Runners - a few questions about increasing mileage

emmaxbon

I've just read the 5k to ultra marathon thread. Very interesting! I already know that you shouldn't increase mileage by more than 10% per week but always assumed that was total mileage however from the other thread I now think this is wrong and its my longer run I should be increasing by 10%.

If so, what do I do with my 2 shorter runs? Do they stay the same or increase or even decrease?

Also what is a drop back week and is it something I need to worry about just yet?

Sorry for all the (probably silly) questions. I used a C25K app which worked brilliantly but haven't been able to get on with a 10k app. I've only been running since end of March this year. At the minute I am doing 2 short runs of around 2 / 3 miles per week. And then 1 longer run, last week I did 5.5 miles. Does this sound ok? How should I be looking at increasing from now?

Thanks.

xcalygrl

It's your long runs. For instance, if you run a long run of 10 miles this week, your increase next week would be an 11 mile long run. For your mid-week runs, you can do what feels right. If you feel like keeping them the same, keep them the same. If you feel beat after your long run on the weekend, you can cut them back a bit. If you feel stronger, you can increase them. Since your mid-week runs are pretty short (by long distance standards), I personally wouldn't increase them by more than a mile on any given week. (If you do keep your mid-week runs the same for now, you will need to eventually increase them as your long runs get longer.)

The drop back week is a recovery week. You body makes gains during the rest week and has a chance to catch up to what you've been doing. For example, I had a training plan that had me run long runs of 9, 10, 11, 12, and then 7 over five weeks. I gradually built up, then cut back. After your recovery week, you can jump back up to (in the example provided) 10-11 mile range and gradually increase from there.

wombat94

Good questions... never a problem to ask for clarification.

The 10% per week rule of thumb applies in general to both total weekly mileage and the long run mileage. It doesn't have to mean that EVERY run increases by 10%... and there is some flexibility that is not a problem in order to keep things in round numbers.

For example, if you are currently running four days a week with runs of 3, 3, 3, and 5 miles (14 miles a week) then a reasonable increase might be 3, 4, 3 and 6 miles (16 miles - which is a little bit more than 10% but at a relatively low mileage it is unlikely to lead to injury. The next week could be 4,4,3 and 7 miles (18 miles - which is again a little bit more than 10%, but still fairly low). A third week of increases might be to get to 20 miles total (4,4,4 and 8 miles)... just slightly more than 10% total.

Now, following progression is likely to be a bit of a stretch on your legs and overall endurance, so we get to the cut-back week (drop back week)... in order to let the body consolidate the gains and get a breather the fourth week might look something like 3, 4, 3, and 7 miles (17 total)... this small step back will feel much easier for most people.

Depending on the plan (or on how you feel if you aren't following a formal plan) then the next week could be either the same as the week before the cut-back (4,4,4 and 8) or a small progression above that week (perhaps 4,5,4 and 9).

After typing all of the above, I noticed that you are running 3 days a week... obviously the same principles apply but the specific numbers will be different.

If you were asking for my advice, I'd probably recommend adding a fourth short mileage day for a few weeks before significantly starting to increase mileage. If you are comfortable with that, then it might look something like this:

M/T/W/Th/F/Sa/Su
2/3/off/2/off/5.5/off

Then week after a couple of weeks of that, I'd start to increase the mileage with something like this:

3/3/off/2/off/6/off

moving eventually to

3/3/off/3/off/6/off

and then eventually starting to increase the long runs along the pattern I outlined above.

If you really want to increase your long run, I recommend trying to get a 4th day of running in your schedule if you can at all fit it in. Besides the 10% rule of thumb, the other big rule of thumb that people generally recommend about mileage is that the long run should be kept to about 25 - 30% of your total weekly mileage.

The simple math makes this harder at lower total weekly mileage (right now, your long run is over 50% of your weekly mileage), but at such low mileage it is not a problem. Once you start to increase the weekly mileage, you need to have more days of short runs to be sure the long run isn't too high of a percentage.

No matter what, the key thing is to listen to your body and back off if you are finding little aches and pains are becoming a problem. Tired legs and soreness are normal, but pain should be noted and if it persists, you should cut back.

Good luck.

Ted

RunnerElizabeth

I'm training for a marathon. I am on a 3 week cycle. Week one - i increase mileage by 3 miles for the week (10% the first time as I was running 30 mpw, but as I keep doing it, the 3 mile increase will be less than 10%), week two- i hold steady, week three - i decrease miles (from long run, weekday mileage stays the same). I do not increase mileage every week. And i will not be adding to my 10-13 mile long runs until I'm holding 30 mon-fri miles. This is because I want to keep my long run at 1/3 or less of my weekly mileage. This is working for me so far! No injuries and I'm well rested all the time!

So i say 10% increase of total weekly mileage, don't add it every week, and try to keep your long run at 1/3 or less of your weekly mileage, so build up weekday mileage first. The idea is to increase gradually and not get hurt.

likitisplit

Because I haven't gotten my butt in gear and actually read Jack Daniels like I know I should, this is the clearest explanation I've read:

http://davidhays.net/running/buildingbase.html

emmaxbon

Thanks for all the great advice! That last link is very informative and makes a lot of sense.

Hubby has talked me into a 10k which is 4 weeks tomorrow (I was gonna do a 5k) so I've found a Hal Higdon plan and am going to follow the last 4 weeks of it. It actually fits in really well with where I am at the minute.