Weekly Miles for a Half

RunRachelleRun

After my recent thread on training for my half as a slow runner, the subject of weekly miles came up. I'm going to add a longer weekday run to the plan to bump up my miles for the last six weeks of my plan and was just curious . . .

What is your goal range for weekly miles when training for a half?

pondee629

Training for a Half Marathon Sept 25. (See thread under half Marathon Training Group for a more complete answer). Weekly mileage for the past 7 weeks (long run in parenthesis) is: 24 (10); 25 (10); 30 (11); 32 (13); 26 (8, this week had a scheduled 4 mile race therein finished second in my age/gender group); 32 (12) & 25 (13, I was sick Monday and Tuesday and didn't get out).

Weekly mileage for all weeks in training: 15, 20, 8.5 (too hot), 13, 24, 25, 30, 32, 26, 32, 25. This week about 21 5, 5, 3 & 8). Next week less and tapering to the Half on the 25th.

RunRachelleRun

Awesome @pondee629 Thanks! I'll check out the other group too. Good luck with your half!

STrooper

Since I'm training for a full-marathon, I can't really say. My mileage this week is going to be around 70 or so (my highest weekly total so far). However a coworker of mine just finished training for and running an HM this past weekend. His weekly miles were generally up to around 25 miles/week on the end of this last cycle. The combination of extra miles and cooler weather dropped his time from just at 3 hours in June to 2:17 last weekend.

RunRachelleRun

Thanks, @STrooper . Wow, 70 is very inspiring! And wouldn't I love to be like your coworker and go from 3 hours to 2:17? That's phenomenal!

I did 25 miles this first week of September, but I'm guessing that's one of my highest weeks (12 of those miles were my long run). I haven't been keeping good track and have just been focusing on each run. I'm guessing my weekly mileage before this week has been closer to 20.

Any opinion on how far I should extend one of my weekday runs? My other weekday runs are slightly more than 3 miles, basically how far I can get in the 45-50ish minutes. And my long runs are all going to be 10-12+ miles for the remaining weeks. Is 25-30 miles/week a decent goal?

MobyCarp

When training for my first half marathon, I peaked at 35 miles per week. I think 25-30 miles per week with a long run of 10-12 miles each week should be enough to keep you in shape to run a half marathon whenever one that you'd like shows up on the calendar. You might want to do more, or be pickier about the particular types of running that make up that 25-30 miles if you want to work on speed; but just running that far should prepare you for the distance.

kristinegift

I agree with 25-30 being a good benchmark. I think that 2xRace Distance (give or take a couple miles) is a good weekly mileage goal for your peak week(s).

katharmonic

I'm training for my first half on Oct 9. Back in mid-May I was doing about 20 miles a week with a long run of about 5 miles. Last week I did 30.8 miles with a long run of 10.2 miles. My coach's plan has me running by time rather than distance, and increasing the time of the long run every 3 weeks by 15 minutes. I'm also a fairly slow runner, so that 10 mile run was 2 hours for me. I think the plan calls for a max of 2 hours 15 minutes before my taper, so I'm almost there. I should be at about 11-12 miles for the long run.

litsy3

My training is based on the idea that you run as many miles as you can sustain without getting burnt out or injured. For me, that's around 50ish miles for most of the year, and building to low 70s if I am training for a marathon. But it depends on lots of things including pace (if you are running slower it takes longer and the distances will be more tiring), experience, and also how much you are currently doing. As you've already managed a 25 mile week, I'd agree with the posters above that 25-30 (build gradually to the higher number) seems sensible. What's not ideal about your biggest week so far is that your long run was about half your miles: that makes it more difficult to achieve because it's such a step up from the other running you're doing. So try taking your long run distance and working backwards to get your other runs: LR = 12 miles, medium run about 2/3 of that = 8 miles. Other runs then add up to 8-10 miles to make 28-30 total.

lporter229

litsy3 wrote: »

My training is based on the idea that you run as many miles as you can sustain without getting burnt out or injured. For me, that's around 50ish miles for most of the year, and building to low 70s if I am training for a marathon. But it depends on lots of things including pace (if you are running slower it takes longer and the distances will be more tiring), experience, and also how much you are currently doing. As you've already managed a 25 mile week, I'd agree with the posters above that 25-30 (build gradually to the higher number) seems sensible. What's not ideal about your biggest week so far is that your long run was about half your miles: that makes it more difficult to achieve because it's such a step up from the other running you're doing. So try taking your long run distance and working backwards to get your other runs: LR = 12 miles, medium run about 2/3 of that = 8 miles. Other runs then add up to 8-10 miles to make 28-30 total.

