Increasing Mileage And Adaptions

Netwerk Errer

Just looking for peoples opinions on how to best increase mileage without increasing the risk of injury or overtraining and peoples experience with different methods.

I've seen some interesting ideas and some frankly scary looking methods too but I thought this might make a decent framework for discussion.

The one that seems to be appealing to me most right now is Jack Daniels method of making a weekly increase of 20-30% and then staying there for 3 weeks while the bones adapt to the extra stress placed on them. Has anyone tried this approach?

Some of the more extreme sounding approaches are Molvars 9 weeks to 100mpw and Lydiards 0-100 base. Not going to be running anywhere near that kind of mileage but it seems like a discussion of merit given the mans credentials. Thoughts on this?

Then you have the 10% rule with a step back week every month. I've actually been wondering about this of late, do you think only a 1 week break from increasing is enough time to create the adaptions and safeguards to keep injury and overtraining at bay? It just that from a bit of reading, it supposedly takes nearly 1 month for your skeletal system to adapt to new stress from a mileage increase.


Really, I'm just looking for thoughts and opinions on the above methods and any other possible ways of increasing mileage safely and efficiently which I have missed.

rom

How much you doing at the moment. Having run increased mileage before I would feel tired from it. This time I don't. Getting sleep diet etc right first was important. Doing 70 miles a weekly now and tbh its fine. Two days Monday and Friday consist of a 4m run at 9:30 pace. Following the 80/20 rule on how much quality there is in the week. Also remembering that flogging yourself in every session will catch up with you and will prevent you being consistent. Is the goal marathon ?

Micilin Muc

The latest edition of Jack Daniels recommends something like multiplying the number of runs per week by 1 mile to get the mileage increase, and to stay at that level for four weeks.

So if you run three times per week, add three miles to your weekly mileage and stay at that level for four weeks.

ECOLII

Don't have a hard and fast rule with regards this but general observations from what has worked with many of my athletes

- no more that 1 mile / 10 min increase per any run
- Don't focus on the mileage rather the week's general outline and let it build without too much emphasis
- Don't ignore recovery days - if adding extra day add as recovery and build to easy pace

Generally I would find that the mileage would increase fairly quickly this way with minimal thought going into it or injury risk for the most part

Netwerk Errer

rom wrote: »

How much you doing at the moment. Having run increased mileage before I would feel tired from it. This time I don't. Getting sleep diet etc right first was important. Doing 70 miles a weekly now and tbh its fine. Two days Monday and Friday consist of a 4m run at 9:30 pace. Following the 80/20 rule on how much quality there is in the week. Also remembering that flogging yourself in every session will catch up with you and will prevent you being consistent. Is the goal marathon ?

Deleted my other posts so this doesn't turn into just a dissection of my training:D.

Rom, really I'm looking for a people's opinion on the best method of increasing for most runners(not just myself) and the positive and negative sides of each approach. But yes, I will be increasing my mileage soon hence my interest in all of the above.

The 10% rule gets pushed a lot and I'm just wondering if people think it's the best or overrated and thoughts on other methods of increasing.

Clearlier

I put a fair bit of thought into this area for the DCM graduates plan and ended up with a plan where I suggested running for time rather than distance. Increases were every 5th week straight after a down week and were by 10%. There was an option to also increase volume two weeks after the rest week. I haven't tested this but the expectation was that actual distances would increase independently of the increase in time as fitness levels increased.

That plan was very much designed for its target audience though which happened to be a bunch of highly motivated runners who had just completed a marathon. In terms of volume the big target was to move from a schedule which had one big run a week to try and spread the load out over the week a bit more. In the back of my mind the aim was to help them to move from being someone who completed a marathon to someone who is a long term runner.

If I'm advising someone who is new to running then a 10% weekly increase is often just too conservative initially. If they started out running a mile then it will take 18 weeks to get to 5 miles. While there will be exceptions the vast majority of people can get to 5 miles in less time than 18 weeks without a great risk of injury. OTOH if the same runner continued their 10% increase they would be at 28 miles after 36 weeks and 129 miles after a year!:eek:* I suppose the point is that there probably is a sweet spot where a 10% increase is appropriate but it's not at low mileage and it's not at high mileage.

For someone who's training at a high level already, say 70 - 80 mpw I think that a long term view is appropriate. If they're a marathon runner running 2 marathons a year then 10mpw extra per training cycle will see them at 110 - 120 after 2 years which is both realistic and conservative.

All that said I know a guy who has gone from 0 to 70 mpw in 6 months and another who went from 65 to 100mpw from one marathon cycle to the next. Both are highly successful sub 2:20 runners. For each of those 'freaks' though you have a hundred others who just get injured.



