Benefits of adding mileage?

wabmester

I've been running for about 6 months now. I run about 5 days/week, 5K per day. Sometimes I'll run 8K or so, but 5K feels good, my strength and speed are still improving, and I'm injury-free.

While I'm happy with my current mileage (and especially my injury-free status), I'm curious about those who run marathons and half-marathons.

For those of you who run higher mileage, what benefits do you see?

Glossberg

I'm not a marathon runner, but my runs range anywhere from 4.5 to 7 miles. A few months ago I ranged in the 2-3.5 miles. Personally for me I'm actually sleeping better and naturally burning more calories. Since I'm in the maintenance phase of my "health cycle" for lack of better terms, it means I can eat more to maintain weight. I'm not going to lie, I like eating and having the extra flexibility.

kristinegift

I've been training for marathons since last April, and since tacking on more mileage (and doing some core work!) I've noticed these benefits:

a) running faster, generally
b) or: faster paces feel easier
c) better mental toughness when it comes to longer distances
d) I can eat basically anything I want
e) when I run ~20-25 miles a week or less, I have more aches and pains than when I run 30-40 miles a week; we'll see if that holds up as I progress onto 45 and 50+ mile weeks this summer
f) longer runs means more sight-seeing... you never know what you'll notice on a 1, 2, or 3 hour trek!

The most important thing is to add mileage slowly and safely. Take most of your runs easy while you're building a bigger base, and once you're at a level you're happy with, then you can add more challenging runs like speedwork.

Charliegottheruns

Stronger and more efficient heart
Enhanced cardiac output
Lower resting heart rate
Lower heart rate at any given level of work
More efficient breathing
Stronger respiratory muscles
Increase in lean body mass
Increase in metabolic rate
Reduced atrial blood pressure
Increase in day to day awesomeness

wabmester

Great responses. The idea of structural changes in the heart sent me to PubMed:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1767992/

... it takes more than three hours of exercise per week to observe changes in heart rate, aerobic power, and left ventricular mass.

I'm running about 2.5 hours/week now. Just under the threshold for developing an athlete's heart....