building up your mileage

7/27/2019 Building Up Your Mileage

1/5

Building Up Your Mileage

By Hal Hingdon

Adapted from - Marathon: The Ultimate Training and Racing THE WEEKLY LONG RUN.

Home

Whether social or serious, forms the kingpin of any marathoner's training program. "Some runsare just to get the miles in," says Susan Kinsey, a coach from La Mesa, California. "You needtime on your legs." Not only is it essential to marathon success to run far at least two or threetimes a month, but high weekly mileage also plays an important part in running fast times. Buthow high mileage?

Before the 1980 Olympic marathon trials, The Runner, surveyed the list of American contendersand uncovered a fact that certainly must have seemed intimidating to those seeking success in thesport of long distance running, whether at the national or personal level: Nearly all of thosecontenders trained more than 100 miles a week!

But are 100-mile weeks necessary? And whether or not they are necessary for the marathon elite,what about runners of, let's say, more pedestrian ability? What about runners who might have thetalent, but not the time? Must they train at a Herculean level to achieve success? If not, whatlevel of high mileage is necessary to maximize potential, not merely in marathons but in mediumlength distance races? Could the person who trains 30 miles a week achieve markedimprovement in his 15-K or half-marathon times by increasing weekly mileage by 50 per cent to45 miles? What is the truth about high mileage?

THE TRUTH ABOUT HIGH MILEAGE

Consider first the 100-mile week. Is it myth or reality? Even some of the elite runners disagree asto the necessity of regular training at this level. Don Kardong of Spokane, Washington achievedsuccess (2:11:16 and fourth place in the 1976 Olympic marathon) with less mileage than most."My feeling is that people pick 100 because it's a nice, round number," he says, "but an evenrounder number is 88.

Tom Fleming, a 2:12:05 marathoner with several second-place finishes at Boston, however,claims: "You have to run 100 miles a week to be up there. That's all there is to it. To be a reallytop runner, you have to be all the way up to 140 miles a week. That's only 20 miles a day." Only?Well, that depends on your point of view.

Craig Virgin disagrees. A three-time Olympian and two-time world cross-country champion,Virgin was a low-mileage runner--relatively speaking. While setting P.R.s of 27:29.2 for 10,000meters and 2:10:26 for the marathon (second at Boston in 1981), Virgin averaged 90-95 miles aweek. He hadn't run his first 100-mile week until his junior year in college, and, except whentraining for his infrequent marathons, rarely strung 100-mile weeks together. "I don't think theygive any awards for workouts," says Virgin. "To the best of my knowledge, there are no gold
http://www.ultrunr.com/index.htmlhttp://www.ultrunr.com/index.html


2/5

medals for `Most Mileage.' If it's the end of the week, and I have 98 miles in, I don't go for athird workout that day to get 100. That won't make the difference between winning and losing.It's what you do with that 100 miles a week, and I think people forget about that."

WHAT ABOUT THE AVERAGE RUNNER?

Regardless of the opinions of runners, the facts speak loudly: if you want to survive in the jungleof American road racing at the topmost level, you probably must train at, or near, the 100-milelevel. To do that, you most likely must work out twice daily. But what about the average runner?Can we all benefit from increasing mileage?

Consider some of the physiological effects from high-mileage training. There does seem to be aspecial training effect achieved at high mileage that scientists have only begun to understand.There exists the possibility that the 100-mile week may be necessary to achieve maximumperformance in the marathon with mileage near that (70-80 miles weekly) for achievement atmiddle distance races (10-K to 30-K).

The late physiologist Al Claremont, who had been a top competitor and high-mileage trainer inhis native Canada, once told me: "Where you may get some advantage in high mileage--if youcan stand it--is in the substrate, the metabolic level that relates to glycogen storage. With volumeover 100 miles, you're depleting yourself on a chronic basis and forcing yourself to replenishyour glycogen stores day after day."

Glycogen is a starch like substance produced in the liver and muscles and changed into a simplesugar as the body needs it. Carbohydrates in our diet offer our main source for glycogen, onereason why spaghetti has become such a popular pre-race meal among marathoner's. Glycogen isthe preferred fuel for running, but it can become depleted within 60-90 minutes under normal

training conditions. Thereafter, the predominant substrate is fat, which is metabolized lessefficiently, forcing a reduction in pace.

