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Race time imrpovements as mileage increased
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Just time your runs better. Or run routes with lots of toilets along the way (beaches, country parks etc.)
I skipped running at all for about a day and a half and the ITB pain went away. I don't really know what caused it though... whether it was sheer volume or not enough stretching or what.
Obviously i'm slightly concerned that it might happen repeatedly. Either way, i've still failed to manage more than 40 miles in a week.......
Are you running every day?
Paul, after running 20 mile weeks off and on for a couple of years, I raised my mileage over the course of 8 weeks to 50-60 a week and promptly got injured (aged 27). Be careful! I actually missed the Paris Marathon (which I'd been training for) as a result and it wasn't much fun watching my mates complete the course while I stood at the side kicking my heels.
I know it's important to build an endurance base (that's what I was trying to do), but at this stage I certainly wouldn't get carried away aiming for 60-80 miles. I reckon do more speedwork (sounds like you're quite young so you should be doing this anyway), cut out one weekly run and build up very slowly.
Maybe you'll be fine and avoid injury, but I thought it was worth relating my experience of increasing mileage...
paul,have built over the years of doing 20-25miles a week with football mixed in, to currently running every day...to amass my 40-50miles a week.
seems to be just fine so far...as at the moment is spread over 9runs in my week
currently do similar to the below but just one double in the week...soon to aim at the below
...which would give just under 55. seesm quite sustainable to me.
M 6.5
T 4 LUNCH 4 Evening
W 6
T 4 lunch 4 evening
F 4
S 14
S 4lunch 4 evening
So a fair few 4milers...which i find a distance i can motor at but not all out obliterate myself at. Therefore the recobvery is fairly short and as above allows for a second 4miler later in the day.
Park Laner is right in theory above about not building up too soon. However it depends on your background. If his(i presume his!) 20 mile weeks "on and off" were the sum of his sport..ie no other activities like football etc and even these 20mile weeks weren't consistent then it's unsurprising a very quick shift up the gears to 50-60 a week has accounted for injury.
I'd come from a fair few years of football and 20-25miles a week, over 5 days a week, so have thus found packing in the football and spreadind over 7 days to work so far.
I only do one real long run a week, and of the others the pace is flexible as I feel, certianly no stopwatch mad timings...and pressurising myself.
If you have a good few years of the lower mileage and build slowly...perhaps discounting any ideas of 100miles a week until you have aclcimatised to the increased mileagethen that would remove any pressure and allow you to enjoy each step along the way.
Interms of ITB if you definitely have had your gait/trainers measured by an expert...and your current shoes are not worn out, it 's time to look at different options.
A good stretch i find is lying on your back, leg out stretched (similar to a hamstring stretch) but you leg goes across your body. ie right leg across the left side of body whilst keeping straight. You feel the stretch down the band, outside of knee type area.
Otherwise, sometimes the camber you run on can give you slight ITB....they recommend you run on the lowest part of the road so that you don't kind of run on an uneven surface. Failing that change your route so you do the reverse of your normal run to mix it up.
Alos the old faveourites icing and ibuprofen at the first hint of an ache, obviously having rested as well.
Ah..you can tell i'bve been around running for a bit...these injury tips flow a bit too easily!
Thanks for the advice guys. Run three times this week with no pain, but i've been doing psoas and ITB stretches meticulously multiple times a day!
Did 8 miles on the treadmill this morning... at about 11kph. HR stayed under 175 throughout, but mainly in the 155 - 165 range. Felt fairly good throughout, except for the last 10 minutes when my stomach was growling!
Rather than traditional speedwork, I was thinking about the possibility of doing group circuits and spin classes in addition to the 6-7 days a week of easy running.
I do most of my runs at a HR of 145 - 150... so VERY easy. Considering my recent 5k PB is 19'32", running for an hour at 9kph seems tediously slow!
I still want to meet 55mpw by the time the GSR comes around. And I'm hoping for a 5 mile PB in portsmouths Victory 5.
bout time i wrote on my own post... seen my 10k pb come down to 37:28 this saturday. It took 3 years to get it down from 3827 (a freak time way above my level at the time) to a 38:24 5 weeks ago.