*Just for kicks I worked out where they would be after 2 years - 18,342mpw!

rom

Netwerk Errer wrote: »

Deleted my other posts so this doesn't turn into just a dissection of my training:D.

Rom, really I'm looking for a people's opinion on the best method of increasing for most runners(not just myself) and the positive and negative sides of each approach. But yes, I will be increasing my mileage soon hence my interest in all of the above.

The 10% rule gets pushed a lot and I'm just wondering if people think it's the best or overrated and thoughts on other methods of increasing.

tbh I was running a similar mileage last year but I had less recovery and felt worn out. My weeks at present are a recovery day on 4M monday, double on tues easy, wed session, thurs double easy, friday 4M recovery, sat/sun long run. easy on sat and faster in the long run or swap with faster on sat with easy long run.

Feels like I am doing very little. I think have an easy recovery day with 4M very very slow like 2.5 slower than marathon pace has really helped me up mileage and aid recovery post long run.

demfad

Running relatively high mileage (for the individual) provides the aerobic pressure needed for aerobic development. Running high mileage has a lot less of an injury risk than increasing mileage.

If a runner is running sporadically (3 or less times per week) then running frequency and thus mileage can happen quickly until training is at chronic levels (i.e running 5 + times a week). Once a runner is not running sporadically, mileage increases need to gradual. The more gradual the better usually.

I would look at it in terms of a mileage increaase target.
If youre on 60 per week, you might be eye-ing 80 per week. Look at a time frame for that.

If you take 4 months to bed that in then youll have 4 months of relatively high aerobic training in you with a low chance of injury (if you look after yourself).

This is how I managed an increase (and a big breakthrough in fitness):




Balanced training requires you to touch on all elements and intensities.

-Get all the elements you need into your training now BEFORE increasing mileage. Get youre template right and do it while on the lower mileage. When youre ship is sea worthy you can allow the tide to rise.

-Strides are essential*** during periods of mileage increases. Progression runs can be used as a tool to hit all the intensities. Have youre niggle sorting, foam rolling, massaging plans and skills in order. Youll need them.

-Once you have your ship ready you need to simplify youre training structure in order to avoid the pitfalls.
The way to simplify the structure is to remove the idea of weekly mileage as a guide to your training levels. They are related but stickling to rigid weekly mileage will likely see you injured. You need to be able to increase the mileage safely but be able to immediately back off if need be.


-Define a baseunit. I use a 3 day unit: stress-easy-easy. That gives adequate time to recover and absorb the stress which is crucial. Thats the smallest unit of a stress and adaption youll use in your training.

-To start increasing mileage-- increase mileage conservatively from starting mileage levels in say two base units, and follow it with two lower base units (lower than starting mileage).
ie 6 days hi, 6 days low.

-now you can move in 2 directions. Either add a base unit to make 3 high base units (9 days hi) or else increase the mileage in the two base units.

-in our example (increase from 60-80) say you are now on high mileage (70 miles ave) for 4 base units (12 days): You have several options:

One might be to stick in 2 base units ave 80 miles pw (or daily equiv.), and then retreat to two low base units.
Or if you thought it would be easier to add another base unit @ the 70 mpw level you could.
Or else you might decide to keep the 4 base units and just increase levels slightly there. Choose the safest way.

- If you feel a soreness, or an infection coming on at any stage you can retreat into a low base unit or two and sort it. If youre in a weekly mileage mind frame, this (correct) course of action would ruin the coveted weekly mileage total and might lead you to unwisely keep soldiering on.

Youre mileage levels are averages over the high units (and low ones) youll know this and youll know an extra low unit wont hurt these avaerages, youll know why youre taking the low unit and youll know that it is as much a part of youre success as the high units.


- After successfully increasing mileage (over 3-4 months). You now have managed to structure youre training more comprehensively, increase youre mileage and bag 4 months of relatively high mileage. Youre ready to to continue progressing your training by making the running within the new higher mileage more intense.

Note: Its easy to change back to the weekly mileage mind frame at this point

Id also recommend a race every 3 weeks for enjoyment, to help hit all intensities and to monitor improvement. Id suggest starting the first 1-2k steady for that race. So if its a 5k race run the first 5 mins @ 10k pace and then progress the pace. This is far better training, safer and you can still compare times. Youre also run close to potential. Id keep teh races short as even if you run the first 2k of a 10k @ HM pace, youre still running 8k @ 10k pace (slighly faster probably) and this will need a lot of recovery in a mileage building phase.

Id be suprised if you dont PB in some of the latter races.