. In my case for example I lack talent but I have been doing this mileage for many years and I was able to drop a 3h30 to 2h41 in like 5 years.increasing the mileage will most certainly make you faster but will also cost you time, and I wouldn't say that 2h50 is a target where quantity surpass quality. I doubt that a 3h Marathon runner logging 70 or 80 miles is able to keep the same quality in training as if he/she was running 50 miles a week. Quality & Progress over time are the keys.

andicamp wrote:

Why would you assume that most people could run a 2:50 marathon on 50 mpw just because you could?

20mpw- 3:15

30mpw-3:00-3:10

50mpw-low 2:50's

70mpw-low 2:50's

for my lifestyle work/social/travel/sleep - 50mpw was the sweet spot, 70 too much. I ran low 2:50's off of max 55mpw and then didn't get faster, but was more tired off increased mileage. I ran in college and just run marathons for fun. These days I've mastered runnning 3:05-3:15 off of minimal training and they are enjoyable. I'm female.

You assume that your training needs are universal? One of the most basic things of coaching, whether it's your own or other people, is that different people need different things. I, for one, can't even run near my 5k potential on 50 mpw. My natural endurance sucks, so I need higher volume. Some people's natural speed sucks, so they need higher quality. Some people are relatively balanced. I know some people that can run very solid marathons on 50 mpw, but they are in the minority.

Also, it's a very common approach to base your hard workout volume, at least loosely, on your total mileage. So yes, that means you do a higher volume of quality running when your mileage is higher.

30 - 4:25

40: 4:00

50:3:40

70:305

TeddyRunsevelt wrote:

Post in this order:

30 MPW- Marathon time

50 MWP - Marathon time

70 MWP - Marathon time

100+ MWP - Marathon time

I'm curious the kind of jumps people had by boosting mileage.

30 MPW - 3:12

50 MPW - 3:00, 2:48

70 MPW - 2:39, 2:41

Haven't gone over a 70 average.

Hm, interesting. I ran three marathons three years in a row as a new runner:

Year 1, under 20 mpw: (I am an idiot) - 4:12

Year 2, 35-40 mpw: 3:27

Year 3, 42 mpw: 3:06

Many injuries and many years later...

29 MPW - 3:18

55 - 60 mpw using hanson's - 3:12

45 mpw with build up of just four weeks and only 2 long runs of 16 miles each: 3:10.

I know I was younger when I ran my fastest, but I still think I do better on pretty low mileage. But then, I've never tried truly high mileage, so what do I know?