Jumping straight to 100 miles this week, will I survive?

100 mpw or wrote:

With a 6 mile PM run I'm now at 85.5 heading into the weekend. Feeling surprisingly nice after the double today!

Pretty confident I'll close out the week without much trouble, probably split the weekend 10/5 or something like that, or even shoot for 105/110 total

Like others I think this is a tad dangerous. But I'm also interested to see how it comes out and also admit to being a little jealous you're able to totally go for it.

Looks like you're pretty set going into the weekend with only needing 15 miles. You started the week even, but then mid-week you went after way more miles than you'd need. Was that by design? Just feeling good and wanting to bank miles? Or psychologically getting over the hump faster so you "only" need 15 miles?

keepgoing wrote:

Like others I think this is a tad dangerous. But I'm also interested to see how it comes out and also admit to being a little jealous you're able to totally go for it.

Looks like you're pretty set going into the weekend with only needing 15 miles. You started the week even, but then mid-week you went after way more miles than you'd need. Was that by design? Just feeling good and wanting to bank miles? Or psychologically getting over the hump faster so you "only" need 15 miles?

Random note: going to start posting under my registered handle that I made to also get involved in the road running & training thread.

Yeah definitely feeling good and wanting to bank miles. No real good reason other than that; I tend to behave that way a bit when running races with a goal time as well, I just like feeling "safe", even if it's not the most effective way. I definitely tend to do that in general even when I was running 60-70mpw. In that I would pad extra miles during the week when I felt that I could. Often times for non-workout runs, I'll set out with two distances in mind, a longer one for if a feel good, and a shorter one to fall back on as the minimum requirement, (e.g. I'll go out and aim to run 10, but I'll also be fine mileage wise running 8).

The reason for bumping a 15 mile into Friday was also primarily for the weather I'll be having this weekend, and not wanting to run as long on a treadmill (though I'm getting pretty comfortable, so far I've been running all my short PM runs on the treadmill at work mainly out of convenience, as a nice bonus lighter impact on the treadmill).

Also adding, I'll post a full review with details on pace at the end of the week, but for now I'll mention that pretty much all my runs this week end up as follows:

AM runs (6am-8am or so): outdoors if weather permits, half of them so far have been with some hills + some dirt paths (Central Park in NYC) and half of them have been along the an all concrete/asphalt path (Hudson River Greenway in NYC).

- Averages around 7:40-7:50 pace, always starting out around 8:00-8:30 progressing down to 7:00-7:30 naturally as I loosen up

PM runs (sometime between 12pm-3pm): treadmill at work

- Even easier pace, 8:10-8:20 avg pretty constant throughout

So everything is been pretty easy, HR stays around 140 with my max somewhere around 190 I think

Cool stuff. And I forgot about the upcoming weather you mentioned. Seems like bumping the longer run up was maybe a good call.

Weather ended up not being that bad by morning but I still opted to treadmill in favor of lighter impact surface, knocked out 10 which leaves 4.5 left!

Starting to think about next week; something like dropping somewhere in 60-80 and introducing at least one quality session. And eventually work toward hitting 90-100 again by the first/second week of the new year

jot quill wrote:

Weather ended up not being that bad by morning but I still opted to treadmill in favor of lighter impact surface, knocked out 10 which leaves 4.5 left!

Starting to think about next week; something like dropping somewhere in 60-80 and introducing at least one quality session. And eventually work toward hitting 90-100 again by the first/second week of the new year

While this whole thread seems like a bad idea, it's at least good entertainment for everybody, assuming it isn't fake. Heck, even if it is fake. It's definitely not good long term training.

That said, I wouldn't do any quality next week if I were you, definitely don't be shy about cutting way back, and just completely stop and assess of your body is giving any indications of unfamiliar pain.

SDSU Aztec wrote:

Even if you don't get injured, jumping to 100mpw won't result in you racing any faster. Just build up your mileage like a normal person.

Exactly why American long-distance running has no depth. People are scared to go straight into high mileage. Where did this "build up" thing come from? Oh. That is right: pansies.

Back in the 70s and 80s we were all running 20 miles a day as a norm. Some guys a bit less at 15-17, but anywhere from 15 to 20 miles a day in 2-3 runs a day. All mainly easy, in flats, on roads.

We need more young Americans to man up!

flummoxed felix wrote:

This sounds like a really good way to get a stress fracture. You may survive this 100-mile week, but it may be important to drop back to 60 next week for recovery. Your body needs to get used to the workload; if you get immensely tired and keep pounding it, you'll get a stressy.

This guy might be right, however, on the flip side you may feel amazing in two weeks and be totally healthy

I would argue running 12 mi singles totaling 84 miles a week is much harder than running 7/7 doubles with a 16mi long run totaling 100 miles a week.

Alan

Right.... wrote:

Either a stupid troll or just stupid. 1/10

He's neither.

You, on the other hand, have firmly established yourself as both.

LetsEatDoughnutsInstead wrote:

jot quill wrote:

Weather ended up not being that bad by morning but I still opted to treadmill in favor of lighter impact surface, knocked out 10 which leaves 4.5 left!

Starting to think about next week; something like dropping somewhere in 60-80 and introducing at least one quality session. And eventually work toward hitting 90-100 again by the first/second week of the new year

While this whole thread seems like a bad idea, it's at least good entertainment for everybody, assuming it isn't fake. Heck, even if it is fake. It's definitely not good long term training.

That said, I wouldn't do any quality next week if I were you, definitely don't be shy about cutting way back, and just completely stop and assess of your body is giving any indications of unfamiliar pain.

