Improving Your 5K

1

How many miles? (Read 944 times)

jeffdonahue


    So I have read a lot on the board lately about needing to put in more miles - it seems the more you can get in the better (specifically a post by Jeff here: http://www.runningahead.com/groups/2000/Forum/595e725d602c41ba9b4fba211ba528b9 Where it sounds like to get faster you just need to run more. My problem seems to be that after a month of 50 mile weeks, my legs feel like they are shutting down on me. I have ankle pains, quad and calf tightness and pain (though these seem to have subsided after I backed off to a 32 mile week last week) I didnt jump my mileage up quickly, just a few miles each week building up to the 50, but I am wondering if I am just not designed to run much more than that in a week. I would like to get up to 60 (and had actually originally started my year thinkign I would attempt to build up to a 100 mile week) and be able to maybe hold there or even a little higher, but I dont want to get injured. So I guess my question is - is there a specified number of miles you need to maintain to get faster in the 5K? Can I go faster than my PR of 19:52 on 30-40 miles per week or do I have to up the mileage if I want to see improvement? Just frustrated right now because after a pretty good mileage start ot the year, my running seems to have hit a wall of sorts. Never mind the fact that I dont really ahve any goal races in mind for this year. Thansk in advance Jeff
      but I am wondering if I am just not designed to run much more than that in a week.
      Don't get this idea that you are a piece of equipment that is designed for a specific workload tolerance and will wear out and breakdown. You are a dynamic adaptive organism that responds to stimuli by getting stronger.
      So I guess my question is - is there a specified number of miles you need to maintain to get faster in the 5K?
      No, your body does not have an odometer. You need to maintain a training stimulus strong enough to cause adaptations, but not too strong that you can't recover from it. My point is it sounds like you are trying to hit an artificial goal that may be counterproductive if the real goal is to race faster. Maybe you're not ready for 60 miles per week and need to maximize your gains at 30-40 miles per week, at least for a while, before jumping back up. Remember the goal is to race faster, not to run X number of miles per week. I think your running is stagnating because you have not acclimated to this higher training load. You can either tough it out and (hopefully) get over it, or you can drop down a little bit and finish maximizing your gains at a lower training load before bumping it up.
      Can I go faster than my PR of 19:52 on 30-40 miles per week
      I don't know a whole lot about you specifically but there are runners who run much faster than 19 on 30-40 mpw. My question would be how long have you been plateaued at 19:50-20:00 and for how long within that time has your training been consistent in intensity and volume.
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      jeffdonahue


        I don't know a whole lot about you specifically but there are runners who run much faster than 19 on 30-40 mpw. My question would be how long have you been plateaued at 19:50-20:00 and for how long within that time has your training been consistent in intensity and volume.
        I cant exactly say whether I have plateaued or not with that. My PR in the 5K was actually last July. I just havent run another one since then because i was in marathon training till October and then just a lot of slow miles after that. My legs just never seemed to be right after the marathon for some reason, but I still cranked up the mileage to 50ish miles for a while at the beginning of the year. My training is pretty consistent across the year for last year - anywhere from 30-50 miles per week, with usually one long run, one speed session or hills, and a tempo/progression run every other week or so. I did a 4 miler last weekend on a very hilly course and came in at 25:46 so only a few seconds slower than my PR 5K pace. Right now I am nursing an ankle injury (both ankles actually) that I think occurred because my last pair of shoes was way overdue for changing.
        RunAsics


        The Limping Jogger

          I think your running is stagnating because you have not acclimated to this higher training load. You can either tough it out and (hopefully) get over it, or you can drop down a little bit and finish maximizing your gains at a lower training load before bumping it up.
          +1 My experience is that once I got to 50mpw it took more time for my body to adapt than when I hit the 40mpw range. It was probably a month before I felt OK and could move on. 60mpw didn't see as tough after that. Cut back weeks helped a lot.

          "Only a few more laps to go and then the action will begin, unless this is the action, which it is."