Daily Mileage

[Steve Morrin]

Alright. I just have a small question. Now I'm not doubting my coach or anything here, I just want other's opinions. My coach has us doing the same mileage every day. For example, I am doing 6 miles a day for all 6 days per week. Almost every other team doesn't follow this strategy, but varies their mileage every days, instead having just a consistent weekly mileage. What is everyone's opinion of same mileage every day vs. changing mileage every day?

[Sasha Pachev]

I use the same strategy as your coach. I think evenly spreading your mileage allows you to run more miles with the same level of stress.  I have observed in my own training that my performance very strongly correlates with the number of miles I run per week. So I try to maximize that within the limits of my body.

[Steve Morrin]

That is exactly what our coach tells us. He wants us to be at the same stress so that our bodies adapt before we increase our mileage. It just seems depressing that these other teams whotrain differently beat us, but I think that has more to do with better depth, talent, etc.

[Sirenesque]

I tend to agree with Sasha, spreading the mileage out evenly allows the body to better manage stress and increase efficiency.

[Sasha Pachev]

Steve:

It will be depressing for other teams when you start beating them. In fact, the high school team that will school everyone else would have to train very differently from the average high school team. So this is a good sign. I would be concerned if your team was training like everybody else.

Who is your coach? Timo? If yes, say hi to him from me.

[Steve Morrin]

Oh no.  I wish Timo was my coach. He's AF's coach, and I run for Lone Peak. My coach is Aared Sampson. He's a fairly young guy.

[allie]

Hi Steve,

I used to run cross country and track for LP as well. Interesting to hear Aared Sampson is your new coach. We used to follow a similar running plan...the same amount of mileage every day...the one exception was our Saturday run, where we had an option to race or do a longer run (adding on 3-5 miles to usual daily mileage). It worked for me at the time...especially HS age, your body is still young and I think it appreciates a predictable amount of stress and physical exertion. You don't want to overtrain or risk developing injuries so early in your running career.  I don't know.... anyway, good luck with your season!!! GO KNIGHTS!

[Ruth Hilton]

My coach (Coach Reeder of USU) says this - "Avoid the same distance and course every day (if you do the same old stuff every day your body will acclimate and your progress will be slower)." So, though I don't know all that much, he's a pretty good coach I think and that's his advice.

[Paul Petersen]

Just to throw in my two cents...keep your running distance variable. Same thing goes for the shoes you wear, surfaces you run on, and workouts you do. Homogeneity leads to overuse injuries, stagnation, and/or burnout. Rotate.

That said, you can still run the same distance every day without running the same distance every run. Doubles are key. Here is a sample:

Sunday: 5 miles easy
Monday: 16 miles total, with 8 miles of tempo and 8x100m strides
Tuesday: AM - 9 miles, PM - 5 miles (14 total)
Wednesday: AM - 10 miles, PM - 5 miles (15 total)
Thursday: 16 miles total, with 2 miles of tempo, 8x1000m intervals, and 6x200m hill charges
Friday: AM - 8 miles, PM - 6 miles (14 total)
Saturday: 20 miles easy, with 8x100m strides. Done on dirt road or trail.

Good reference article:
http://therunzone.com/trom.html

Steve, in essence what your coach is saying is be consistent. Don't miss days, and don't vary your mileage all over the board. Don't do any runs shorter than 5 miles, nor any runs longer than 10 miles. But running exactly 6 miles each run can lead to the things I mentioned above.

I would suggest doubles to you, if you coach is okay with it. You obviously have a lot of free time during your days, which you could use to train more. If you average something like 12 miles/day in doubles, you will become tremendously fit for 5K XC without putting too much strain on your body.

[adam]

Steve- Aaared is a very, very, good friend of mine. He has degrees in Exercise Science (emphasis in coaching) and is just now finished his Masters in Exercise Physiology from BYU with a thesis about the biomechanics of foot torque in track spikes.

He ran middle distance track and xc for Southern Utah University. He is young (but not as young as you think though!) and very capable. TRUST HIM. One of his biggest goals is to take track and xc out of the public shadows and into the spotlight by correctly developing young runners like yourself. If your the runner I am thinking of, he has even been thinking about workouts for you personally since track season. Be patient, as right now he is probably just working on conditioning the new and out of shape runners.

If you talk with him about your goals, he will listen and try to help you as much as possible.

[Adam R Wende]

Steve, I like the way Paul put it and points it out. In high school for me it was always low mileage 5-8 / day with a 10-13 mi day on Sun. Then in college it was more or less the same everyday ~10-12. The main thing that I've found for my body since college is that mixing it up with 2-a-days is the secret. The outline Paul gives you is a great example of this. For a few years after college I believed all my runs had to be in 1-a-days, like this gave me some special advantage. However, after a 101 mile week of 1-a-days and being injured for months after I've switched it around. I now believe that the 2-a-days combined with taking your easy runs as slow as humanly possible helps with leg recovery and allows for better speed when it is time to work on that.
Another thing I've noticed since college is how you split up your weekly mileage. In the past I'd have a core of 60mpw and if I wanted more I would just add in extra 20-mile runs. I now try and go by a philosophy of evenly spaced miles. I think this has helped my body the most. I've also used this concept for my mileage increases. Prior to going up to a new mileage I'll start adding in consequtive days and the new average. For example if I've been running 85 mpw (~12/day) and want to bump up to 95 mpw (~14/day), I'll add in an increasing number of 14/day each week as I make my increase. This has seemed to help more than just following the 10% rule.
Hope this helps.

[Sean Sundwall]

I could not agree more with Paul. Every day should be different as much as possible. I'm even varying when in the day I run. There isn't a week that goes by where I haven't run at least one run in the morning, one around noon and one in the evening. I've also incorporated different surfaces as well. My high school coach was a three-time Olympic Trials qualifier in the marathon and she was an excellent high school coach. But she would be the first to tell you that what works for high school isn't what will work for running later on.