I'm with this guy. No quality next week. If you did manage to pick up some niggle or tweak something that you are not feeling yet, hard running will bring that right to the surface.

And I also feel like one week of solid mileage is not really enough to let things settle. Sure, you don't need to hit 100 again, but why not keep riding the miles for at least a few weeks and see how things go, then start adding some quicker stuff.

But some of that might depend on your training history. What's the biggest week you've had before? What is the most you've averaged for a block of training (like 2-3 months)?

Runningart2004 wrote:

I would argue running 12 mi singles totaling 84 miles a week is much harder than running 7/7 doubles with a 16mi long run totaling 100 miles a week.

Alan

It depends on your perspective. The OP is starting off at 60-65 mpw, jumping to 100 with the doubles will cause him a new kind of fatigue, but I think that 84mpw singles would probably feel more difficult, to him. For an athlete who has been training over 100mpw currently, or has "past memory" of that mileage, dropping down to 84 at singles would feel like vacation. Make sense to you?

Reading the OP's post, it appears that he already has a rational plan/expectations for the unknown wilderness he's about to enter, and a willingness to listen to his body and bring it back down if, and when, needed.

Just remember, you are not running doubles for "extra" mileage. You are running them for two strresses a day, even if the stress is just three miles.

For the OP: yes, it is normal for you to start reaping immediate gains. Your easy runs become easier, and faster -- even with the general fatigue that comes with bumping up the miles for the first time.

One request. Please to try to sneak in an extra mile or two just to make the magic 100 miles. Well, it's OK to do it for the first time... but after that, NO! My logs are littered with 97-98-99 mile weeks, and I've never felt compelled to top them off just for a centurion memory.

keepgoing wrote:

I'm with this guy. No quality next week. If you did manage to pick up some niggle or tweak something that you are not feeling yet, hard running will bring that right to the surface.

And I also feel like one week of solid mileage is not really enough to let things settle. Sure, you don't need to hit 100 again, but why not keep riding the miles for at least a few weeks and see how things go, then start adding some quicker stuff.

But some of that might depend on your training history. What's the biggest week you've had before? What is the most you've averaged for a block of training (like 2-3 months)?

Good point on quality... what about just starting to mix in some strides? Only if I'm feeling healthy enough. I do really want to make this work and not be a detriment since I've made it this far feeling relatively OK. The biggest week I've ever done in the past is 70, and I spent about 2 months at 60 leading into Chicago. Although I will add that during my build up I did have a fair amount of cross training (maybe 3-5 hours) per week of cycling and swimming as well. Right now I'm purely running.

Also I do have some younger history with running, but nothing amazing like college athletes. I ran all throughout middle school and high school (including summers) but very very amateur, maxing out at 5:10 or so in the mile and mid 18s for a 3 mile in x-country. No running in college, and started up again at 23.

Hey malmo, thank you for the advice! Especially about how I should treat doubles. I'm realizing now I didn't really set expectations for those. For my schedule, it usually works out best that I have my main runs in the morning and the double in the afternoon at work. I've been kind of thinking of them as a recovery type double to loosen my legs and get the blood flowing. Does that sound OK?

Will do for mileage topping off! Good reminder... that's kind of a habit of mine to like "magic" numbers.

Now, I'm just some dude on the internet who's never done 100 miles or the kind of jump you're doing. So take this however you want.

When I am coming back from injury or building miles, I love strides. 2-3 times a week. If you're not doing them already, start doing them slow and maybe just 4 strides a session. The few times I've kind of not been doing strides, got to some good mileage and thought, "gee, I haven't done strides, I should really get on those." I end up doing 10 and due to the mileage and general fitness I'd been accumulating, I can stride out pretty good. Then things get sore/strained. Just this past summer I gave myself a minor quad strain in a similar scenario to where you are now. Post marathon, took a break, then upped the miles a lot and was feeling real good.

So if I were you, I would think of adding strides in the middle of next week. Maybe just 4. Up a slight incline of you've got one. It tends to slow you down and be easier on the body.

Definitely digging the thread. I'm coming back after a break and adding miles myself right now (plus strides and one light aerobic/uptempo run). And you've got me itching to keep doing more miles and just see how it goes.

Thanks! Yeah I normally do strides in training but for this week I stayed away from anything that would involve speed just to be safe. I'll give re-introducing them into my runs a go next week!

Go for it!! I figure you never know until you just go for it. On the flip side now I'm itching to run some faster miles, but I know I need to be careful. Thanks for following the thread and for all your input & advice!

That's a wrap! Closed out the final 5 miles this morning, leaving the week looking like this:

Mo: 15mi

Tu: 10mi AM, 5mi PM

We: 12mi AM, 6mi PM

Th: 10mi AM, 6mi PM

Fr: 15mi AM, 6mi PM

Sa: 10mi

Su: 5mi

Total: 100mi

I'll be traveling from 12/21 to 1/1 so the next two weeks will lend well to cutting down and recovering from this big jump - I'm thinking 60-70mpw. Then, going into the new year working to ease back into 90-100 by mid January and continue the season from there!

Will come back here to add some more detailed thoughts and notes on the whole experience when I have some more time (got a bunch of errands to run today).

Race times, give us some race times! What's your next low-key race, and what's your next goal race?

curiously striated wrote:

Race times, give us some race times! What's your next low-key race, and what's your next goal race?

I ran 2:46 at this recent Chicago, main goal races next year are NYC Half, Boston, and NYCM! Next low-key race is a local 10K first weekend in Jan, don't have high expectations for that one though just something I signed up for a bit ago that's local and fun