Any suggestions on recovering from increased mileage?

[Jonathan Gillette]

I guess I am fortunate, in that I am blessed with the ability to run marathons on very minimal training, however, as I am trying to increase my mileage to improve my performance, I am finding that my legs remain in a constant ‘sore’ state!  The first 7 marathons I ran were on very little training, all in the 4 hr+ range, with one 3:57.  I decided I wanted to try to qualify for Boston, so I sought out a fast course, and settled on St. George, which I absolutely love!  I live in Atlanta. 

In 2009, I ran a 3:40:28 … my monthly mileage leading up to the race was:  July: 9, August: 43, September: 61 … my long run was 13 miles.  Obviously, on this mileage, I was not hoping to BQ, and was thrilled with my time, PR by 17 minutes.   

In 2010, I trained harder, and although my mileage was still low, I did a lot of cross training, Spin classes, and lost 18 pounds.  As I am 44, I needed a 3:20:59 to get in for 2011 & a 3:30:59 would get me in for 2012.  Despite my calf cramping up at Mile 25, I was barely able to hang on for a BQ with a 3:20:49 … my monthly mileage leading up to the race was:  July: 57, August: 80, September: 54 … my long run was 17 miles.

My new goal is to break 3:10:00, so that I can get a guaranteed entry for New York ... and ultimately, I want to break 3 hours.  I realize that if I am going to continue to improve my times, I am going to have to put in more mileage!  I am registered for Ogden in May, although I do not think I will be able to make the trip, I am still trying to get into 3:10:00 shape.

I have made substantial mileage gains in the last 3 months …. January: 103, February: 120, March: 125.  My dilemma is my legs remain in a constant state of soreness logging this many miles … which I realize is still extremely low mileage for what most people recommend for marathon preparation.  After running 47 miles the first week in March, I felt I needed a break, so I took an entire week off, then just did two 8 mile runs the following week.  With my legs feeling rejuvenated, I ran 16 miles on the Atlanta marathon course (pretty hilly) at a 7:07 avg. pace, which was faster than I planned, but I felt comfortable, and was even able to maintain that pace on some pretty big uphills.  After my first warmup mile at 7:35 pace, my slowest mile was Mile 3 at 7:19 which had 114 feet of elevation gain.  I ran Mile 16 in 7:07 which had 103 feet of elevation gain.  Obviously, my added mileage has paid off, however, my legs remain in a constant tired state!  The next weekend I ran a 10k, confident I would be able to beat my PR from last fall of 41:35, but my legs were shot & I was only able run a 43:45, 7:02 pace.

I know my mileage is still low for marathon training, but I really do not enjoy my legs being in a constant state of fatigue!  I do not think I have increased mileage too quickly, and I would think after 3 months of 100+ mile months, my legs would have acclimated to that mileage, but they do not seem to have.  Should I continue to try to increase my mileage or level off?  Is constant fatigue the norm for someone training for a marathon or should my body eventually acclimate to my increased mileage?  My apologies for the long post, I just figure if you don’t know my mileage history, it is hard to understand the nature of my dilemma!

[Matthew Rowley]

I am no expert so take my advise with a grain of salt.

A couple things I noticed.  1) How fast you increased you mileage.  2) The pace you ran after resting your legs.
1) I am not sure what pace you are running most of your miles, which could play a big roll, but a good rull of thumb is to only increase your mileage 10% every other week.  When you increase mileage it adds stress to your legs.  You doubled your monthly miles then added 20% to that.  If you add the mileage slowly your legs will adapt, get stronger, to deal with the increased stress.   When I am increasing my mileage I just run slow mileage.  2) The pace you ran the 16 mile run is great, or maybee bad.  To average a 7:07 mile on a 16 mile run is a hard workout.  7:07 is 10 seconds faster than marathon pace, that is a fast hard workout.  Fast mileage adds lots of stress to your legs.    I am not supprised that your legs remain in constant 'sore' state.  You are might be showing some signs of over training.