Claremont stated: "If you can push the depletion level of the body in races from 60-90 minutes totwo hours by training, you can maintain a higher intensity, which translates to a better runningspeed. That is where volume mileage has the advantage over high intensity training."

BURNING FAT

He suggested that the well-conditioned athlete teaches his body to burn a higher percentage of fatwith glycogen, thus increasing the available duration of glycogen reserves well beyond the

characteristic 60-90 minute depletion time: "Top marathoner's are probably so efficient inmetabolizing both fats and glycogen throughout the length of their race, because of the vastvolume of their training, that they probably rarely deplete their stores. As a result, they don't hitthe wall."

William J. Fink of Ball State University suspects Claremont's assumption may be correct, butalso suggests that volume training may result in a neuromuscular training effect, a more efficientrecruitment of all available muscle fibers, which allows the work load to be parceled out over the


3/5

distance more effectively: "When a runner doubles his training mileage, we often see no changein his maximum oxygen uptake (max VO2), his ability to deliver oxygen to the muscles. So weare forced to look to other areas to determine why volume training results in better performance."

One such area may be psychological, or so suggests Jack H. Wilmore, Ph.D. of the University of

Texas at El Paso. "When you do 100 miles a week, your legs are chronically fatigued," hecomments. "Then when finally you do taper before an important race, it makes you feel all thestronger. Since believing in your ability is a necessity in achieving success, training at a level ofmore than 100 miles may constitute positive reinforcement in a runner's belief in his own abilityto compete well. The same would hold true for a 30-mile-a-week runner, who through a gradualbuildup achieved an ability to train comfortably at 60.

Dr. Wilmore also suggests that there still may be other adaptive mechanisms that physiologistsnot only do not understand, but may not even have identified. "In one area it could relate to thepunishment your legs take and how you adapt to it," he says, relating more to his ownexperiences as a marathoner rather than anything identified in a laboratory. "When I'm out of

shape and I race at long distances, everything hurts. It feels like my connective tissues arecoming apart. But when I'm ready for a marathon, and have put in the miles, everything movessmoothly. If you're talking about the reasons high mileage results in fast times, I'm not sure weknow what we're looking for yet. Most scientists probably have not zeroed in on the real causes."

THE 55-MILE SOLUTION

One of the benefits of long training runs, of course, is fat reduction. "You reach your idealweight by training down to it," says Paul D. Thompson, M.D., director of preventive cardiologyat the University of Pittsburgh Heart Institute. Although carefully watching your diet isimportant, weight loss can most easily be accomplished by running far.

That 100-mile workout weeks may be necessary for optimum performance certainly must seemdiscouraging to the runner now doing 30 weekly miles and who wants to improve by eventuallydoubling that distance, but there is hope. In a survey of runners of average ability, I discoveredthat many "serious" runners train by doing around 60 miles a week. In another survey, coachessuggested 35 miles a week as sufficient for finishing a first marathon and 55 miles a week for"finishing well."

Interestingly, those coaches failed to discriminate between the amount of mileage necessary tofinish well and to set a Personal Record. The actual survey numbers were 56.5 miles to finishwell, 57.7 to set a P.R. Of course, that doesn't mean you can merely add 1.1 miles to your weekly

routine and expect dramatic improvement. What this distinguished body of coaches apparentlywas trying to tell me, and through me all other runners who aspire to marathon success, was thathigh mileage is not the only reason for success.

Fifty-five miles a week is a reasonable commitment involving perhaps an hour a day during theweek with a long run on the weekend. Increasing your training to match the magic 100 numbermay cost a price in time and energy that even most serious runners may not want to pay.