That showed a stead progression from 40mins down to 3903 to 3834 to 3824 ovre the previous 4 10ks. And now to 37:28 on a route where I had to steam and weave through 100s of half marathon back markers due to the stupid organisation from the Henley 10k!! Haha..concentrates the mind knowing you have to get through people or stall.
So now...doing 50milesa week regularly..last 4 weeks have been 50 each exactly... a few more months of this hopefully will push down even further!
Hi steve looks promising and well done on your pb
Since beginning of september i've increased my mileage i'm at around 50 mpw which i've done in 4 of the last 6 weeks. Knowing what i know about endurance running or rather building a base which is what i'm really doing it takes some time to see results.
But what i have noticed is feeling stronger in a recent 10km where before i would die around 7-8 km i remained strong throughout i could i believe could have run further just not any faster.
I feel good at 50mpw hoping to get it up to 60 (maybe 70) and hold it there for a few weeks think the most important bit is allowing your body to become accustomed to running a set mileage before increasing it again
i agree with that pammie.my 10k this past weekend was not only almost a minute quicker but at the end i just finished and was fine...whereas normally i'm in a heap collapsed.
here's to continued imrpovement for us both!
I'm looking to keep the 50miles a week going until the end of the year...and then i might mix it up with march half marathon(s) in mind
I'm just over 40mpw atm... hoping to be hitting a regular 50 by December. Got a real mix of 5k, 5M, 10k, halfs and so on coming up... so im hoping that my fairly weighty 4-day-a-week schedule will be doing me some good.
Considering my all-time 10k PB was run on under 25mpw, I should be able to beat it by January!
Interesting thread. Over the last 3 weeks I have increased my mpw from 27 to 37. I have a 5 month base at around 25mpw with a few years of running on and off. I found last week I was a bit down and not thinking positively about things and posted on another thread. The general feedback was that I was over doing things.
I want to keep my miles at 37mpw but will cut back on the pace as looking back I pushed too hard on most of my runs (80% rhr and running at my target marathon pace for longer runs and 10k pace for 6.5 mile runs).
I guess I am guilty of wanting the rewards of more miles without stopping to think about what the jump in miles can do to you mentally or physically. Somehow I forgot about training smart and just started going for it on most runs.
Well done guys it does take time for the results to show. You havre to be patient. Plus the extra miles esp at first will take a little while getting used to, pace may drop have had that happen but tell yourself to be patient and it will be worth it in the long term
The important thing is to stay healthy don't do too much too soon, listen to your body. We'll get there
Kev you said something impoertant there "Train smart"
I don,t think extra mileage is always necessary.I train about 30-35 miles a week and managed to get my 10k down to 37.04 and half to 1.23.Been training since january when my first 10k was 43.18 so started running steady runs 6.30 to 6.45 then tempo runs once a week 6.00-610 for 4-6 mile has worked for me.also found losing weight helped but don,t always look good.
Can't really provide any numbers for 10k but there's no doubt that higher mileage provides better results for the marathon, at least in my experience, but weight loss is also key. If you're going to run your best possible time for a specific distance, it requires a very delicate balance, requiring an ideal combination of maximum tolerable training load, optimum training regimen, perfect race conditions and ideal racing weight. Personally, I've gone from a 3:54 marathon on 20-30 mpw to a 2:34 marathon on ~90 mpw, with concurrent weight loss, improvements in training structure and the good fortune to have had reasonable conditions on race day.
I think also its down to what you want out of running.I try to put in quility runs as with young kids and work it makes it tough to up my mileage, but looking at your results it works for you,something to think about in the future tho.
mmmm marmite agree with Kev that is an astonishing improvement
If i can ask how did you bring your mileage from 20 to 90 miles a week (obviously not all in one go) and when did you notice an improvement in your race times
bilic you must a fair bit of talent to run good times on low mileage some of us can't do a more quality type training schedule (easy to get injured)
I actually enjoy the increase of miles (majority done at an eaasy/steady pace) But its early days yet
Kev - I'd love to get under 3:45 (we girls have it easier
) but it would mean taking 51 minutes of my time so may take a little longer
Interesting thread
Like it's been said - there has to be a load of factors involved in improving your running ability, not just the miles per week. I think that the speedwork sessions I've been doing have definitly helped improve my times, and of course the longer runs help with the stamina aspect of racing. And even small reductions in my weight seem to vastly alter the outcome.
