Forums >Running 101>BQ & mileage
How many miles did you do the year you BQ'ed? Sometimes one as nothing to do with the other, I know.
Don't get hung up on just "miles per week". You could do, for example 5 miles, twice a day, 7 days a week. That's 70 mpw, which is not too bad, but it's not good marathon preparation (although of course better than nothing).
The Limping Jogger
2007: ~1200 miles - pre-marathon running
2008: ~2300 miles - BQ 1
2009: ~1700 miles - BQ 2 (improved by 2:37)
2010: ~1700 miles - BQ 3 (improved by 2:47)
My best 2010 marathon was ~5 1/2 mins faster than my first in 2008 yet I was in the best shape of my short running career in 2008. I didn't train harder, if anything I was better rested and more experienced so executed a better race.
"Only a few more laps to go and then the action will begin, unless this is the action, which it is."
runnergirlmommy
BQ'd in 2009 at the NYC Marathon. Ran about 1300 miles that year. I think it's more about the quality than quantity for many runners. Getting in that long run and tempo runs as well as some half marathons leading up to the BQ race. Overdoing it can lead to injury. I never ran more than 5 days a week and most weeks were 4 days. Good luck!
Consistently Slow
Well it depends a lot on your goals and background, I was speaking to the variability. You mentioned 400s to mile repeats in terms of range. So, assuming you can handle a base of 4 miles' worth of intervals (cut down to 3 if you need to), you can swap around 16X400 on 60-75sec recovery, 8X800 on 90-120sec recovery, 4X(400-800-400) with 60-90sec between repeats and 3min between sets, 6X1200, 4Xmile on 3-4min recovery, 400-800-1200-1600-1200-800-400 on 90-120sec recovery. Paces you can get off the calculator, it will be near 10K pace for the 1200/1600s and 5K pace for the 400/800s. The goal here is just go give your legs/mind a little different taste of pace and distance. In general I start shorter and work toward longer (up to sets of 2000-3200m intervals), but that is not when injury is in the picture and over mile repeats is probably not applicable to most.
Well it depends a lot on your goals and background, I was speaking to the variability.
You mentioned 400s to mile repeats in terms of range. So, assuming you can handle a base of 4 miles' worth of intervals (cut down to 3 if you need to), you can swap around 16X400 on 60-75sec recovery, 8X800 on 90-120sec recovery, 4X(400-800-400) with 60-90sec between repeats and 3min between sets, 6X1200, 4Xmile on 3-4min recovery, 400-800-1200-1600-1200-800-400 on 90-120sec recovery. Paces you can get off the calculator, it will be near 10K pace for the 1200/1600s and 5K pace for the 400/800s.
The goal here is just go give your legs/mind a little different taste of pace and distance. In general I start shorter and work toward longer (up to sets of 2000-3200m intervals), but that is not when injury is in the picture and over mile repeats is probably not applicable to most.
Should have find this before I went to the track. Recovery too long. Did 5k pace(1:41-1:51) with 1:47-1:52 recovery.Will set the garmin for distance next time. 10 x 400. Probably not full recovered from marathon on Sunday. Hoping that is the case.
PS: After a second look my pace is closer to 7:00 rather than 7:11.Will go for 7 min with 90 sec recovery next time/week. Have a half on moderately difficult trail 2/12/11.
Edit Copy Delete
Run until the trail runs out.
SCHEDULE 2016--
The pain that hurts the worse is the imagined pain. One of the most difficult arts of racing is learning to ignore the imagined pain and just live with the present pain (which is always bearable.) - Jeff
http://bkclay.blogspot.com/
We are all an experiement of one. 3200 miles
2014 Goals: (Yeah I suck)
Did roughly 14 miles. Garmin will not upload. Too far.Too fast. No water. Walked 2.5 miles home after starting to see spots. Run with someone. Bad Idea.
There's some really good advice in some of these responses. Yes the mileage over a long period of time helps, but the quality of this mileage is just as important. I'm inspired that some people qualified 3rd time around, hopefully for me that means I get closer to the time, I'm a good 15 minutes off still.
The shirtless wonder
Miles per week isn't a good measurement but it seems to be about the best one available. If you are a computer geek you may have heard programs measured in "lines of code." If you write code you realize that is a horrific measurement of the size or complexity of an application...and yet it's the best measurement available.
run.therowes.net
I think you're understating the most important part of marathoning. From my experience, mileage over a long period of time is the most important thing you can do to improve your time. Quality is important but only once you lay in a solid base of mileage measured over months and even years, not 18 weeks.
Feeling the growl again
+1. This is why I chuckle at these 16-week plans and when people wonder what do to until the next plan. Well, you run! As much as you can if you want to improve! Sure, quality and what you do with those miles is important but until you consistently run a lot over an extended period you will be limiting yourself.
When I made the jump from 2:36 to 2:29 I was shocked....I made a late decision to run the 2:29 race and only did specific training and quality for 6 weeks. But I'd been running higher mileage consistently and even without focused, frequent workouts had run a sub-56 10-miler. It's called base for a reason!
"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand
I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills
will ensure appropriate use of bold text next time
I'm actually sneaking a peak back in here to figure out the weekly mileage of people who have qualified. I'm not going to qualify, and it's too much of a stretch in improvement for me to try, but it's still good to have it in the horizon as a goal to work towards.
I am fascinated by the people who go from running 0 miles per week to 20, then go into a marathon training program. From those I've seen, the marathon training guides and pace charts do not take into consideration the length of time the person has been running. Some say that as long as you can run 20 miles per week, you're set to start the program, and people have the expectation that they're on the same playing field as their neighbor running his first marathon, but who has been running for 10 years.
Rather than BQ and mileage, it should really be - what was your weekly mileage before qualifying, and what has been your average weekly mileage for how many years leading up to the race...and what kind of tempos and intervals were you doing?
Ask others and they'll go into the importance of cross training, core, etc.
Right on Hereford...
I'm not going to qualify, and it's too much of a stretch in improvement for me to try, but it's still good to have it in the horizon as a goal to work towards.
Not sure why you say this. I took a quick look at your log and I don't see why you would rule out a BQ. Or were you referring to a specific marathon date that is looming close?
I concur. Your log isn't deep so I don't know what you've been running but upping the mileage and consistency a bit could cause big changes. I went from 0 to BQ in less than two years and my first marathon was slower than your PR. A year ago if you asked me about a BQ I'd tell you to take a hike. I don't see why you couldn't do it this fall.
2000 miles
Miles each of 15 weeks before race (Philly November 2005--3:28 at age 45):
42456231676072 (10:47:00) (peak)42 (recovery week)35 (did a half marathon this week for a PR)40 (recovery week)54 31 (felt fried and took a lot of rest)42 (planned taper)28 (planned taper)
16 (planned taper)
The key to my BQ-ing was 95% of my volume being aerobic work, staying at a low-HR (below 70% MHR) on easy days, taking extra rest when I felt fried regardless of what the schedule said I had to do.
--Jimmy
Overall I think I need to get my base up over a longer period of time, I've been in the early 30's for years, and only in the 40's and above in training for my next marathon, which is 10 weeks away. You can see in my log that I'm only really getting my mileage up now. But, appreciate the vote of confidence.