Forums >General Running>Fastest mileage buildup you've done *successfully*
Sultan of slug
My history:
Year 1: 9 miles/week --> 18-24 miles/week
Year 2: 18-24 miles/week --> 30-40 miles/week
Year 3: 30-40 miles/week --> 45-55 miles/week (for 13 weeks near the end)
Year 4: Struggling with injury so far.
Given most coaches' recommendations for cautious increases in weekly mileage, and given that I'm dealing with an injury that has limited my mileage, I'm curious as to what everyone's experiences have been with regard to mileage buildups. I've seen people in various forums claim to have successfully ramped up to 70+ miles/week within their first year of running. Doubtless, some people have managed to pull this off. Just wondering about the rest of my fellow mortals.
After barely running at all since high school, I started running very casually a few times a week about three years ago (at age 24), putting in about 9 miles a week. Without thinking in terms of weekly mileage, within a few months I had moved up to about 18 miles per week. I probably stayed in the 18-24 max range (with plenty of weeks- or months-long breaks with very little running) for almost a year before adding in more miles, including long runs. This was just a way of procrastinating as I worked on my masters thesis.
Only then did I decide to start looking at my running in terms of "training," as I geared up for a marathon I decided to run on a whim. Since then a "typical" week for me has been 30-40 miles a week (again, with plenty of weeks that involved no running), save for the 13 weeks I spent on Pfitz's 18/55 plan.
Since November I've been dealing cautiously with a nagging achilles injury, putting in a 30-mile week here, a 40-mile week there, and then laying off for a week due to pain. I've recently decided to "start over" at 25 miles/week and increase my mileage by 5 mpw every third week (a la Daniels)
Proud Calgarian
I didn't officially keep track of my mileage until November 2011, but it's been something like this:
Year 1 (May 2010 - Dec 2010) - 10mpw
Year 2 (Jan 2011 - Dec 2011) - avg 25 mpw
Year 3 (Jan 2012 - Dec 2012) - avg 65.5 mpw (3,406 miles)
The buildup went from 30-something at the end of December to...
2012
Week 1 - 23.71
Week 2 - 55.49
Week 3 - 53.89
Week 4 - 52.74
Week 5 - 48.27
Week 6 - 50.62
Week 7 - 76.15
Week 8 - 50.85
Week 9 - 58.24
Week 10 - 90.51
This year I'm currently at 70 mpw (707.3 miles currently).
2015 Goals and PRs:
5k - 17:59 (18:05); 10k - 35:59 (36:42); HM - 1:19:19 (1:19:59); FM - 2:49:59 (3:05:46)
After being a slug toward the end of the year - I ramped up
Jan 238 miles
Feb 612 miles
March 938 mile (Peaking at 257 miles in a week)
Before an April taper of 750 miles
Race was May 14th
Long dead ... But my stench lingers !
Note - My results may not be typical.
What most people miss is stress on the body is much more than the mileage.
100 miles a week averaging 8:15 pace and 7:15 pace are 2 completely different animals
After being a slug toward the end of the year - I ramped up Jan 238 miles Feb 612 miles March 938 mile (Peaking at 257 miles in a week) Before an April taper of 750 miles Race was May 14th
I mean this is the nicest and most impressed way, but you are a freak
Why is it sideways?
Some random thoughts on mileage builds:
I think most folks can build to 35 mpw pretty immediately without much problem.
After 6 months there, most will be able to jump to 50 or so. 50-60 mpw is a good sweet spot for a lot of folks, moving beyond that level can be challenging, and for some runners the return can be slight. So, I would stay there for a year or so, maybe more. This is a good place to stay until you "max out" at that mileage level.
The next level is 70-85... this can be some (most?) runners' "max", others will be able to handle more, but this is another good place to rest and do work.
The next level is 95-110. Many runners can get here and will continue to improve, but this is not for the feint of heart and can be difficult to balance with other life stresses.