Just wanted to agree that this is fantastic advice.

RunRachelleRun

@katharmonic Thanks for sharing your plan. Sounds like you're going to do great in your half - good luck!

Ha @litsy3 I was afraid someone was going to suggest that. Zoinks! 8 miles! On a weekday? lol

I did 6 miles this morning and it went great. I will aim for an 8-miler this time next week and start paying better attention to weekly mileage. Thanks also for the suggestion about how I should rework my other runs.

You are all being very helpful and have given such wonderful advice. Much appreciated!

MNLittleFinn

23-30 is probably best, as the others have said. I'm a bad example to follow, I've been running 35-40 on training weeks and in the mid 20s on cutback weeks this training cycle.

MobyCarp

@MNLittleFinn - You will be well prepared for a half marathon. The extra miles won't hurt, and the conditioning from running that many will help.

@RunRachelRunnn - Part of what makes the long runs easier is having longer intermediate runs. In marathon training, I can have tempo interval workouts as long as 15 miles; 10 miles on a tempo day is common. That having been said, I can see where 8 miles on a week day would be a problem for a slower runner who also has a full time job. For you, 8 miles on a work day would probably be like 15 miles on a work day for me. It's possible, but it requires planning and a bit of luck having nothing go wrong with the schedule.

litsy3

I've been doing 15 miles on a work day recently while marathon training - it does take organisation but it's not forever, just a few higher mileage peak weeks.

RunRachelleRun

That's awesome @MNLittleFinn Well done! Yeah, I'll wait a bit till I try to follow your lead

@MobyCarp At least 15, I'm sure. I've heard you're a speed demon.

I could already see that I felt more confident after doing the 6 miles this morning. I am going to completely change my weekday run schedule based on everything that has been recommended here. It will require some planning to fit in almost 2 hours some mornings—but it's doable. I'm investing the time and effort . . . may as well be as smart as possible about it.

Vladimirnapkin

I think using time, rather than distance, is probably a good idea. Then you'll naturally add distance as you get faster. Faster runners can knock out 15 on a work day, but that might burn too much daylight if you're running at 10:00/mile. I'd suggest that you don't go too much longer than 2:15 to 2:30 on your long days, but bulk up your volume a bit during the week. The magic is finding the balance point between peak fitness and injury.

RunRachelleRun

@Vladimirnapkin . I wish I was running a 10:00/mile. . . . One day (sigh - running requires patience, doesn't it?) I have increased my mileage up to 28.8 miles last week and have 30.5 on the schedule this week, increasing the volume on two of the weekday runs. So far so good! I definitely don't want to get injured, so will be extra cautious. Thanks for the input!

Vladimirnapkin

@RunRachelleRun I meant to say 10+ minutes per mile! One of the problems with the general training info out there being used by new runners and fitness runners, is that the old training programs are built on experiences of collegiate and professional coaches working with elite and sub-elite athletes. If your race pace is 5:00 minutes per mile and your easy run pace is 7:00 to 8:00, you can run 70+ miles without it eating up your life. Traditional high mileage training programs are effective, but impractical for most people.

It also might take several years before your body can handle high mileage. Professional runners banging out 90 miles a week (or more) were probably running 30 or 35 in high school. All in good time.

A key thing to adhere to is to make your hard runs hard, and your easy runs easy. I've run a couple times with a guy who was a top ten finisher at the US Olympic marathon trials. He is immensely faster than me but his easy runs are slower than what I typically do on my easy days! I've heard the same about Ryan Hall, too.

RunRachelleRun

@Vladimirnapkin Yes, exactly. I feel as if they need to write a book/plan specifically for me, a special case - ha!

That is really interesting about the guy you've run with. I would not have guessed that, but it makes sense. When I was watching the Olympic marathon, the winner didn't even appear to be out of breath, which I assume means he must have been able to stay low enough in his aerobic zone for the entire thing despite the incredible pace (amazing). Therefore, he'd have to run his easy runs much slower than what his aerobic system would actually allow.