From: berkery@emmax5crd.ge.com (jack berkery)
Newsgroups: rec.running
Subject: Boosting mileage
Date: 30 Jul 92 17:18:57 GMT
Reply-To: berkery@emmax5crd.ge.com (jack berkery)
Organization: GE Research Center


Increasing your mileage, for the beginning marathoner.

(Yeah, I know I said I don't coach marathons, but the principles are the
 same for 10k and 15k training, you just don't go as far on long runs.)

  There are many good, professional, books and articles on how to train for
whatever distance you choose. More for the marathon than others I think. I
would suggest that you get one or two and mull them over. The following
recommendations are more or less a distillation of having read and digested
most of these as well as more than a decade of experience.

  Let's suppose you are beginning with a base load of about 20 miles per week
over a long period. First I DO NOT recommend that anyone who has been running
for less than 3 years should run a marathon. Running is a long-term game and
it takes time for your body to become adjusted physically to the demands, not
only of the marathon itself, but also of the heavy training mileage required
to build up to it.

  Next, you should always keep in mind that your build-up should not exceed
10% per week. 10% doesn't sound like much but it's actually a big adjustment
for your system to make. Not only muscles, but bones and connective tissues
must be strengthened to take the increased load and running marathon mileage
is a lot of pounding. Remember 10%. That is not to say that if you ran 20
miles last week, you cannot go more than 22 next week, but over a period of
3-4 weeks the rate of increase should not exceed the 10% slope. After 4 weeks
then, you should be doing just under 30 miles, but not more. If you go from
20 to 24 in the first week thereby exceeding the 10% rate, then doing 24
again the second week will bring you back on track. You can continue to build
up mileage for about 6 weeks when you'll reach 35 miles. Then you MUST BACK
OFF for a week or so. Drop back by about 25-30% for one week. Take two or
three days off in a row. Get some rest to gain strength before beginning the
climb again.

  How much mileage is enough for a marathon? I have known people to run
marathons on 25 or 35 miles per week. Don't try it. How they got away with it
is not important. It is only important to know that it simply ain't smart.
You can get away with 40-45 per week if you are doing a regular long run of
15-18 each week. It is better to be doing 50 or more for 6 to 8 weeks before
the marathon. This means you have to have the time necessary to build to 50
at that 10% rate (with 1 rest week out of every 6) and then sustain that 50+
mileage for 6-8 weeks as well. This is a heavy schedule. Never doubt that. 
When you listen to the mega-mileage people talk about 70 or 80 or more, they
make it sound as if everyone should be able to do that. Well we CAN'T all do
that. We all have a break-down point and for the great majority, it lies
somewhere below 50 or 60 miles per week. You'll know where yours is only 
after repeated tries to exceed it result in an injury.

  Specificly how do you build the mileage? Suppose you are doing an even 3 
miles a day, no more, no less. You must begin by building the long run. In a
marathon training schedule, the long run is everything. Start the first week
of the build-up by just lengthening one run. All other days should remain the
same. Make one, usually Sat. or Sun., a 5-6 miler to get your 10% increase.
Take the next day off from running. Rest is important after the long run to
allow your system adjustment time. The next week of the build-up, increase
the one long run again while still holding the normal daily runs the same. As
a rule of thumb, your long run can go to 3 times the distance of your daily
average run. So while still doing regular 3 milers, you can build up that
Sat. morning run to 9 miles. Don't do a 12 miler though until you have made
your daily run 4 miles. This means keeping the long run at 9 miles for a few
weeks and increasing the daily runs until your average is 4 or 5 a day. Then
you can return to increasing the long run. Toward the end of the build-up
you may be doing something like 6-8 each weekday plus an 18-20 miler on the
weekend. It might also be a good idea to alternate long runs of 15 and 20
miles every other week.

  As you get close to the date of the marathon, run your last long run 2 weeks
before. DO NOT do a long run one week prior to the marathon. In fact for the
last week you should taper down to do only about half, yes half, the mileage
you have been doing. DO NOT run the day before and 2 days before the race you
might only do 3 miles just to get the legs loose and the blood flowing. You
MUST be well rested for the big race itself.

  Now assuming you do everything right there is still no guarrantee that the
marathon is going to go well. Many things might prevail to make it hurt, hot
or humid weather, getting caught up in too hard a pace, not drinking enough
water before or along the way (THE GREATEST SIN). You may even spend 3 or 4
months building your training only to come down with an illness or injury a
few weeks before the race which will set you right back to square-one. If you
want certainties, you're in the wrong game. What matters is not that you get
to do that particular marathon on that particular day 5 months from now, but
rather what you plan to do over the next 5 or 10 or 50 years. I did say
running is a long-term game, no?

  Another note of caution. All the rules can be broken. You may get away with
lower training, higher ramp-up rates or shorter long-runs. You might even get
away with it more than once, but sooner or later it's gonna get ya. Take the
more conservative plan and be safe. You're looking for a positive experience
not an injury.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jack Berkery, Computer Scientist, GE Research, Schenectady NY
(berkery@crd.ge.com)
Newsgroups: rec.running