Start at 1 mile a day, add 1 each day, how long do you last?

Old Fat Guy, here.

I make it four maybe five days max.

Well any of you that pay attention to ultra running will know that pete Kostelnick averaged 72 miles a day when crossing the united states. That record took decades to break. Id say the limit is 80

It would really depend on incentive for me, and what the minimum pace would need to be. Probably could have made it to 20 days averaging under 5/km (8 min miles), but I'd be sore and need some real incentive. If the min was something like 6/km (I think this is just under 10 min miles) then maybe I could make it to the mid 20s. If there was no min pace at all, then I still think I'd have a hard time getting past 30.

Yiannis Kourous did 1,000 miles in 10 days and change. I suspect in his best shape he could have really put a nice number up. Or those folks that do that insane run around some block in NY for like 3000 miles.

Old Fat Guy wrote:

Old Fat Guy, here.

I make it four maybe five days max.

Exactly. It all depends on preparation going in to it

MUT and Road Runner wrote:

Well any of you that pay attention to ultra running will know that pete Kostelnick averaged 72 miles a day when crossing the united states. That record took decades to break. Id say the limit is 80

What you guys are neglecting is that at the longest, the lower 48 of the USA is 3,100 miles across, so Pete only had to run 42 days of 72 milers. By the time you even work up to 72 mile runs, he'd have to run twice as many days, and I guarantee he's not going to feel good coming off multiple 300+ mile weeks. I don't think his run would be easier than working up to 72 milers one day at a time. I think 65-70 days is the limit.

another perspective wrote:

I'd probably barely make it to 10 days if I had to guess.

I don't know what the limit would be but people guessing 60+ have to remember, the person has to be healthy still to even get to the week that they approach 60+. Here's what your weekly mileages would look like and the longest day of week in ():

28 (7 miler)

77 (14 miler)

126 (21 miler)

175 (28 miler)

224 (35 miler)

273 (42 miler)

322 (49 miler)

371 (56 miler)

420 (63 miler)

Anyone want to revise their guesses down now? Making it to day 50 would be quite a feat in my mind, anything close to 60 seems nearly impossible.

I think if money was on the line, I think I could make it to the 5th or 6th week.

People are so soft nowadays that they fail to realize that indefinitely adding 1 mile of running per day is simply Lydiard 101. But if you want to race like Peter Snell, it’s what you gotta do. Lydiard’s athletes often put in 400+ mile weeks while working 80 hours/week in the factory.

It can be easily modeled.

a) it depends on your current CTL and ATL/CTL

b) when ATL/CTL breaks 1.65, your days are numbered

So, just plot that out with predicted TSS, which can range from 10-15 TSS/mile.

if i could double, wheels might start falling off around 18-20?

Rupp fan wins for most hilarious post.

1 day.

Contiguous?

My normal right now is about 15 miles per day each week, so I could make it to 19 no problem. I'd say I would go insane or have an injury at 25 or so. If I didn't have a job maybe I could take an afternoon nap each day, and run twice each day, and get up to 30.

Until Tuesday.

Are we allowed to run MORE than 1 mile the first day? I think I'd lose a bit of fitness only running 15 miles the first 5 days.

Juice Springsteen wrote:

Day 2 , 2 miles. 3 on day 3, etc.

I think I could make it to 22 and then I would break. What is the human limit? I’ll go with 63.

A few years

It's an interesting question. The only people with a snowball's chance of lasting more than three weeks or so are the experienced multiday runners. I'm with the previous poster that Pete Kostelnick would be a solid bet to last the longest. And Asprihanal Aalto averaged 75 miles a day when he won the Sri Chinmoy 3100 a few summers ago....and that course is only open 18 hours each day. He'd be my pick to last past 80 days.

I'm 48 years old, averaging 45-50 mpw. I think I'd make it 12 days. The last 5 of 8+9+10+11+12 = 50 miles in 5 days. That is my typical 7-day mileage. I'm sure I could probably throw in a day 13 at 13 miles, but then I'd probably just be causing damage at that point.

BTW - I assume these are run at normal easy pace (7:15-7:30 miles). If I'm allowed to slow down I guess I might be able to throw on another day up to 13 - 15.

In my current shape? I'd be lucky to make it to day 7. In my peak running fitness? Hmmmm realistically into the high teens. I had one 95 mile week back then, so somewhere in there sounds about right.

I agree with the folks that say to get solidly into the 20s, you really need to be an experienced ultra-marathoner used to running long distances back to back.