Sure this could be viewed as aggressive, but as Andrew mentioned in our email exchange; “What's the worse that could happen? Injury? Been there. Disappointment? Had that. So let's go.”
I looked back at my training from last winter and while it was pretty good, it’s never as good as I remember. It seems like I was working my ass off and putting in a lot of miles. When I looked a little deeper, I only had 7 weeks where I was higher than 85 miles.
Yeah, it’s a step in the right direction, but I think there’s room for improvement. Considering that winter is like 6 months long around here, you’d think I’d have more than 7 weeks of decent mileage. I guess when you add in time to build your mileage up and cutback weeks, it cuts into “real” training.
Don’t get me wrong; I think those things are important. But I also think there’s room for improvement, like ramping up a little quicker and taking a few cutback days rather than a whole week – especially when my mileage is still rather low.
In college it took me 4 years, but I finally learned I didn’t need to start each summer at 30 mpw and ramp up by 10% per week. When I did this, I found out the summer was over by the time I reached any significant mileage.
While the 10% “rule” probably makes sense, I think it applies more when you are stepping into uncharted waters. If you’ve been running 50 mpw and start back up at 30 mpw after some downtime, you can be more aggressive in your mileage building.
I guess that explains why I’ve gone from 40 to 57 to 66 miles in the last 3 weeks. It’s not 70 to 100 like Andrew, but I’m trying. Last year I would have taken a cutback week this week, however I’m going to keep building and shoot for 75-80 miles.
Saturday I had a nice, controlled 10 mile run at 7:25 pace. The big toe that I strained on Friday didn’t bother me at all. I guess it was just one of those freaky strains. Sunday I met Jenna for a 90 minute (12 mile) run along the Mississippi River. I hadn’t talked with her since before Chicago, so it was good to catch up.
Quote of the day;
“What marathon? Any marathon. Every marathon. It didn’t much matter. It still doesn’t matter. What counts is your desire – no, your need – to test yourself.” – Joel Homer, Marathons: The Ultimate Challenge
10 comments:
My thoughts are the 10% rule is advisable for unchartered waters like you say, especially for novices. But your seasoned, so have fun.
Your progression seems adequate, just keep doing checks and balances on your systems and try to understand any weak links.
I like the quote as it's fitting to my day of tests; today. Have you put any thought about checking your max HR?
Mark, that's right I never really replied to your one comment about my HR during my 4 x 5K workout.
No I haven't really thought about checking my max HR again since I train with a monitor once in a blue moon.
How about the rule #1: listen to your body? If your body can take it, why care about 10%? On the other hand, even 10% may be too much.
Hunter, it may be rule #1, but how many people understand it or heed it?
What's the difference between and ache/pain and an injury? What's the difference between being tired/fatigued from bumping your mileage and being overtrained?
Those are questions that are hard enough for someone who has been running for awhile, let alone some new to the sport. So I think 10% does have some merrit.
i've always wondered about the 10% rule and when/why one should "mess" with it. pretty much every resource targeted toward the novice strongly recommends not messing with it.
when is a person no longer considered a "novice"? e.g. if you run under 25 miles per week, are you still a novice? when you break into consistent 30+ miles a week have you graduated to an intermediate runner? or is it speed-based? or goal based?
Brent, you could run 30 mpw for 30 years and I'd still consider you a novice - of higher mileage.
As I've mentioned (and Mark) if you're going into new mileage ranges that you've never been before, then it's probably wise to be more cautious.
If you ran 40 mpw all summer long, took a month off and now are building back up you can probably be more agressive than adding 10% per week.
I have no idea when you graduate from novice to intermediate. It's definitely not speed or goal-based.
I've had luck with Andrew's way, as I jumped from 60 to 100 without any issues. I did have to run slow to survive it though, and making the jump 6 weeks after a marathon probably made it tougher. I think part of the problem is that if you put all of the "conventional wisdom" training axioms to work (like the 10% rule etc..), it takes damn near forever to get anywhere. Someone starting at 50 MPW who increased his mileage 10% a week for three weeks, then took a recovery week, then followed the typical advice of holding the mileage steady for the week after the recovery week before starting the cycle again would take 15 weeks to get to 100 miles per week. Just some food for thought.
Mike, I guess in the grand scheme of things 15 weeks isn't very long. However, I can't spend that much time building up every year.
The 10% rule, like the "easy day for every mile you raced" rule is a good starting point for thinking about how to do your mileage build-up. When you get out on the roads though sometimes that'll be too much, sometimes too little, so you modify.
It's always been hard for me to think about adding 10% evenly. Do you make the 11 mile run a 12.10 mile run the next week? Clearly absurd to take it too literally! Week to week I find it easiest to think of adding 10 miles on last week, or 1-3km a run. Thinking about it in those terms it really doesn't seem that hard. It's what felt OK last week plus another 4-14 minutes.
In terms of getting back to 100 mpw from a low base/marathon recocvery I have often found that once 60 mpw feels comfortable I jump to 80, try 90 the next week and hopefully 100 the next.
Evan, of course there's no hard and fast rule. I kind of like 1 mile for every time you run. Run 7 times a week, increase by 7 miles. Run 10 times a week, increase by 10 miles.
I think I'm gonna "hang out" at 80-85 for awhile this time around.
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