Forums >Racing>Have you ever experienced a performance breakthrough that didn't involve increasing mileage?
Will Run for Donuts!
Conventional wisdom has usually been that in order to get faster, you should run more, and conventional wisdom has usually been right, at least for me and most of the runners I've personally known. All my PRs have been set following increases in weekly mileage, either in the training cycle or the base phase (usually both). Of course, there are occasional anomalies for some people, so I'm curious. Have you ever had a significant improvement at any distance which wasn't the result of increasing mileage?
Edit: Just remembered that I've also experienced significant improvement dropping 20+ pounds, but that's just sort of obvious.
Mother of Cats
Conventional wisdom has usually been that in order to get faster, you should run more, and conventional wisdom has usually been right, at least for me and most of the runners I've personally known. All my PRs have been set following increases in weekly mileage, either in the training cycle or the base phase (usually both). Of course, there are occasional anomalies for some people, so I'm curious. Have you ever had a significant improvement at any distance which wasn't the result of increasing mileage? Edit: Just remembered that I've also experienced significant improvement dropping 20+ pounds, but that's just sort of obvious.
Yes. I've run much faster marathons on ~60 miles a week than I ever did on 80+. And I saw a breakthrough when I cut out doubles and just used the extra time to get to bed earlier.
Improvement isn't about maxing stress. It's about hitting the ultimate balance of stress and recovery. People who see value from increasing mileage are those who can absorb the benefits - that's not all of us.
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Yes. I've run much faster marathons on ~60 miles a week than I ever did on 80+. And I saw a breakthrough when I cut out doubles and just used the extra time to get to bed earlier. Improvement isn't about maxing stress. It's about hitting the ultimate balance of stress and recovery. People who see value from increasing mileage are those who can absorb the benefits - that's not all of us.
Very true. I think it was Jack Daniels (the running coach, not the booze guy) who said your ideal mileage is only as much as you need to reach your goals. Any more is just risking injury.
So what was different about your shorter mileage training, besides dropping doubles and getting more rest?
Still kicking
I use to faithfully do a 30 minute stretching routine every night. After 35 years of that shit, I stopped. I was sick of it. 4 weeks later, without changing anything else, I shattered my masters 5K PR, completely out of the blue. That was 2 years ago, and I haven't stretched since.
I'm also on Athlinks and Strava
Are we there, yet?
Increasing intensity rather than mileage can bring big improvements.
2024 Races:
03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles
05/11 - D3 50K 05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour
06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.
SMART Approach
Especially for half or full marathon training get 2 rather than one longer run in per week. In that mid week longer run add quality work too. You will see a bump in fitness. Mid week miles are as important as that weekly long run.
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It depends on how you define "involve". I tend to think of training as a progression and it's really hard to untangle what specific thing led to a breakthrough--and the most recent thing isn't always the thing.
Runners run
I've never had issues with my performance.
Labrat
Mostly it has come down to miles but other factors for me have been:
1) Weight loss
2) increased intensity (specifically lots of lactate stuff for HM distance)
5K 20:23 (Vdot 48.7) 9/9/17
10K 44:06 (Vdot 46.3) 3/11/17
HM 1:33:48 (Vdot 48.6) 11/11/17
FM 4:13:43 (Vdot 35.4) 3/4/18
Old , Ugly and slow
My best year came the year after my biggest mileage year.
first race sept 1977 last race sept 2007
2019 goals 1000 miles , 190 pounds , deadlift 400 touch my toes
The variables that most closely 'correlate' to the periods when I ran my best times were 1) mileage and 2) weight. But not necessarily in the period just before peak performance. It was always a long period of hi mileage and decreasing weight that led to a period of maintaining or even dropping mileage while racing frequently at many distances.
I've noticed a breakthrough in running pace over 5k by increasing biking and walking mileage. It was mostly due to the 10 lb I lost, but I also think I was training too high intensity for me, and that the easy cardio got that long term endurance boosted I was lacking, not being able to do a true long run without being in too high of a heart rate range. Note I transitioned from biking>walking> running and the training may not have been as specific to running if not for this order. the biking being closer to running than walking in terms of heart rate, the walking being closer to running in terms of posture.
In what at first appears to be oxymoronic, I once had a breakthrough at the 5K level when I slowed down the pace of my interval workouts by 2-3 seconds per 400m. I was hitting the faster pace but at a cost of being chronically tired, even on race day after a short taper..