[Jonathan Gillette]

Matt, thanks for your input!  I do have a tendency to push my pace a little, however very rare for me to run faster than a 7:30 pace on any of my training runs, with the exception of maybe a couple miles at marathon pace.  I have no idea where the 7:07 16 miler came from, that was not even my intent, I just set out for a comfortably hard long training run, and that was where it ended up.  My only other run faster than 7:30 pace, was two days before the long run where I did 6.5 miles comfortably at 7:17 pace.  Both of these runs came after 2 weeks of almost no running!  I will try slowing my pace a little & stick with 30-35 mpw for a while, and hopefully the the fatigue will go away in time!  I would love to be able to get up to 50 mpw and see what kind of progress I might be able to make.  I could do 50 mpw now without any problem, but I don't think that would be wise when I am feeling fatigued running 30. 

[Jon Allen]

Jonathan- Matt gave some good advice.  Don't increase too fast, run consistently (6 days a week, if possible, for 1 hr each day), and don't go too fast!  Especially on your easy days.  My normal, daily training pace is about 90 seconds+ slower per mile than my marathon pace, and my easy days are slower still.  Even my hardest speedwork is 10 miles at slightly slower than MP. 

Good luck!  And I completely understand the sore legs- I get that, too, when your legs are sore.  When I'm increasing mileage to a new high, I feel tired and sore a lot.  But once I adjust, no problems.

[Jonathan Gillette]

Jon, thanks for the advice and encouragement!  I have always struggled with the discipline to make running a daily routine, I guess now that I have finally upped my commitment, it has been a little disheartening to feel like my legs are constantly fatigued!  I really did not think I was piling on the mileage too fast, but as I go back and take a closer look, it is apparent I was.  Although I am not happy with the way I am feeling, my 16 mile run was much faster than I have ever run any significant distance, so obviously the additional mileage has been paying off.  I guess I just need to be a little more patient, maybe back off a little, and then slowly continue to build my mileage in a logical fashion!  Thanks again ... I see you are in Greenville, SC ... give a shout if you are ever down in the Atlanta area!

[Joe Furse]

I'll go ahead and ditto everything that has been said here.  When building mileage I rarely run faster than 7 minute pace, and often spend a lot of time in the 7:15-7:30 range...and I run a sub 2:40 marathon.  Long fast workouts are only really useful when they are specifically targeted towards a marathon, and only then when you have sufficient base mileage to handle it.  It is likely you are doing bigger big workouts than your base mileage has prepared you for.  Just looking at what you've said here, your blog, and comparing your description of your long runs in relation to your monthly mileage, I'd say that your biggest issue is probably consistency.  It will do wonders for your sore legs to get those 100 miles or whatever by decreasing the length of your runs, but running every day (or 6 days a week with one rest day, if that suits your fancy like many of us on the blog, myself included).  You'll get the same mileage, but you'll be able to improve faster and with less pain.  A rule of thumb I've heard mentioned on the blog with regards to long runs is that your long run for the week should be no more than 25% of your total mileage for the week.  Obviously, that might be slightly different depending on your level of running fitness and/or natural abilities, but in general it's a good ballpark figure.  I do like to have long or hard days alternated with easy days, plus a long weekend run, but on my easy days I still get a quality run in--it's just not as long or hard as my hard days.  My long run for the week is usually the slowest of all.  I guess what I'm trying to say is that alternating days of little to no running with long hard runs will certainly make you sore, and eventually will lead to injury.  It's like popping the clutch too fast while driving a standard...it's not particularly fun, and it will eventually ruin your car.

[Jonathan Gillette]

Joe, I appreciate the advice, I like the 25% guideline.  The main reason for my long mileage runs recently were not to 'up' my weekly or monthly mileage, but I am registered for Ogden, so I was just trying to get some long runs in.  As it turns out, I do not think I am going to be able to make it to Ogden, so I will scale back my long runs, and work on improving my consistency at a slower pace, until I can gradually get my mileage built up. 

[Joe Furse]

Good luck.  IMO, if you must choose between pushing your limits and risking injury or being a little less than perfectly prepared, it's better to err on the side of not getting injured and being a little underprepared...but that's me.  Ideally you don't want to have to make that choice, but there is this little thing called life that sometimes happens to us.  And Ogden is the same stinkin' thing for me...I've either registered and not run due to lack of training, or not registered before it was full for the last two years...maybe next year will be the charm for both of us.