Low mileage is for lazy runners looking for shortcuts

+1

I’m not lazy I have no problem grinding out miles. But my legs can’t handle miles, races, and workouts, no matter how slow I go. What would your advice to me be?

Randomhsrunner wrote:

I’m not lazy I have no problem grinding out miles. But my legs can’t handle miles, races, and workouts, no matter how slow I go. What would your advice to me be?

Like most things in life, running injuries would go away if you ignore them long enough. The best way to prevent future injuires is to ignore the current one.

The Way We Were wrote:

Randomhsrunner wrote:

I’m not lazy I have no problem grinding out miles. But my legs can’t handle miles, races, and workouts, no matter how slow I go. What would your advice to me be?

Like most things in life, running injuries would go away if you ignore them long enough. The best way to prevent future injuires is to ignore the current one.

+1

Speaker of truth 5.0 wrote:

The Way We Were wrote:

Like most things in life, running injuries would go away if you ignore them long enough. The best way to prevent future injuires is to ignore the current one.

+1

Truth

Change.My.Mind wrote:

Low mileage is for lazy runners looking for shortcuts and like having impressive looking track workouts.

Low mileage favorite quotes:

“You shouldn’t get to far from speed”

“Quality over quantity”

“Diminishing returns after X miles”

“Long slow distance makes long slow distance runners”

“But Seb Coe only did X”

Change my mind.

+100

Change.My.Mind wrote:

Low mileage is for lazy runners looking for shortcuts and like having impressive looking track workouts.

If you don't make a living with running or aspire to do so, high mileage is for people without a life outside running or with a compulsive disorder.

Change.My.Mind wrote:

Low mileage is for lazy runners looking for shortcuts and like having impressive looking track workouts.

Low mileage favorite quotes:

“You shouldn’t get to far from speed”

“Quality over quantity”

“Diminishing returns after X miles”

“Long slow distance makes long slow distance runners”

“But Seb Coe only did X”

Change my mind.

See when you turn 40 how well it has worked out for you....

KAV wrote:

Change.My.Mind wrote:

Low mileage is for lazy runners looking for shortcuts and like having impressive looking track workouts.

Low mileage favorite quotes:

“You shouldn’t get to far from speed”

“Quality over quantity”

“Diminishing returns after X miles”

“Long slow distance makes long slow distance runners”

“But Seb Coe only did X”

Change my mind.

See when you turn 40 how well it has worked out for you....

Truth.

This is simply not true in my experience... I average between 80-100 mi/wk almost year-round, work full-time, am a full-time student, and still manage to find plenty of time for a social life as well as other interests. As far as it being a compulsion, its like any other hobby one would choose to dedicate their time to. Would you consider a golfer who spends two hours per day hitting balls and working on his short game compulsive?

Actually I might... hate that bloody game.

This thread as inspired me not to be a lazy runner anymore and to double my mileage from 70-100 miles a week to 140-200 miles a week.

I assume that you mean relative to high mileage plus plenty of speedwork? Lazy people can run high mileage at a comfortable pace. In fact, lazy people tend to have lots of free time from their unchallenging lives to run high mileage without ever straining themselves.

RunMedic wrote:

I average between 80-100 mi/wk almost year-round, work full-time, am a full-time student, and still manage to find plenty of time for a social life as well as other interests.

Sure bro, i bet you have sub 14 5k, $250,000/year salary and a smoking hot wife too.

Run 3.5 hard miles in the morning, play a round of golf, then hit a brewery with your friends for a few brews and some food truck tacos. That's a Saturday. This may be unrelated but, I had a good weekend.

I call BS. Running 100 miles/wk on top of working full time and student full time? There is something you're exaggerating here. Maybe you work part time, take online classes or major in psychology. There is no way you could also have a social life unless you consider talking with students in your class as a social life.

Change.My.Mind wrote:

Low mileage is for lazy runners looking for shortcuts and like having impressive looking track workouts.

Low mileage favorite quotes:

“You shouldn’t get to far from speed”

“Quality over quantity”

“Diminishing returns after X miles”

“Long slow distance makes long slow distance runners”

“But Seb Coe only did X”

Change my mind.

Robbie Andrews

It’s easier to train hard, get injured and tell everyone how fast you would have been than to invest the time and build slowly. Too risky to actually reach your potential and maybe still fall short.

Still, it seems to me that many people have strange ideas when it comes to how much mileage is enough.

The average person’s idea of “high mileage” is probably going to be much lower than an experienced runner, but I’m still shocked at how few miles people I know generally run. This is why they are injured a lot.

For general fitness not much is required, but if you want to start doing speedwork without injury that number is going to go up.

If you’re going to short yourself anywhere it should be in terms of intensity, not miles.

Yes, it’s probably an old-fashioned approach, but it will get you there reliably.

I was historically a low mileage guy. I came to the sport late when I decided to walk on to my college team with no prior experience. Getting thrown into the rigors of a college program without any historical base and having a predisposition towards injuries because of structural issues (flat feet, bowed legs, hip issues) meant that I got injured pretty easily and often, even when my coach tried to bring me along slowly. I only cracked the 70 mile barrier three times in my life until age 42, all three coming during my junior year of college. As a steeple/5000m guy, I was able to get away with that because of some degree of natural talent, and I offset it some with smart and efficient training.

So if you are an inexperienced runner, or if you have a predisposition towards injuries, or if you live in a n inhospitable climate, or are an older runner, you may need to go low mileage, and that would not make you lazy.

The "ignoring the injuries" claims are silly. It definitely works with some injuries, but it is a terrible approach generally.

All of that being said, the more miles you can run while remaining healthy and not leaving yourself too tired to do your workouts properly, the better you will be as a runner. Since moving up to marathon training for the first time at age 42 and increasing my mileage as a result, I have run faster times at every distance than I have run since I was age 23 (although I did have some big gaps in my running in between). The miles made all of the difference in the world.

I’m a neuroscience major with a prehealth focus and work 40 hours per week in my profession, which you may be able to deduce from my username. I take 12 credits per semester. And yes I go out 3-4 nights per week and have a girlfriend who is a nurse.

What is so hard to understand about a 90 minute run in the morning and another 30 minute run in the afternoon/evening? Really not that complicated.