Weekly mileage?

[Lucia]

Hello experts!
I'm asking for your advice again. I've achieved the goal of running consistent weekly mileage, if not as many quality miles as I would like... Here is a summary of the past 2 months of training:

Mileage for May:
Week 1: 28 miles
W2: 30
W3: 38
W4: 55 (some of that was backpacking, not running)

Mileage for June:
Week 1: 51 miles
W2: 47 miles
W3: 52 miles
W4: 23 miles (tendon was hurting so took 3 days off)

1st week of July: 65 miles (and feeling great, no shin pain, knee pain, or tendon pain)

Now, the first thing I think I need to focus on is speed - so I'm going to have a track workout a week, and/or a hill repeats day a week.

An ultrarunner friend of mine believes I should not be doing so many miles per week and should cut back until later on... can you give me your expert advice on this? How many miles per week should I be aiming for? Anything else I should be doing? Oh, I forgot to mention, my target race is the Marine Corps Marathon, October 26, and I want to qualify for Boston.

As always, I appreciate your help!

Lucia

[Sasha Pachev]

Keep doing the mileage. Get used to it. No hurry to do speed. Race once in a while to make sure the speed is still there. If your 5 K times are improving, no need for speed work, you are still riding off your base. I imagine you'll still be improving your 5 K for another 2 years with this type of training.

[adam]

Keep up the mileage. The aerobic improvements you make now from increasing and maintaining the miles is what you will be most grateful for at mile 26 of your marathon- not so much from the 10s you've shaved off your mile PR. The marathon is an extremely aerobic event, and that is where you stand to improve the most. Think about it. You are running 1-2 marathons a week total in your training mileage, and want to run that same mileage in a just a few hours a morning four months from now. How do you better prepare for that? Run more "marathons" in your week, not cutting the miles for speed.

Take the next two months and run no less than 60 each week at a comfortable pace (maybe pick one/two week as a down week- no less than 50 mi). Include hills on your routes and once a week go up a few of them at a marathon effort. You will find this to be a sufficient challenge and extremely beneficial for your marathon race.

Also, your mileage has been a little choppy the last few weeks because of your tendon pain- with last week having been your highest mileage week thus far, it is NOT a wise idea to begin speedwork. You've just increased miles significantly to a point you havent been, and now want to increase intensity? That is a combination for a bigger injury or setback. Run comfortable, put the risk of injury behind you, and keep improving!

[Lucia]

Thank you so much Sasha and Adam! That's what I thought, just wanted to double check after my friend made me doubt...

I get anxious and want to start speed training but you're right, I need to be patient and be smart about it so I don't get injured, especially with my bad luck this year.

Thank you!

[Jon Allen]

I agree with Sasha and Adam, except I would give yourself a few more weeks before hitting 60 mpw again (especially with your lingering injury).  I would stay 50-55 mpw for at least 2-3 more weeks, then bump back up to 60 again if you feel good.  In the past 9 weeks, you have had 2 weeks in the 20 mpw range, 2 in 30, 1 in 40, 3 in 50, and 1 in 60.  In other words, not real consistent with some pretty big jumps.  It would be better to stay a little bit lower mileage and get healthy rather than do higher mileage but having to take time off for injury.  That is a lesson almost all bloggers have learned first-hand.  Just be patient and build your aerobic base.

[Michelle Lowry]

I would agree with Jon regarding dropping down a bit, then going back up to the 60's. 

Once in the 60's, I would park there for a while, I wouldn't go above that unless you did at least 55 miles last year.  You don't want to increase your mileage too much in any given year. 

Consistency is so important and will help you psychologically as well as physiologically.   When you know you've trained well, it translates to to a strong mental edge in a race.

I would also advise against heading into any intervals, whether track or hill-based, at this point.  Both because you are still building aerobic capacity and because of the recentness of your tendon issue.  I would instead do 1-2 tempos a week, one at marathon-goal pace (longer in miles) and one at 10k-15k goal pace (shorter in miles).  These will help you maintain and build speed, while not risking as much as interval training.  Races make great substitutes for these tempo workouts and can give you feedback regarding your fitness level, and thus appropriate training paces. 

Best of luck in your training!

[Josse]

I agree with what has been said.  You need more injury free base before you do any sort of speed.  Do consistant training and I believe you will pr in the marathon.  That is what I focused on all winter and spring and I got a pr in Utah Valley marathon and an Ogden marathon pr.  I would say just stick with this plan for this marathon and then you can add some sort of speed for Boston. 

[adam]

my friend made me doubt...

Good thing you have fastrunningblog friends to help you believe!

Jon and Michelle are more right than I am. You definitely should drop down for a week or two before lingering in the 60's for a while in order to make sure you are fully recovered from your tendon scare.

[Jon Allen]

I like Adam's comment on running 2 marathons per week in training versus one on race day.

By the way, just because we don't recommend track intervals or hill repeats doesn't mean you can't do some slightly faster workouts.  Like Michelle says, do some tempos.  And certainly include some hills in your runs, if you want (just don't do killer repeats up them)- just run routes that are hilly at a normal pace.

[Lucia]

Thank you everyone.

Tempos would be good, and you're right that I don't need to do killer track or hill workouts for the speed that I'm training for right now. And it's good to be reminded that it hasn't been that long since I was running injured, so it's good to not do too much too soon yet. It's easy to get too ambitious and think big after a couple of good runs, but it's good to step back and look at a longer period of time...

And Adam, yes, this blog is what I believe Americans would call "da bomb"!!!

Thank you! 

[Sean Sundwall]

I guess I'm surprised that of all the athletes out there to suggest a drop in mileage, it was an ultramarathoner.

Stick with the mileage however, I like to go three weeks on and one week off meaning running peak or near peak mileage for three weeks, and then backing off 20% or so for a week and then jumping back up. This is also a good way to start increasing mileage when you get to that point. Both Jack Daniels and Pete Plef??? have this philosophy.

As for speed work, one really easy but effective thing you can do to ease into speedwork is to do 10x100 meter strides 2-3 times per week. They can be in the middle of a regular run or at the end. It doesn't matter and don't get hung up on the 100 meter distance. I would hate for you to think you can only do them at a track. But these are essentially surges. You spend the first ~25 meters speeding up to near sprint speed (do not sprint), 50 meters at near-sprint speed and then 25 meters coming back down to normal speed.

[adam]

Sean, that was my initial thought as well. An ultra marathoner who sees 65 miles a week as too high is a scary thought to me.

[Jon Allen]

Her friend is probably being conservative, likely because he/she has increased mileage too quickly in the past and gotten injured as a result.  Lucia has averaged 43 miles per week over the past 9 weeks and is fighting an injury, so the suggestion to not jump right up to 65 miles per week has a good basis. 

She did note that the friend thinks she should cut back "until later on", suggesting that higher mileage later would be fine. 

[Lucia]

Thank you for the tips, Sean. 100 meter sprints would be an easy way to do a bit of speedwork.

My ultrarunner friend thinks I'm a wimp, but yes, he also thinks I need to be conservative so I don't get injured.