For my 24 hour PR - From Feb 1st to April 30th, I lost 38 pounds and ran 2,300 miles for a May 14th race.
Every year it was a similar experience, a few less miles, more or less pounds ... but big mileage and weight loss the 1st 4 months of year. Then November and December - Pack it back on.
It is a vicous cycle ~ but I do take piece of personal knowledge from it ~ I believe November and December were good "Recharge" months (Just do it without weight gain) Jan and Feb were used to build mileage and since I was fat, it was lots of slow miles = base building. Then I would add speed and intensity and peak. Most road / track runners will take time off and go through training cycles. May people feel that without cycles you will not improve as much.
I do think it is personal. I once trained @ 18 months at a higher intensity level and did set a Marathon PR, but I was burned out and broken by the time I set the PR.
But I also think it has to be kept in prospective to the relation of how many miles / hour you are training compared to your maximum possible, your average training intensity and ability to recover.
I am fuller bodied than Dopplebock
I was very consistent all year with little downtime or cutting back. I did run at least 1 marathon or ultra a month including 3-24 hour races. But do not confuse road miles with trail miles. I only ran @ 1,000 trail miles out of the 6,0000. I was running 13-20 hours per week.
That is the past ~ An experiment gone bad.
6,000?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!? That's BAT SH*T CRAZY!!!
Occasional Runner
Yeah...I was trying to do the math on that too. I've never met anybody with an annual total like that. Not even close to it. I know how much time I devote to running and I won't ever tough that number.
Old life July 1st 2003 - December 31st 2012 > 46,000 ~ Most years were just above or below 5,000 with 1 lessor year from unjury and 1 lessor year from lack of motivation.
New life 2013 and beyond ... hoping to get to 3,000 per year ... give or take. I made choices in life that made running easy. I live 5 minutes from work, school, church, grocery. I passed up a promition opportunity because it would have been a lot more time at work and lving in a big city. I have a good job and I am fairly compensated and my boss is really flexible ~ no regreats. Now I am using the extra time to actually have (Reconnect) with friends.
I still do not see 2 hours a day devoted to fitness (On average) as a big deal. I can get that before work and at lunch. Most people devote 2 hours a day to sitting on their butts watching TV. I have always mutli-tasked most TV watching on the TM.
Refurbished Hip
Weight gain/loss has been difficult for me with this mystery injury. I only started losing the weight I gained from sitting on my ass when I started putting in decent miles on the bike. To put in decent miles on the bike, I had to become a bike commuter because I wouldn't make myself go for a bike ride when I got home from work. I will say it's easier to lose weight with the bike than running. I gained weight while running higher mileage. Biking doesn't make me as ravenous. I can't afford to be a serious cyclist, nor I do enjoy it as much as I enjoy running. Not to mention, it snows here in the winter.
Also, I think I've been in a 16 month "recovery period" now.
Running is dumb.
I was running 13-20 hours per week.
When you put it this way, it doesn't seem so outrageous. I've been trying to get my weekly workout total to 10 hours per week. I'm sure if I were faster, and I only ran (instead of other cross training) my totals would be higher than they are.
Trail and Ultra Running User Group
Thread killer ..
I find at this point I can't really cut back but I'm not a high mileage runner . I am working some really worn out equipment , the kind you can't turn off because you aren't sure you can get it started again .
Sorry to hear .. 16 months is a long time. My injuries only prevent me from running fast and training consistently hard. I could bike every day, but I do not enjoy it as much as running. I look forward to this winter for CC skiing and snowshoeing to suppliment running. Also for Racket Ball to replace Tennis. Downhill skiing to replace boating / tubing / wake boarding.
Weights / Core / stretching ~ That is a year-round activity
Sometimes I feel bad for my wife ~ I love being active and she really does not. She likes sitting on the boat and puts up with downhill skiing as a family. I am trying to get her to bike with me biking 3 times a week.
We do both enjoy drinking beer ~ So we have that
I understand this ~ I will back down ... but I need to doing something 5-6 times a week. If I take a week off from everything, I can hardly get out of bed by the end of the week.
running under the BigSky
I look forward to this winter for CC skiing and snowshoeing to suppliment running.
me as well; without those I'm sure my fitness would tank, I can only put so many miles in on the dreadmill
2023 goal 2023 miles √
2022 goal- 2022 miles √
2021 goal- 2021 miles √