Have done a quick analysis of my training to see how increased milage alters my times over a few different race distances.
The miles per week is an average over the year, with some months being much higher than others, and those times are seasons bests, I guess if I averaged the times it would be different. One thing to note is that I've become more consistant with times as the years have gone on. So instead of having anything between a three or four minute varience between times when I started, it's dropped considerably so I can kind of predict how I'll do to withing 30 seconds (depending on weather conditions/terrain etc.)
This year, even though I haven't increase the milage vastly, I have put a lot more effort into my speedwork, I was looking for a sub 21 5k but didn't quite get there - I did hit around the 21: 07 mark in a couple of races, so I know I can do it, it's just a question of effort on the day.
I'm not sure that increasing milage would help my shorter race distance times, but it would almost certainly help my half marathon time - though to be fair I didn't actually put in more than 75% effort for this year half best
(so maybe less talking on the way round and more running 
)
By far the biggest differences in times have come with decreased weight. I was an *ahem* larger lady when I started (so any more mileage would have prolly killed me off), but as the stones came off, my times dropped. I do feel now that I have to work much harder to see substancial improvements now, but I don't mind - I guess that's half the fun
Just wondering though - is it not better to substitute longer runs with harder runs, like hill reps, and track work? Clearly it's not if you're marathon training, but for the shorter distances it would make sense.
meant to add I'm a 36 (soon to be 37) yr old lady, 16st 9lbs down to 9st (though it did dip down to 8st 12lbs at one point).
Some impressive mileage from you folks, not sure I have enough time in the week with work to be able to increase my mileage considerably.
some nice postings guys...my current training is 50miles a week. 1 of these is a long run on say a saturday of up to 14miles....one is a tuesday speedwork session over 4miles in total...and 3 of the runs are lunchtime woods/hills runs. So i'd like to think i've got my key sessions mixed in.
These 50miles are carried out over 10runs in 7 days, which I'm finding very manageable to be fair.
Got the 10k pb down to 37:28..which unfortunately wasn't officially recorded..but was in a proper race..accurately measured and which I had to overtake 100s of people ina longer distance race on at the same time!
That was a flat course tho..my next 2 10ks over next 2 weekends are both Multiterrain hilly ish courses...so won't be touchint that pb I wouldn't have thought.
But it's rocking along nicely for now
Impressive time 37 28 my feeling is you get out what you put in but 50miles i would find it very hard to fit in the week.I usually run 10-12miles sunday steady run then tuesday a tempo run 4-6miles. wednesday is club night so 9 miles steady run then 6-8miles friday at hm pace,i know sometimes i run a bit hard but i always run as i feel.
Bilic i used to hear 50miles a week and think of it as the domain of mentalists..but mine this week breaks down as below
M T W T F S S
Lunch 4 4 4 3 5 6(race)
Evening 6.5 4(speedwork) 6 4 3
So that doesn't look quite as time consuming now does it?
Ideal week sees a 14mile on the saturday...and no friday lunchtime run and perhaps the mon lunch run taken out so still aaround the50...but with a race on the sunday the long run goes!
The key thing is the 7 days a week and the doubles on at least 3 days. Lovely
Some interesting posts. I was going to ask a similar question as I'm trying to get under 3 hours for the marathon.
A year ago I did Berlin in 3:10, on an average of 25 miles a week for the 16 weeks prior to the race but did four 20-milers and a 18.5. Have just got back from Chicago where I suffered badly and came in in 3:59, but I'd only averaged 24 miles a week this time including only two 20-milers.
For London I'm planning a big push up to 40+ miles a week with a max of around 52, but don't know how close to 3 hours this will get me. I really can't comprehend doing 100+ miles a week (and having a day job) so I hope this will be enough!
Agree that quality training is vital which is one of the reasons why I don't plan to go above 52 as I think my other runs will suffer, and I'm a definite believer in rest days!
