Question for long distance runners

TheRunningGuppy

I am slowly working my way up to running long distances. To date, my longest run has been 6.44 miles. At the start of the year I laid out some goals for myself, one of them is to add a mile to how far I can run in one shot each month. This month I am trying to get up to 7 miles in one run. The question is, am I pushing it too much? Should I reduce that goal to half a mile added each month?
I am fairly new to running, and still very slow (which doesn't really concern me as I know I'll get faster with practice and weight loss). My long term goal is to run a marathon before I turn 36. I'm 33 now, I've got some time to work on this.

timeasterday

The typical rule is no more than 10% increase per week. But if that feels like too much you can always back off a little and do what feels comfortable.

__Di__

I am slowly working my way up to running long distances. To date, my longest run has been 6.44 miles. At the start of the year I laid out some goals for myself, one of them is to add a mile to how far I can run in one shot each month. This month I am trying to get up to 7 miles in one run. The question is, am I pushing it too much? Should I reduce that goal to half a mile added each month?
I am fairly new to running, and still very slow (which doesn't really concern me as I know I'll get faster with practice and weight loss). My long term goal is to run a marathon before I turn 36. I'm 33 now, I've got some time to work on this.

OP you are doing brilliantly, the trick now is, do not push it so you end up injured.

You have three years before you are 36 and three years is plenty of time to get to that marathon and you have given yourself time to do it safely without having to push too hard, too soon.

Half a mile per month is perfectly do-able.

Just ensure you have the correct footwear though, the longer you train and the further you go, you will need good shoes.

ZenInTexas

I think increasing your long run by a mile a month is totally reasonable. During marathon or half marathon training you usually increase by a mile every week and then cut back every 3rd week or so before increasing again. So you could easily increase your long run by a quarter mile every week and have no problem safely reaching your goal for the month.

scottb81

You are being pretty conservative.

One well known coach says that you can add a mile for every day you run about every three weeks.

So, if you run three days a week you can increase your mileage by three miles and then give yourself about three weeks to adapt before increasing again.

The three miles you add could be added to one run, split across several runs, or made into an additional run day.

wolfgate

Adding a mile to your longest run each month, in and of itself, is very doable. In fact, it's pretty conservative. Now, you didn't say at all what your workouts look like the other days. Just make sure you're not adding too much too soon in aggregate, and you'll be fine.

You'll find the mile a month to the long run tops out at some point as well, to state the obvious. I doubt in 3 years you plan to be doing a 36 mile run once a month!! Most marathon training plans top the long run at 20.

RunnerInVT

You are being pretty conservative.

One well known coach says that you can add a mile for every day you run about every three weeks.

So, if you run three days a week you can increase your mileage by three miles and then give yourself about three weeks to adapt before increasing again.

The three miles you add could be added to one run, split across several runs, or made into an additional run day.

^^^ this is what I did. I have not been injured...(crossing fingers) im training for my second marathon and am up to a 19 mile long run in the RunnersWorld.com website of Hal Higdons marathon 2 program.
good luck! With patience and persistence you will do great!!

ayalowich

I am slowly working my way up to running long distances. To date, my longest run has been 6.44 miles. At the start of the year I laid out some goals for myself, one of them is to add a mile to how far I can run in one shot each month. This month I am trying to get up to 7 miles in one run. The question is, am I pushing it too much? Should I reduce that goal to half a mile added each month?
I am fairly new to running, and still very slow (which doesn't really concern me as I know I'll get faster with practice and weight loss). My long term goal is to run a marathon before I turn 36. I'm 33 now, I've got some time to work on this.

There isn't a huge difference between 6.4 miles and 7 or even 8-9 for that matter. Depending on your pace, you are only talking about running another 5-25 minutes in total, and it isn't as if you can't take a water break somewhere and catch your breath. I have always found that the key is to get up to 10 miles, and once you get to that level, moving up from there to 11-13 is relatively easy. It becomes mostly mind over matter once you have the conditioning to stay out there for more than 80 minutes. You may not think so, but this is what happens, especially if you run with a group (which is a big recommendation because it really helps).

The other thing is you are only 33 which means you likely don't have a lot of the issues people in their 40's and 50's deal with. You can recover faster, and your ability to improve rapidly will surprise you. There is no reason to wait 3 years to run a marathon. From where you are today, you could easily run a February 2014 marathon and be ready to go once you've made that commitment to train.

Good luck

CarsonRuns

You are being pretty conservative.

One well known coach says that you can add a mile for every day you run about every three weeks.

So, if you run three days a week you can increase your mileage by three miles and then give yourself about three weeks to adapt before increasing again.

The three miles you add could be added to one run, split across several runs, or made into an additional run day.

I concur. This is better than the 10% rule. If you extrapolate that out you end up doubling mileage in something like 12 weeks. Too much.

This is a better rule of thumb, and as you apply it, I suggest that you hold at the new level for two weeks, then cut back for a week and then increase again and repeat this process. Of course, if you feel any hurty things, back of a bit and recovery.

TheRunningGuppy

Thanks for all the input! I currently run about 3 times a week, sometimes 4. Normally goes something like 1.5 miles, 3-4 miles, and then 5+ miles. On the shorter runs my pace is close to 11 minutes, but on longer runs it goes up to 14:30ish. For my longest runs I've been out more than 90 minutes. I'm a slowpoke, but that is ok, I understand the whole "start slow" idea.

I'll read over the comments again when I have a little more time :happy:

CarsonRuns

If you have to slow down that much for your long runs, then you are probably doing your short runs too fast. There should be much difference between easy run and long run pace.