After running roughly 45 mpw all winter and indoor track, I finally hit 50 miles 3 weeks ago for the first time since last summer while training for cross country. Back over the summer, the one week I hit 50 miles, the next week I felt awful and developed a muscle strain in my hip flexor, and that lead to what I believe was a combination of overtraining and physical/mental burnout a couple weeks later.
My past 3 weeks have all been 50+ miles and I even hit 58 miles last week. With no days off in this 3 week period and weekly long runs, interval workouts, races, and occasional tempo runs, I’ve felt surprisingly great. I do feel quite tired throughout most of the day at school, and during some recovery runs, but I always feel great come workout days. Why is that I feel great now and am able to handle this mileage now whereas last summer I tried to hit it one week and felt awful?
Granted, I have noticed I’ve been losing a bit of leg speed and I’ve been trying to add extra supplemental strength work to keep the muscle on and have been doing strides whenever possible. But I feel like I’m in the best aerobic shape of my life right now and I can feel the gains in my aerobic fitness this season as my “easy pace” and tempo pace have all been faster and have felt easier. In workouts and races, it’s always my legs that die out first and prevent me from running my best.