Mike
Hi guys, i roughly do 30 miles a week mainly consists of two speed session (8 k volume) one long run and a steady run if im lucky, bad health and shed loads of work keep me more busy than work...would lvoe to tak up running full time..im hitting 36 min 10k..
Have just completed my marathon in 3:07 after building my mileage up to between 45 and 65 miles per week. I also did a lot of swimming which perceptibly helped. I agree that mileage is very useful for the marathon but the problem is that my speed work has suffered with the emphasis being on long runs and mileage. Consequently my 10k splits are 6:35 at best, half splits probably 6:45 and marathon 7:10.
CV wise I the mileage has made me very strong and I currently struggle to get my legs to shift fast enough to get out of breath which is an odd sensation. My next step is to reduce mileage a little and concentrate on interval training and 10k's before building up for my next marathon.
Another thing not to overlook is hill reps. Helps immeasurably with the latter stages of the marathon and also the hills that everyone commented on felt relatively easy.
On weight loss I have lost around 16lb in the last year which as well as making me faster has taken a hell of a lot of weight of my joints, especially knees. I am going to try to get down to 11st 7lb n the next 6 months to make that sub 3hr a little easier.
Hi Guys,
I can only recommened higher mileage training. But you have to be "smart" about increasing and it has to be done on a gradual basis. Don't increase/add more quality sessions until you body has adapted to the mileage. My progression below:
2004 - 10K (39.40) - Half (1.38) - Marathon - 3.28 (MILEAGE - 20-30MPW)
2005 - 10K (34.49) - Half (1.17) - Marathon - 2.43 (MILEAGE - 50-60MPW)
2006 - 10K (34.21) - Half (1.15) - Marathon - 2.40 (MILEAGE - 60-70MPW)
2007 - stayed around the same
2008 - 10K (33.28) - Half (1.12) - Marathon (not done one) (MILEAGE - 70-80MPW)
Will be pushing the 100 miles a week soon in the build up for London. Hope for further improvments but Im sure there is a point of deminishing returns
For some unknown reason I have it in my head that runs under 5 miles do not have any value. I am not sure why I have started to think this.
Stevie G, I really like the idea of doubles during the week. I will get out at lunchtime and do 4 miles three times per week while keeping the three evening 6.5 mile runs (easy, threshold & marathon pace). These added to my long slow run on a Sunday will get me to 40 plus mpw and seems easier than trying to cram the miles in each evening after the kids go to bed.
Would the best use of the lunchtime runs be fartlek runs?
Try a bit of cross training too.
I swim on a morning and run on a night and have in the past cycled to work and back and then run on an evening. I have also used once or twice a week to run the 10 miles to work and back with a small pack which was good for stamina. A bit of a gentler introduction to a full 20 miler.
I have felt the same about short runs as EdinburghKev. I felt that I was cheating by doing any run less than a hour. As I said above I think my speed has suffered as a consequence.
Anyone out there got any tips on improving my speed apart from the obvious?
Cabarfeidh - Do long reps. Buy this I mean 1k's or miles. Try and do 6-8 x1k reps or 5 x 1mile. Run them at around 5-10k pace but no slower than and 10k pace, 5k pace is better. 90sec - 2mins recovery at most.
It's better to do the whole session at a consistant pace rather than starting fast and then the session slowing. Do this once a week, your times will drop. Bingo!
Peahead
I usually do cresendo runs with the club. This usually starts of f like this, 'chaps, I'm going to take it easy tonight'. By the end of the first mile the pace generally increases until by the halfway mark it's a full out race.
Thanks for the suggestion Peahead. I shall try it after i've recovered from tomorrows half.
I used to do a similar session to Peahead's - 4 * mile reps on an imperial track - but I had a half mile jogged recovery which would be longer than his 2 minute rule. If I felt good I'd do them as fast as I could keep them consistent - think the best I managed for a set was inside 5.40s - if I didn't feel good I'd do them more like 6 minutes per mile. I think they worked but it wasn't a session I looked forwards to - maybe best done with someone of similar speed.
With a mile jog out to the track and a easy run round after it'd be a 10 mile session in all.