52. Building Your Mileage: How & When

Weekly mileage can be a fun way to track training volume. This is often one of the first questions you are asked when starting a new training program or chatting with runners. How many miles per week do you typically run? As a running coach, we work with people who run 3 miles per week all the way up to 80 miles per week. Many elite runners run 100+ miles per week. Most competitive recreational runners who place in races on the weekend or qualify for boston run anywhere from 25-60 miles per week. This is a wide range of mileage. Today we will be chatting about how to build your mileage & how to know if you even should build your mileage! How does an athlete decide it is the right time to increase mileage? Looking for those under trained ‘diamonds in the rough’ What happens when they peak in HS/MS == is that a thing? How do you approach those who have been overtrained New to the sport Not feeling challenged/feeling too easy Same mileage for a while and staying around the same fitness Responded well to increases in the past No history of injury/bone issues Fitness history indicates Do athletes ever reach a point where they can no longer increase mileage? As an athlete ages or has life stress, should they ever consider reducing volume in mileage? Run less run faster approach? Why does this sometimes work? The running less vs the high mileage approach are total opposites but they are both accepted: why? Consistency is the most important part of training Is it a risk to increase your mileage? Why is more not always better? Why is more sometimes better? At the end of the day: it depends on the athlete!