4/5

RED-LINING

Top marathoner's talk about "red-lining," a term borrowed from auto racers. The red line is themark on the tachometer of a high performance automobile where if you consistently rev yourengine higher, it will disintegrate. Whoom! $125,000 worth of junk. Red-lining in running is

pushing your body in training right to the point of self-destruction, achieving maximumefficiency, training the necessary miles to run P.R.s, but not so much that injury, or staleness,occurs. The red line for one of Dr. Kenneth H. Cooper's fitness joggers, interested only in goodhealth, is 15 weekly miles. Dr. Cooper, the author of the best-selling Aerobics and subsequentbooks on the subject, suggests that if you run further than 15 miles a week, you're doing it forreasons other than fitness.

Someone whose goals extend beyond fitness to performance might red-line--after a gradualbuild-up--at 30 miles. Or 45. Or 60. Most often, these limits are physiological in nature. There's aCatch-22 in red-lining. You have to train hard to be able to train hard. But if you train too hard,you no longer will be able to train hard. Confused? It's simply that too many miles too soon

result in injuries: strained tendons and ligaments, stress fractures, chronically dead legs, whatcommercial advertisers might label "tired blood."

ADAPTING TO STRESS

Lee Fidler, a running coach from Atlanta, Georgia, suggests that to reach even the 60-mile level,you have to move through a gradual progression in increments of 10 per cent a week. Then everythird or fourth week, unload: drop back close to the starting point to recover. Fidler says: "If youbuild constantly week after week, you get stronger, but you also find your break point. It's best toapproach your break point without reaching it. You advance in steps. Go up two or three steps,drop back one or two steps, then hop back to where you were and start stepping again."

Joe Catalano of East Walpole, Massachusetts has coached everyone from beginning joggers tohis former wife, Patti Lyons Catalano, who had a marathon best of 2:27:51. He believes inbuilding through repetition: "The more you repeat something the stronger you get," saysCatalano. "The first time out can be exhausting. But as you practice more and more, your bodyadapts, you handle the stress, and you become stronger.

Catalano believes that people vary in their ability to increase mileage. He recommends a gradualclimb, adding five extra miles a week for a top runner, but a lesser progression for others. "Theendurance base is the single most important factor in getting fit," he advises. "People worryabout speed, but if you concentrate first on mileage and improving your strength, you can move

to the speed phase later."

While high mileage may produce fast times, simply adding mileage may not guarantee successeither for the world-class athlete or the born-again jogger, whose goal is not a gold medal butmerely qualifying for Boston. Quality must be mixed with quantity to produce maximum results.Don Kardong says: "People are too conscious of high mileage and not conscious enough aboutquality. It's a natural outcome of keeping a running diary. You become very concerned with how


5/5

many miles you ran this week, but not with how fast you ran them. In the next few years we maysee a shift back to quality rather than quantity."

HUNTING FOR SPEED

Thom Hunt, a distance runner from San Diego, California whose best marathon time is 2:12:,often varies his mileage from week to week and from season to season. "I do not do mega-mileage," he says, "yet I'm not afraid of it either." Hunt usually runs between 85 and 105, slightlyhigher immediately before marathons. But he patterns his workouts. "I might run 105 one week,115 week after that, then go down and run a 90," says Hunt. "Rest is an important part of atraining program. There are times of the year when you just go to the beach."

But what about the average runner, the 99-plus per cent of today's running population, who willnever see the underside of 3:10 much less 2:10, those who because of a genetic mismatch do nothave the basic equipment to match the Thom Hunts of the world either in a race or in workouts?Must this person be condemned to a life of marathoning mediocrity? Maybe not, because one of

the great talents of today's top runners is not merely to race hard, but to be able to train hard so asto be able to race hard. That's Catch 22-A. Nevertheless, the runner who can increase trainingmileage should expect to improve as long as quality is not sacrificed for quantity. If you pushyour weekly mileage from 30 to 60 miles a week, you still may not be able to qualify for Boston,but you probably may grab that P.R. the next time you try a marathon.

Eventually all of us must face the fact that nothing comes free. A price must be paid foreverything, and that includes excellence. The price that must be paid for wringing the 99thpercentile of efficiency from your body may be worth it if you can improve your marathon timefrom 2:20 to 2:10. It may even be worth it to go from 3:10 to below three hours. Whether it isworth it at the other gradations of achievement can only be determined by each individual

involved.

building up your mileage

Documents