RunningAHEAD - Topic: Upping Distance

yankeefan

posted: 12/31/2008 at 1:02 PM

How long should i run at a certain distance before upping my milage? I finaly feel like i did before i got sick and feel good about my distance/time/effort, but i definitly dont' want to settle at where Im currently at.

2009 Goals (nobody laugh) Run 800 miles or more Run 12 or more 5ks Run 2 10ks Get 5k times in 25's Run a 3 miler in 24:29 or less Run in HM in October

Teresadfp

One day at a time

posted: 12/31/2008 at 1:11 PM
modified: 12/31/2008 at 1:12 PM

I was in your shoes last year (oops, unintended pun). I just went up two or three miles a week and kept track of how I felt. I did that up to 35 miles per week, and that's when my body started complaining. For ME, 30 mpw seems to be a good place to land, at least for a few more months. I also dropped my mileage back every few weeks. My log doesn't look as good the past couple of months because of vacation and family obligations, but 2009 will be good! Good luck to you! Believe me, no one will laugh at your goals! You're faster than I am, for sure.

jEfFgObLuE

I've got a fever...

posted: 12/31/2008 at 1:30 PM
modified: 12/31/2008 at 2:13 PM

Well, there's the old 10% rule, but I don't think that's really valid at low mileage. Daniels has a rule of thumb which is that you can increase your weekly mileage one mile per each day/week you run (i.e. if you run 5 days/week, you can safely up your weekly mileage by 5 miles). I was looking at your log and noticed you list most of your runs as tempo runs. Technically speaking, a tempo run is 20 minutes or so at somewhat slower than 10k race pace. More qualitatively, it's a comfortably hard run done at a pace that you could race for about 50~60 minutes or so. A tempo run should leave feeling like you could do more, but glad that you don't have to. What is the effort level of these runs? Are they pretty hard? I raise this concern because if you really are doing nearly every run at tempo pace, you're running too fast, and this will lead to injury. There's a mantra around this site: Run lots. Mostly easy. Sometimes hard. And it really works. Most of your runs should be at a pace that you could sustain a conversation at while running. Slowing down helps prevent injury, and it allows you to run more. And a lot of slow miles will do way more your race times than a few fast ones. For example, you say that you want run 3 miles in 24:29 or less. Plug that time into the McMillan Calculator and you get a recommended easy pace of 9:58~10:28.* Slow down, run more miles, and your running will take off. MTA: *Please note that using McMillan's or other running calculators, you are really supposed to enter in your current race time, not your goal -- all of the training paces are based on what you currently can do. However, since you didn't have any recent races to plug in, I used your goal time instead.

On your deathbed, you won't wish that you'd spent more time at the office. But you will wish that you'd spent more time running. Because if you had, you wouldn't be on your deathbed.

MichiganFlyer

posted: 12/31/2008 at 2:12 PM

You are at 10 miles a week...I think you could try 14 miles next week. That is 2 miles per day. Try 14 miles for a couple weeks but 90% of your miles at very easy pace (a pace that you could chat at). If that feels okay then try for 18 miles the next week. Jeff is right increase by 10% per week but since you are at low mileage right now I don't know that the 10% rule applies to you yet. I do not do the 10% increase in mileage until I get to 20 miles a week. Then I would make sure I can do 20 miles per week by trying 20 miles for 2 straight weeks. If you want to go more miles try 20, 22, 24 ,20 in consecutive weeks. Then do 26,28, 30, 26 the next four weeks. Although looking at your mileage I don't know that you are ready for 30 mile weeks yet. I would aim to get to 25 mpw if I were you.....and 90% slow runs....you will get faster because of increased stamina. You could peak out at 25mpw for 2-3 months to see if you are ready for higher mileage.

jEfFgObLuE

I've got a fever...

posted: 12/31/2008 at 2:15 PM

Quote from MichiganFlyer on 12/31/2008 at 2:12 PM:

Jeff is right increase by 10% per week but since you are at low mileage right now I don't know that the 10% rule applies to you yet. I do not do the 10% increase in mileage until I get to 20 miles a week.

Yeah, I figure that if your running 10 mpw, +10% gets you to 11. That's too conservative an increase for most people, in my opinion, which is why I prefer to the Daniels rule instead.

On your deathbed, you won't wish that you'd spent more time at the office. But you will wish that you'd spent more time running. Because if you had, you wouldn't be on your deathbed.

yankeefan

posted: 12/31/2008 at 3:35 PM

All makes sense....I'm running all that at about 8:45-9:00mpm. And I definitly couldn't talk while doing it. I definitly try to slow down but run more. Now will that also help when I want to turn it up and run hard like for a 5K or something like that?

