How much is too much daily mileage

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gashinshotan
gashinshotan Posts: 753 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I'm training for a Marathon and am up to 7.6 miles on my longest run.... would it be bad to run this everyday? I ramped up from 5 miles the last two weeks to 6 miles on Sunday and the 7.6 ton.... I feel like I'm cheating myself every time I run less miles than I know I can but am worried about injury... luckily so far I've just experienced mild soreness. What mileage is safe if I'm running 4 mes a week? I take two rest days off on Mon/Tues then run Wed-Fri then take sat off and then run Sundays.

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  • Still_Fluffy
    Still_Fluffy Posts: 341 Member
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    Check out www.halhigdon.com it is one of the most popular trianing sights. It gives you training plans for marathons. I would suggest starting at the novice stage even if you can run 7 miles a day. Too many miles when you are starting out can led to injuries. I try to run 10 miles 3 times a week with a 3 to 5 mile run in the days between. That is just when I getting ready to start training. once the training program starts I follow it as close as possible. If you feel like your cheating your self with less miles, add strength and balance training on your days with less miles.

    You may feel great after 7 to 8 miles, but once you start clocking double digit runs it a whole different world. Given you body time to rest in between is good, it will help as you contiune your training.
  • georget84
    georget84 Posts: 8
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    It sounds like you have the measure of your training under control to be honest. You are varying in your runs and this is really key, variation. As long as you are building up your mileage gradually then you'll know how much is "Safe", your body will tell you when it's time to stop... however if at any time you feel sick or light headed, take a breather.

    If you can alternate your runs between rest days as much as possible then thats obviously great, but what you are doing right now seems fine. Also don't worry about varying the distances, a quick paced 5 miles can be as good as a moderate 10 miler.

    I'm not going to say this is the right thing to do because it's a very personal thing, but here is my training plan. This can vary depending on what I have going on, but it gives you a taster of how I vary things. (I have never done, and never intend to do a marathon, and I'm just sticking to Half's for now)

    Monday - Long run - this is generally a minimum of 8 miles but is usually restricted by time to 10 miles
    Tuesday - REST
    Wednesday - Quick run - 2 miles of basically legging it - always trying to beat my time - I sometimes do hill training on this day - anything to open up the lungs - it will make distance runs far more comfortable
    Thursday - Medium run - usually 5 miles give or take - again against the clock
    Friday - REST
    Saturday - Gentle jog - medium distance (3-5 miles) but just to get the legs going, nothing too tough and not against the clock
    Sunday - Rest

    Always remember stretching and I can greatly recommend an ice bath after the long run - it's 10 minutes of torture but you feel AMAZING afterwards. IF you feel a tight muscle make sure you stretch it well before and after, do some on the spot exercises and if in doubt - don't go out

    Hope this helps - sounds like you are doing just fine
  • cpar621
    cpar621 Posts: 26
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    Good for you! I'm training for a marathon, too. I just completed my third half marathon with my husband, and my husband is hoping to complete a half Ironman this year. He is also a physical therapist and my "trainer," so I'd like to give you some advice that I've learned from him and from my own running experiences:

    Whenever you're training for something like a marathon or half marathon you need to follow a training plan. Especially if you've never raced before, it's not advisable to run every day. Your "off days" are the days that your muscle fibers actually benefit from your running, so you need to rest or cross train about two days out of the week (elite runners will cross train like bike or swim on off days to give their running muscles a break, intermediate runners will rest one day and cross train on the other, and beginners should take both rest days). You'll also want to incorporate some shorter run days. If 7.5 miles is the most you've run so far in your training, you shouldn't be running that far every day. Let me give you an example of what one of my running weeks looks like:

    My husband and I are scheduled to run a 14 mile long run this weekend. This is our training plan for the week:

    Sunday: we ran 13 miles at the half marathon
    Monday: rest day
    Tuesday: 3 miles
    Wednesday: 7 miles
    Thursday: 3 miles
    Friday: Cross train
    Saturday: 7 miles
    Sunday: 14 miles

    See how the mileage varies throughout the week? This allows your muscles and your cardiovascular system to prepare for greater and greater mileage. You can Google "marathon training plans" and you'll find a lot of great resources. I would suggest finding one of these professionally compiled training plans (they're free!) instead of running the same mileage every day.

    Good luck with your training! When is your race? Feel free to "friend" me on here if you want a training buddy!
  • gashinshotan
    gashinshotan Posts: 753 Member
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    Thanks for the advice.... I'm going to vary distances as you guys recommend.... my body shutdown today and forced me to cut my distance! My legs just stopped wanting to contract at 4.2 miles :(.... one thing that worries me is that I looked over my past logs and I'm not getting more than half of my daily protein, fat, sodium requirements....

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