Guidelines for increasing mileage.

ip(FeS2)

Hiya,

I'm looking for opinions on increasing mileage safely.

Given a current maximum weekly mileage of 55 miles

which of the 2 regimes are the least likely to cause injury.

This Week Next Week
50 66
60 66

Hilly

The normal rule of thumb is no more than 10%.

Aardvark

Add about 5m per week, and take an easier week every 3 or 4 weeks.

I increased from 40/week to a regular 70m like this without any injury problems.

[Deleted User]

116 next week and rest the week after

[Deleted User]

aadvark advice good I reckon. you need those step down weeks or it all looks pretty relentless

[Deleted User]

Is there a rule of thumb on increasing if you run by the clock? I go mega slowly and I'm trying to build up.


I'm cheeky jumping into this thread but I may as well take advantage of your know how!



At the moment:

Monday 30min (slow)
Tuesday stretching 30 min
Wednesday 45min (steady)
Thursday 30min (faster bursts)
Friday gym and stretching
Saturday rest
Sunday 90min (slow)


I'm doing my first half in June.

My 10k time is 80 mins on the flat....


Any advice and I will be mega grateful!

Lindy

I suspect the maximum 10% rule works equally well for time as for miles :-)

[Deleted User]

What science is this 10% rule based on?

Why not 5% or 15%?

[Deleted User]

If you stick to 10% limit you'd never start - 10% of zero is zero.

[Deleted User]

Lydiard believed you could take a healthy, but sedentary, non-runner and get them to 100mpw in 9 weeks. I know of folks who have done that in practice...

It is not as mad as it sounds, unless of course you believe everything you read in RW to be gospel truth... ;-)

Hilly

How many are injury free at the end Pantman?

I couldn't run 100mpw without overtraining.

[Deleted User]

Not on the intensity you currently run, Hilly...

[Deleted User]

Pantman - Lydiard's (-> Run to the stop) 100mpw involves 100mpw of STEADY running.

[Deleted User]

I know, URR! But he also advocated a quick build up to that mileage with jogging. The pace should increase AFTER the mileage.

Regardless of what anyone thinks of the RATE of increase, that PRINCIPLE is the key.

Broadsword Calling Danny Boy

If someone had already built up a decent pace, but decided to use that approach to get to 100 mph, would they get their pace back once they'd accomplished 100 and started to do speed work again?

[Deleted User]

100 mph? That's a pretty good pace!

[Deleted User]

How long have you got Bryan?

You would start to push up your aerobic running so you are running at strong sub LT efforts.

IMHO, doing 100mpw + including 2 punishing speed sessions is disaster time. Your body needs to get used to the mileage.

For most runners, you would not lose the `decent pace' by increasing mileage, you would be getting more out of your aerobic capability (80% of your potential) than by losing out for a while on your anaerobic capability.

[Deleted User]

Like BR I made a similar experience. My experience is that you need to adjust the pace carefully, you can't run on the threshold all the time. With increased intensity comes the risk of injury. I follow the hard/easy pattern, a quicker steady session followed by easy running. My aim is mainly to fully exploit the aerobic system (if this is possible). According to the text books you can achieve considerable good results with 6 weeks of anaerobic training (assuming you have an aerobic base in place).

[Deleted User]

Decide what PEAK mileage you want to hit - increase to that mileage by jogging only, THEN SLOWLY start to pick up pace on a couple of sessions and build from there.

ip(FeS2)

Thanks for all the comments:

Interesting that this turned into a "base-training" thread :-)

I know that I am planning a risky mileage increase next week, but I've been running all at v.low heartrates and my legs have been strong and niggle free through my previous mileage increases-

I think I'll go for it, but plan to keep the intensity right down for a while afterwards and cut back if I get any niggles.... Hope Lydiard was right...

Broadsword Calling Danny Boy

Ooops, I think 100mph is a little out of my range at the minute!

Marathon training at the minute, so I don't have the time to test that out, but thanks for answering my question.

I was thinking of getting 10K & 5K Running, Training & Racing: The Running Pyramid
by David Holt to use after I've run my marathon. Has anyone got any comments on that book?

Link is here:link

Brian Wakem

It took me 4.5 months to get from 30-35 miles/week to 60-65 miles/week. This is quite a slow increase but I've been doing 3 speedwork sessions a week throughout. My running has improved no-end though, going from a 1:25 half on my previous mileage to a 1:14 half on Sunday. Looking to slowly build up to ~100mpw (by this time next year probably) to see what I am capable of.

[Deleted User]

Pantman is correct, decide what you want your maximum mileage to be and just do it. As long as you run slowly you will not have any problems. At worst you may get a few niggles, ice them, massage them and get on with it.