Forums >General Running>Fastest mileage buildup you've done *successfully*
not bad for mile 25
The past year has been a really good, steady buildup for me, and it's paying off. Last Saturday I breezed through a 10K race and won my division without really going all out. That comes of 10K being less than a typical day's run. Hoping it pays off for my May marathon as well.
So unless your Dtothe2nd it looks like the time it takes you to ramp up the miles depends on the amount of time running. Meaning if you've been running 4 years you can go from 40 to 60 mpw faster and easier than a person with only a year of running experience.
And maybe throw in a little past health history also. After a 20 year period of being fat and lazy it has takin me 3 years to build up to 45 miles per week where Dave did it in 4 or 5 months.
Dave has that great thing called "Genetics" on his side -) My mileage rampup was similar as a newbie, but my average pace is much slower.
And Julia with that Half Marathon of 1:32.... One fast lady! (I peeked at the past PR's). Also, I noticed the running every day with no breaks. That is what I have committed to do, and seems the best way to ramp to high mileage is build up to where you can run 7 of 7 days. As someone mentioned above, the pace has to be 'easy' on most of those long runs in order for it to be sustainable and for your body to remain injury free.
The Plan '15 → /// "Run Hard, Live Easy." ∞
Here's my ramp up. I think the verdict is out until my May 5th marathon is complete on whether it is successful or not though.
Looking at it by month, that jump from December to January looks like a HUGE leap, but looking at my weekly graph from last year it doesn't look so bad.
My average pace during this latest ramp up has actually gone down a little. I had some low HR base building in the summer where my avg pace climbed up over 11:00 per mile, but following the Hanson Marathon plan, and adding their Marathon Pace runs and some Intervals my avg pace is actually a tiny bit under 9:30 so far this month.
So far so good, for sure an adjustment and I've been forced to start rolling my calves and hamstrings and fun stuff like that and doing a little bit of a penguin shuffle in the mornings sometimes, but so far no real injuries or anything. Knock on wood.
Age: 50 Weight: 224 Height: 6'3" (Goal weight 195)
Current PR's: Mara 3:14:36* (2017); HM 1:36:13 (2017); 10K 43:59 (2014); 5K 21:12 (2016)
Mmmmm...beer
It's my tree trunk legs, I have yet to find their breaking point. lol I have found that a lot of my limits have been purely mental, every time I've pushed for a new distance, my legs have willingly taken me there, just had to get my head wrapped around it first. I've noticed that I also recover pretty quickly, which no doubt helped me ramp up the mileage and frequency quickly. I am very curious to see what the future brings with some more dedicated training, speedwork first and then marathon training this fall/winter for my first full next spring.
-Dave
My running blog
Goals | sub-18 5k | sub-3 marathon 2:56:46!!
I've found the exact same thing in my brief running career. I started running last March and decided to train for a half in May. Before running that race I had signed up for my first full in September and 3 days after that race I signed up for a second full 7 weeks later. Taking out the race months with taper and December when I took some time off because of family travel and the flu, I've been pretty much ramping at a steady climb. (Though my running friends tell me I'm not normal) Right now I'm running 70ish mile weeks (Pfitz 18/70) and have adapted to that mileage without any ill effects or injuries.
Train smart ... race smarter.
mileage buildup in significance is to "successful" as horses are to "bombproof".
careful now...tick, tick, tick.
In order to see the truth, sometimes you have to loose an eye.
http://www.runningahead.com/groups/Utri/
I don't have a ton to add to this other than a couple of caveats.
(1) We probably have a bit of a survivorship bias on this thread. People who crash and burn as runners probably aren't posting on RA too much, and even if they are, they might be less likely to share crash and burn stories. "Too much, too fast" is basically the standard explanation for washing out as a runner. So maybe keep that in mind about mileage buildup at least if you're in your first year or so of serious running. I think the "just started four months ago and now I run 50 mpw with no problems" stories are pretty atypical.
(2) I think if you're overweight, it's probably harder to ramp up mileage fast. Here I mean overweight for a runner, even if your BMI is OK or close to it. Maybe someone would disagree with this point, I don't know.
I'd also say that I like Jeff's point on plateaus and getting what you can at those points before being too quick to move on. Aside from any physiological benefits to the strategy, I also think that people might just have less practical trouble doing mileage builds if they take some plateau breaks rather than doing 10% every week (or whatever) until they get to some arbitrary mileage. E.g., go from 20-35 over a few weeks then sit at 35 for a season, then move over a few weeks to 50 and sit there for a season. Stair-stepping rather than moving up linearly.
Also DB's (and others?) point about failing at a first attempt at a higher mileage point. This, of course, raises the question of when should you push through (aka HTFU) and when you should give up for now and go back to the mileage you were at.
The point several people have made about going easy is really important, I think. I flopped (i.e., got injured) coming back off of an eight year layoff and I think a big part of it was not running truly easy enough. (Doing most stuff at what was really MP or so.)
Finally, I think there might be something to runbum's (I think) anti-long run for beginners point. On that previous flop, I was running long runs probably too long for my level of fitness and I think that put a lot of undue strain on my bones/ligaments/etc. An appropriate "long" run for somebody running 20-25 mpw is probably like 5 or 6 miles.
Right on Hereford...
Since November I've been dealing cautiously with a nagging achilles injury
Haven't read the thread yet, but the more I run, the more I realize that every injury has a specific cause. Quite possibly, causes, plural. Ramping up mileage too quickly can be a cause, but it's not a specific cause, and there is nothing in your original post that makes me think mileage might be a contributing factor in your achilles injury.
If you're injured, focus on figuring out what works to make you better now, and what works to prevent it in the future. The idea that "I'm running too much" isn't really all that helpful, because you may be perfectly capable of running that much, or a lot more, if you just figure out how to prevent your injury. Yes, you may need to back off your volume for a while in order to heal. But...maybe not!
I remember when I first started getting into running (in my thirties), and my knee started hurting. It got worse and I started thinking, "Maybe I just don't have the right body mechanics to be a runner." That was stupid, because I was attributing my knee injury to the most general (not specific) "cause" of all, running. And, it was a cop out because it only gave me one solution -- quit running. I didn't want to quit, so I eventually figured out how to fix that, and haven't had any major knee issues since.
I'm far from an expert, and believe me, I've struggled with all sorts of running injuries. But, with enough motivation almost any of them can be fixed.
By the way, for that achilles injury, try eccentric calf lowers.
I think this is a great point.
In my opinion, it's far less taxing and quite a bit easier to run more by running more often rather than running more at any one time This especially goes for long runs. Unless you're doing a marathon or something that specifically requires a particular duration, it may be easier to actually shorten your long runs and just do another run instead. Especially if you're not running seven days a week.
I was convinced I couldn't run more than five days a week (so I could recover) when I first started so to try to increase mileage I was trying to add on to every run and I failed for months on end. When I finally started running six days a week, I felt much better and my mileage went up no problem. And on seven days a week, even better. And then the doubles, eureka!
So that's my biggest take on mileage increases: running more often is physically easier than just running more and long runs don't need to be that long.
ETA: I should have read Runbum's post first. Think it's pretty well summed up there.