2009 Goals (nobody laugh) Run 800 miles or more Run 12 or more 5ks Run 2 10ks Get 5k times in 25's Run a 3 miler in 24:29 or less Run in HM in October

yankeefan

posted: 12/31/2008 at 3:38 PM

Quote from jEfFgObLuE on 12/31/2008 at 1:30 PM:

Well, there's the old 10% rule, but I don't think that's really valid at low mileage. Daniels has a rule of thumb which is that you can increase your weekly mileage one mile per each day/week you run (i.e. if you run 5 days/week, you can safely up your weekly mileage by 5 miles). I was looking at your log and noticed you list most of your runs as tempo runs. Technically speaking, a tempo run is 20 minutes or so at somewhat slower than 10k race pace. More qualitatively, it's a comfortably hard run done at a pace that you could race for about 50~60 minutes or so. A tempo run should leave feeling like you could do more, but glad that you don't have to. What is the effort level of these runs? Are they pretty hard? I raise this concern because if you really are doing nearly every run at tempo pace, you're running too fast, and this will lead to injury. There's a mantra around this site: Run lots. Mostly easy. Sometimes hard. And it really works. Most of your runs should be at a pace that you could sustain a conversation at while running. Slowing down helps prevent injury, and it allows you to run more. And a lot of slow miles will do way more your race times than a few fast ones. For example, you say that you want run 3 miles in 24:29 or less. Plug that time into the McMillan Calculator and you get a recommended easy pace of 9:58~10:28.* Slow down, run more miles, and your running will take off. MTA: *Please note that using McMillan's or other running calculators, you are really supposed to enter in your current race time, not your goal -- all of the training paces are based on what you currently can do. However, since you didn't have any recent races to plug in, I used your goal time instead.

2009 Goals (nobody laugh) Run 800 miles or more Run 12 or more 5ks Run 2 10ks Get 5k times in 25's Run a 3 miler in 24:29 or less Run in HM in October

yankeefan

posted: 12/31/2008 at 3:43 PM

Woops sorry i copied all of that above statement. I guess i put my runs in as tempo because i just assumed a tempo run was when one would just hold a steady pace for the duration of the run. Is there somewhere to define tempo/easy/hard/etc.?

2009 Goals (nobody laugh) Run 800 miles or more Run 12 or more 5ks Run 2 10ks Get 5k times in 25's Run a 3 miler in 24:29 or less Run in HM in October

jEfFgObLuE

I've got a fever...

posted: 12/31/2008 at 4:08 PM

If you're talking about defining these in your running log, go here. http://www.runningahead.com/options/log/activities/10 If you mean, what are the definitions of these types of runs, well, I've given you the common definition of tempo run above, and easy is a run at a pace you could have conversation at. Hard is arbitrary, but it's faster than a tempo run.

On your deathbed, you won't wish that you'd spent more time at the office. But you will wish that you'd spent more time running. Because if you had, you wouldn't be on your deathbed.

MichiganFlyer

posted: 1/2/2009 at 8:30 AM
modified: 1/2/2009 at 8:31 AM

Quote from yankeefan on 12/31/2008 at 3:35 PM:

All makes sense....I'm running all that at about 8:45-9:00mpm. And I definitly couldn't talk while doing it. I definitly try to slow down but run more. Now will that also help when I want to turn it up and run hard like for a 5K or something like that?

If you increase your mileage from 10 miles a week to 20 miles a week for a month or two you would probably knock off a minute from your 5k time without trying. Yes its is okay to run one day a week at a faster pace. If you are doing 10 miles a week you should run no more than 1 mile at nearly race pace and run 9 miles at 2 minutes slower than 5k race pace. A 400 meter dash is about speed..... a 5000 meter race is more about s tamina and not so much about speed.

dgb2n

Dave

posted: 1/2/2009 at 8:42 AM
modified: 1/2/2009 at 8:42 AM

Quote from yankeefan on 12/31/2008 at 3:35 PM:

Now will that also help when I want to turn it up and run hard like for a 5K or something like that?

Yes. Assuming that you increase your total mileage as you slow down. Especially when you're first starting out, adding more slow miles will help you improve even on a 5K more than a few short fast runs. My easy runs are about 2 minutes slower per mile than my last 5K time. Once you get your mileage up, you can gradually start adding some speedwork.

I ran a mile and I liked it, liked it, liked it.

dgb2n@yahoo.com

Dakota RR

Right on Hereford...

posted: 1/2/2009 at 4:14 PM

Quote from jEfFgObLuE on 12/31/2008 at 1:30 PM:

Technically speaking, a tempo run is 20 minutes or so at somewhat slower than 10k race pace. More qualitatively, it's a comfortably hard run done at a pace that you could race for about 50~60 minutes or so. A tempo run should leave feeling like you could do more, but glad that you don't have to.

Jeff gives the classic definition of a tempo run above, which is "20 minutes at somewhere between 10k and half marathon pace." The definition also talks about tempo pace being your one-hour race pace -- the fastest pace you could maintain for a solid hour. The problem is that this definition might not work for you if a 10k race takes you more than an hour (which is true for many people), or if your half marathon takes less than an hour (true for a select few people). That's why I like the 2nd part of the definition -- tempo is your one-hour race pace. Of course, many people define tempo much broader than that. You could do a classic 20-minute tempo, or a 60-minute tempo. You could do a 2-mile tempo or a 12 mile tempo. The longer the tempo run, the slower the pace. So, you could have tempos that range anywhere from your own personal 10k pace to your marathon pace, perhaps. But here is the simplest and perhaps best definition of tempo, as many others have said: "a comfortably hard pace."

Upping Distance (Read 957 times)