Is 42 mpw a good mileage for an amateur?

about average.

this is all relative though - how long have you been training and how long have you sustained that mpw is a better indicator.

If it fits with your lifestyle and makes you feel happy and healthy it's perfect.

i started in 2013 with ~20 mpw, then i reached 42 one year ago.

I think it's good for health. No injuries, etc...

gtsolid wrote:

I'm running 5k in 18:45.

i usually spend 7 mpw warming up and the remaining 35 in the real workout.

i've no particular talent, i only run because i like it.

Am i on the average for my time? i wish to improve the weekly distance.

I don't care what any of these animals on this board say. If your a normie working a regular 40 hours a week and managing 42 MPW I give you a big ol' gold star.

I ran 40-45mi/wk for approximately 6yrs and saw all my times get better and better. In the end I plateaued at 17:08/36:30/1:21/2:48. Only then did I increase volume. Just change your routine from time to time, change focus to threshold, 10k speed, faster stuff etc.

I know many people that claim to run that really only do about 10-20 miles per week. I'd say that even 25 miles would be the average for people that like to go to the occasional road race throughout the year. Most people don't run every day, so 25 miles could be 5 different 5 mile runs, and that's kind of a lot and not many people run that much.

So you running 42 mpw is really pretty good, and 18:45 is certainly above average as well.

It is! I am doing 55-60 for my Marathon but will scale back to 40 to maintain afterwards.

I ran a 1:39 half on 36 mpw so anything above that is a bonus!

I have no talent though. PR is 18:33 in 5k years ago.

How many Strava CR's do you have?

Depends on what you want time-wise. I've run 50+ a week my whole life, and at my fastest ran 5K in

From a health perspective, I've always thought 40mpw was about the sweet spot. That's right at the tipping point for me, where it feels pretty easy all the time and more running starts to feel like training. For my paces, that's roughly 45 minutes per day of aerobic exercise, which a lot of studies show suggest to be a sweet spot as well.

I find it really difficult to start to pile on much mileage beyond the 45-55 mpw range. As a working person, that has obligations than just running and sleeping, it REALLY becomes a chore. Trying to log the miles, yet still get in two workouts and adequate recovery just isn't easy.

I try to avoid "running for the log" but at some point you do just have to put in the work to get the rewards, sometimes that means a plodding 8M when you'd rather do 5. I've gone back and looked at my training logs and my best performances always come when I run the most, my worst when I run the least.

Drainthefecesswamp wrote:

From a health perspective, I've always thought 40mpw was about the sweet spot. That's right at the tipping point for me, where it feels pretty easy all the time and more running starts to feel like training. For my paces, that's roughly 45 minutes per day of aerobic exercise, which a lot of studies show suggest to be a sweet spot as well.

In terms of health, it's less about mileage per week than about intensity. Hard, anaerobic efforts are NEVER healthy, even threshold efforts which are just moderately hard are probably too hard for maximization of health.

Someone doing 80 mpw at easy pace is doing more for his health than someone doing 30 mpw with a weekly vo2max session and a race.

40 mpw is fine, but needs a lot of cross-training and strength-training to be health maximizing (which is recommended anyway for health, to split endurance work in swimming/running/cycling and do at least 2-3 strength sessions a week).

gtsolid wrote:

I'm running 5k in 18:45.

i usually spend 7 mpw warming up and the remaining 35 in the real workout.

i've no particular talent, i only run because i like it.

Am i on the average for my time? i wish to improve the weekly distance.

Lots of people run faster to much faster on that much training, So, the time is average . The distance for a hobby runner is good.

What? Sorry I can't agree with that. Running 80 mpw is excessive, and isn't doing a great deal to further someones overall health. 30 with some faster stuff seems ideal. Not talking about getting faster, just 'health'.

Banner. wrote:

LateRunnerPhil wrote:

In terms of health, it's less about mileage per week than about intensity. Hard, anaerobic efforts are NEVER healthy, even threshold efforts which are just moderately hard are probably too hard for maximization of health.

Someone doing 80 mpw at easy pace is doing more for his health than someone doing 30 mpw with a weekly vo2max session and a race.

40 mpw is fine, but needs a lot of cross-training and strength-training to be health maximizing (which is recommended anyway for health, to split endurance work in swimming/running/cycling and do at least 2-3 strength sessions a week).

What? Sorry I can't agree with that. Running 80 mpw is excessive, and isn't doing a great deal to further someones overall health. 30 with some faster stuff seems ideal. Not talking about getting faster, just 'health'.

80 mpw in easy runs, easy to recover, doing a lot for the heart and it feels good. A race/vo2max workout takes several days to recover, builds a lot of acidosis, weakens the immune system tremendously, adds injury risk, breaks down more carbohydrates/glycogen instead of fat, etc. You adrenaline and noradrenaline go crazy. During easy running, you don't have these things. Sure you need to build to 80 mpw, but that's 10 hours of exercise a week which is ideal if running is the only thing you enjoy/do.

The absolute minimum range for daily exercise recommended by WHO is 1 hour a day to counteract the 10-hour sitting days. Now I'm not saying 80 mpw and nothing else is best for the health, for example 1h swim, 4h run, 2h bike, 3h gym would be even better, but if someone only wants to run and doesn't care about his speed or races that's what he should aim for.

The ones who burn out aren't the ultra-runners, but the Solinsky's and Salazar's who push the pace every day, race a lot and break down their bodies. There are many cases of former elite runners that are toast in their 50s/60s. Meanwhile the ultrarunners who do more volume but nothing that creates acidosis keep going for years and years, same with triathletes.

80 miles per week at 8:00 pace is around 90 min per day. That is probably not ideal just for health.

30 miles with a mix of speed is much better for general health.

42 mpw is average and an 18:45 5K result is also average (unless you're old enough to have seen the Beatles live).

If you want to be better than average, there are many things you can do - but easiest and best is to (significantly) increase mileage.

Count me amongst the 40-45 mpw runners. I'll sometimes string a few 50-mile weeks together, even hit 60+ on occasion, but the 16-week average has peaked at only about 42.

That was true in my 20s, 40s and most recently in my late 50s. I always planned on more mileage, but could never manage it. Still, with a reasonable mix of workouts, recovery runs and long runs, I raced well enough locally to make it enjoyable.

In my early 20s I ran low 16s for 5K, 2:40 marathon. In my mid-40s, 17:10 and 2:56. Late 50s, 18:58, 3:07. Looking back, I'm satisfied with those results, but will always wonder what may have been possible with 60 mpw, or 70 or 80.

Ernest wrote:

42 mpw is average and an 18:45 5K result is also average (unless you're old enough to have seen the Beatles live).

If you want to be better than average, there are many things you can do - but easiest and best is to (significantly) increase mileage.

Don't be silly. 18:45 is not average among all adults or even all runners. In the Carlsbad 5000 this past year, for men under 40, there were 809 competitors and 18:45 was the 104th position. That's about as deep of a 5000 as you will find. In most local races that's top 10 time. Add in other age groups and gender, then 18:45 looks even better!

I started running in my late 30s, and my second year I averaged 65km/week (which is just over 40 miles). I managed several mid 1:20s half marathons and a 3:04 marathon. Each of those races I was in the top 1% of people that ran the race.