120+ requires special genetic gifts and recovery capacities, I think.
Once you've been at a certain mileage level for a while, building back can be done relatively quickly -- over the course of a few days. But as a new runner, I think it's good not to "skip" levels, as the body may respond better (or the same) to a jump from 35-50 than it would to a jump from 35-70...
I was a freak ~ Now I am a normie
I just wanted to set the upper end of the control limit for what the person posting thought was possible
Basically I have come full circle to return to my roots of running as being one of the things I do for excerise.
The man with the fabulous abs posted a nice summary.
My question is have you taken any time off to re-juice your system in the last 12 months? By time off I mean weeks (2+) in a row.
Joggaholic
I found the hop from the <60mpw level to the >70mpw challenging because of the need to switch from running once a day to twice a day, life gets in the way...
The man with the fabulous abs posted a nice summary. My question is have you taken any time off to re-juice your system in the last 12 months? By time off I mean weeks (2+) in a row.
Thanks, dude. I am showing off my tatts.
DB is the man to talk to if you have problems with recovery... I am sorta a mileage cautionary person (think RIGHT mileage instead of MOST mileage), but that comes from my own experience.
Yes -- of course another way to think about these mileage levels are in terms of hours/week to equalize time commitment:
For me:
35mpw: ~4hrs... (30-45min/day)
50mpw: ~6hrs... (60min a day)
70mpw: ~11hrs... (90min a day)
100mpw: ~15hrs... (2hrs a day)
On moon or earth?
I heard the gravity is less on moon and wonder if I can handle this kind of mileage there.
Caveat: Before reading below understand that I had been running for several years and already completed many marathons... and had at one time run 100 miles in a week 'just to see if I could'... but that was a one-off deal and was several years earlier...
In July '10 I ran 171 miles (39mpw avg)... and committed to run a marathon in 13 weeks...In Aug '10 I ran 254 miles (57mpw avg)
In Sep '10 I ran 407 miles (95mpw avg) <--- This was my highest weekly avg ever, by far
The 1st week of Oct '10 I ran 97 miles all on single runs.
The following week, I ran a PR marathon race.
be curious; not judgmental
Feeling the growl again
Some random thoughts on mileage builds: I think most folks can build to 35 mpw pretty immediately without much problem. After 6 months there, most will be able to jump to 50 or so. 50-60 mpw is a good sweet spot for a lot of folks, moving beyond that level can be challenging, and for some runners the return can be slight. So, I would stay there for a year or so, maybe more. This is a good place to stay until you "max out" at that mileage level. The next level is 70-85... this can be some (most?) runners' "max", others will be able to handle more, but this is another good place to rest and do work. The next level is 95-110. Many runners can get here and will continue to improve, but this is not for the feint of heart and can be difficult to balance with other life stresses. 120+ requires special genetic gifts and recovery capacities, I think. Once you've been at a certain mileage level for a while, building back can be done relatively quickly -- over the course of a few days. But as a new runner, I think it's good not to "skip" levels, as the body may respond better (or the same) to a jump from 35-50 than it would to a jump from 35-70...
I like this summary and would agree with all of this except for the part about 120 requiring special genetics or recovery capacities. If we're talking averaging that over a couple months, then yeah you need some special recovery abilities. But to run over that fairly regularly, I think structuring the running correctly (experience or good coaching) and a TON of rest/recovery are more important than needing to be on the tail end of the bell curve.
Even though I ran that kind of mileage quite a bit, once I started working full time and had a family I could not do it....just too many other stressors.
Asking how much someone has jumped without issues is a dangerous question. For example nobody should act on DB's experience. He also didn't do that the FIRST time he tried to hit that kind of mileage, which is probably where the OP is coming from.
Personally, I went from averaging in the 50s mpw to 100, averaging 80-95, overnight. It hurt, it was hard, and while it worked for me something else may have worked better and I would not want anyone to attempt to emulate that.
"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand
I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills