How to build base mileage!?!

Just build up to running a hour a day.

I would try to get as many 45 mile weeks as you can in before the season starts without getting injured. It is much harder to get in milage when you are racing every weekend.

No reason to do doubles at 45 mpw. Just work your way up with singles.

Doubles a few days a week, single the others. Ignore the miles, run for time and effort.

My training guide:

Run easy everyday for 60-120 minutes. I mean real easy. Run 8 minute pace or slower just getting the time on your feet. Aim to run two hours a day. Build up to it, so if you are running 30-45 minutes a day. Add another 15 minutes to your day, do that for a month before adding another 15 minutes. Do this until you are running two hours or more per day.

Once-twice (or more if your body can handle it) a week do a hilly fartlek run. Really go hard surging up the hills.

A few times a week do a progressive/ steady state run (i.e. 8+ miles at marathon pace or effort, if you've never ran a marathon just do a estimate from your shorter distance on the VDOT calculator). Usually my longest run of the week is done in this fashion over rolling hills.

Twice a week do some strides or hill sprints. Me personally I just add a couple hard surges at the end of my easy run.

Speed work, stick to fartlek runs and progressive/ steady state runs. Once you get in the rhythm of running a lot add some 800m- mile reps once a week and some 200m-400m reps once a week.

Race often.

helppls wrote:

Last year I did not run all summer, so I want to train hard this summer and improve. However, I'm not sure how to approach this. June, I was running 35 mpw with doubles. This first week in July, I'm on track to hit 35 again with singles. However my goal mileage is 45 mpw. Should I start running 45 mpw in the next two weeks (with doubles the first 2 weeks, and then singles) , or stay at 35 in July and hit 45 in August right before racing ( same double single approach) ? And how should I decrease my mileage in september when high school season starts and we are doing 5k races and workotus?

Hi!

Well, I say as I always say when questions like this……. Don`t bother how much mileage you run as the first choice for your

best training. Start to build your weekly program with the three most important factors instead. Build with one maxVO2 -pace interval ( I mostly use 12-20 x 400m ), one lactate threshold pace interval ( 5-9 miles total) and the rest in between

with recovery runs at aerob power pace , length of runs 3- 10 miles. And you don`t have to do doubles. You are young and still have plenty of time to build for more mileage later on. Remember the words from the great European Champion at 5 000m , Bruce Tulloh, " First see what you can do with training one session per day, then you can try to reach for the stars. "

Thank you everyone! Any tips for decreasing mileage when racing starts? My coach is pretty flexible about letting us decide individually what distance to run at practice and stuff.

helppls wrote:

Thank you everyone! Any tips for decreasing mileage when racing starts? My coach is pretty flexible about letting us decide individually what distance to run at practice and stuff.

What kind of coach is that?

SUPERIOR COACH JS wrote:

helppls wrote:

Thank you everyone! Any tips for decreasing mileage when racing starts? My coach is pretty flexible about letting us decide individually what distance to run at practice and stuff.

What kind of coach is that?

The kind of coach who recognizes that there often may be a vast disparity in talent, motivation and training history among athletes at the high school running level.

my son was pretty good in HS wrote:

SUPERIOR COACH JS wrote:

What kind of coach is that?

The kind of coach who recognizes that there often may be a vast disparity in talent, motivation and training history among athletes at the high school running level.

Well…… talent has nothing to do with it. Motivation? A good coach should know how to motivate and explain to the runners why to do what the coach gives them . Training history? Of course the coach have to take a talk with the runner when the runner is new to know the training background and other things in daily life that affects training.