Advice on increasing running mileage?

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ebyrnes66
ebyrnes66 Posts: 15 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hey guys!

Let me preface this by saying I'm pretty prone to injury (I have flat feet and shin splints are an issue for me along with other random joint/muscle pains) and have tried and failed to complete Couch to 5K several times before, mostly due to pushing myself too hard and progressing too fast, leading to an injury that'll put me out of high impact exercise for several weeks. However, over the last 2 months or so, I've been pretty successful with doing C25K and limiting myself to doing it only every other day, and incorporating a fair amount of other cardio and some strength on the off days and to supplement C25K days, rather than trying to run further than I'm supposed to. Although I've had to repeat some weeks, I'm on track to finish the program two weeks from today, barring any injury, and with my times I should be doing a little more than 3 miles in 30 minutes.

I'm wondering what people who have finished C25K and continued running, or just seasoned runners in general, would advise me to do in terms of increasing mileage once I get to the point where I can run 3 miles every other day. I'm planning on doing my first 5K the last weekend of September (a Color Run, but still pretty exciting to me), so it's important to me that I don't injure myself between now and then, but I also have my eye on doing my school's annual half marathon in March/April, so I want to start slowly increasing mileage to the point that I could start a half marathon training program at the beginning of January, and not feel like that was putting too much stress on my body. Currently, I'm doing C25K every other day, and because I felt like the week 5 and 6 jumps from running in shorter intervals to 20+ minutes were too stressful on my body and I had to repeat them/do my own thing before working up to 25 solid minutes, I've kinda gotten into the habit of throwing in a one-miler on the treadmill on days off from C25K to work on increasing speed. I like the idea of running some distance more or less every day just for the sake of consistency, but I'm not sure of how good of an idea that is in terms of increasing likelihood of injury given that I'm new to running longer distances. What did all of you guys do to safely increase mileage? Would it be better for me to just cut out the shorter runs, and keep running every other day and upping those miles, or would it be better to up my weekly mileage by running more frequently, and work on upping the one-milers to 5k distance before I try and run farther than that distance on any given run? And I'll just throw this in there, but do I want to work on speed simultaneously with distance, or hold out on cutting my time and just focus on increasing mileage?

I literally have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to running, so any and all advice that will help me figure out how to keep running and avoid injury is welcome :)

Replies

  • badbcatha05
    badbcatha05 Posts: 200 Member
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    Don't worry about working on speed right now. Speed will come with increased distance. After you finish c25k, if you like that style program (I personally did) find the 5k to 10k bridge program. It's the same idea as c25k but will take you up to a 10k. After I finished that I decided on a half marathon. And there are a ton of training programs out there. Use your running level and injury tolerance to choose one that will work for you. I chose a 20 week one for my first and modified it from 5 runs a week to 3 because I couldn't do 5 without injury. The one I'm using now is 12 weeks- I'm still only running 3 days a week. Following training plans like these will help you increase your mileage safely. They say not more than 10% of your weekly mileage... I'm doing more than that right now, but my legs are already conditioned to that volume from the previous program. If you stick with that 10% recommendation you should be fine... dial it back if you start feeling issues in your shins and feet (I've had them too, now I know how to avoid them!)

    Like I said, don't worry about your speed right now. Keep your pace conversational. If running 20 minutes straight is too much either slow your pace down or take a couple of short walk breaks.
  • hermann341
    hermann341 Posts: 443 Member
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    First, are you looking to increase distance to just increase distance, or do you have a goal in mind? 10k? Half marathon? Full?

    To run more miles, you just have to run more miles. Seriously. The recommendation for increasing distance is to not add more than about 10% per week. So, keeping to your 3 to 4 runs per week of 3 miles, you're doing about 10 miles a week on average. You can add 1 mile (about 10%) to your weekend run, or add a half mile to 2 weekday runs. After a few months of building on 3 to 4 runs per week, you can split your total mileage by 4 or 5, to add another day of running, and continue adding the 10% per week until you get to the distance you want to go. Typically, weekday runs will be shorter than your weekend run. Recommendations vary on how much of your total distance should be your long run, but 40% or 50% is not unusual (3, 3, and 4 would put 40% on your long run).
  • Jclifford253
    Jclifford253 Posts: 18
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    I was in a similar situation with injury and killer shin splints. I decided to reduce my runs to every third day. I bike on the days in between which has still given me some cardio and calorie burn but shin splints are a thing of the past now. I feel great. Good luck.
  • ebyrnes66
    ebyrnes66 Posts: 15 Member
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    I guess I'm looking to ultimately run a half-marathon, but I would want to do a 12 week plan starting in January, so I don't really have any ideas of how I would structure this "pre-training" I guess. Like, I could keep increasing 10% each week and designate a long run to add to that, but is there a certain distance I would want to cap that long run at to minimize my risk of injury between now and then? I was thinking of doing 3/4 days of running per week as somebody suggested and splitting it further into 4/5 days when my mileage was high enough, but is there a recommendation for when to do that based off of mileage? I guess I'm wondering what would be a generally recommended maximum for long and regular runs for a more casual runner who isn't specifically training for a race yet, to give me an idea of when my mileage would be high enough to split my weekly mileage into more days of running per week. Theoretically I could keep adding 10% per week until my long run was a marathon distance, but I get the feeling that would be super high prone to injury even if it was within the 10% rule, and my body would not be a huge fan of that :P

    Thanks for all the advice you guys have given me so far, you've all been really helpful!
  • badbcatha05
    badbcatha05 Posts: 200 Member
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    First- don't get ahead of yourself. Finish c25k first. You mentioned running 20 minutes sometimes was a challenge. Slow. Down.

    Finish that, do the 5k to 10k. If you need to repeat weeks you have plenty of time before you want to start your half program. While you are doing the 5k to 10k bridge, start reading up on different half marathon programs. See what each recommends for its base mileage to start it. This will help you find the one that will work... 10k training should get you to the point you can take on any beginner program.

    My recommendation is follow whichever program you pick, but modify if you need to... more likely decrease days not increase if you are afraid of injury. Many beginner half programs will have you peak between 10-12 miles. I preferred the 12 for confidence sake.

    If you need something in to help you up your mileage between finishing 5k to 10k and the half program, check out Hal Higdon. He has training plans for all sorts of distances. Look at the programs, pick one that looks like where you are weekly mileage wise and jump in where you are. The programs will guide you through increasing mileage slowly. I think you will find 3 days is going to work better than 5 to avoid injury... better under trained than over.
  • Ohhim
    Ohhim Posts: 1,142 Member
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    Only other quick point not covered (bonus thumbs up to the folks recommending not increasing more than 10%, finding plans for 5k to 10k, half marathons) are:

    - Often having older shoes or the wrong type of shoes makes you more prone to injuries... new ones can definitely make a difference... when I was heavier, more cushioned models (i.e. asics nimbus, cumulus, saucony triumphs, and reebok zig's) helped me
    - When I started running, 13 minute miles for a 5k were about all I could do without going into anaerobic mode/cramping or getting too sore... this eventually shrunk to 12, 11, 10, 9, then now 8.5 minute miles after about 1000 total miles of training - go slow, and track your HR and you'll eventually get faster and enjoy the running more
    - There are some run-walk strategies for doing longer distances that work well (Galloway) and are popular - still, if you race with them, stay to the side when switching so you won't get run over
  • alsuttles
    alsuttles Posts: 2
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    Ive been running in afghanistan fopr the last 6 months and it was like starting from zero with my endurance and speed. Initially i did 60 second sprints and 120second rests every other day for 3 weeks. Then i began to do a mile 6 days of the week adding half a mile every two weeks. Im Faster now than i was in the states. it sucks but you gotta push yourself set a goal and go chase it. There are in-soles that will help with your pain and shin splints also
  • taeliesyn
    taeliesyn Posts: 1,116 Member
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    Firstly the 10% rule is generally the MAX you should increase a week, not how much you MUST increase every week.
    Secondly, shoes are definitely something to look into.

    As an injury prone runner, if I were in your shores I would only do the 3 days per week. Totally forget about the extra runs for any reason, and banish the idea of increasing speed. This will happen on its own as your body adapts.

    Once you reach your 3 or so miles per run, 3 times a week. Take a week, maybe even a month where that's all you do. You'll find the runs get easier and it's good for you to have a stabilisation period when you're this new to running.
    After that, then look at increasing one run by about a mile or so. Build up slowly, so no need to go up by a mile every week.
    I finished the C25K program around October last year, had a few down periods since then, but now I'm up to about 20-25miles per week, split over 3-4 runs. After this month, it will be about 3 months at that level and I'll start increasing one of my runs from 7.5miles to 10 miles.

    So basically, just work on building slowly. I've already lost count of runners who started about the same time as me, pushed too hard (usually aiming for a Half Marathon or similar) and now have had weeks to months off, trying to recover from Injury. I've kept my mileage lower than them and I'm still injury free.

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