Let me start with this: do as I say, not as I do…
Increasing your mileage is important for all endurance athletes and I have been working on it for my cycling. I am not exactly a good person to mimic these days though. I have been running long distance for ages now and what I consider a ’rounding error’ may be more exercise than you get on a given day.
The above picture is of me right after my 56 mile bike ride. My previous longest ride was 38 miles two weeks earlier. I look good, don’t I? But here is ‘the thing’: that was less than 3:30 hours of exercise and biking is less strenuous than running. I keep myself in marathon running shape at this point basically non-stop, with semi-weekly 20 mile runs. Ok, maybe I haven’t been making it regularly through all 20 miles, since I have been focusing on biking and I don’t have any marathons coming up soon, but here is what I look like towards the end of those runs:
This doesn’t mean that I never feel tired or done with my mileage. I do. Although these days, it’s usually lack of good planning. Last week, I accidentally ran 11 miles and it didn’t look good:
Here is how you ‘accidentally’ run 11 miles: it was supposed to be 8 miles according to a map, but clearly that meant as a crow flies, not as the bike path goes. I was totally not prepared for that distance! Since I have run 5 marathons and have been putting large mileage on a regular basis, I can get away with quite a bit of extension to my long runs and rides – my body is used to exercise of 3+ hours on a regular basis. It’s not true for the vast majority of people and they should use some more thought-out training plans. So here comes some wisdom on increasing mileage in your endurance training.
Running
Before you start increasing your mileage, take good look at where you are at right now and what your target is. Some people talk about increasing mileage from basically nothing to a 5km or 10km runs, or even just so they start moving around. I am really happy for all of you in this category and I am rooting for you! For others, increasing mileage is going to be about getting through a marathon or a century bike ride. In order to get to long runs and rides, you have to first build a solid base.
First, figure out what your comfort level is. It will differ based on your general health and fitness. Once you know where this is, you can start working on increasing your mileage. You should do it gradually – this is where the 10% rule keeps reappearing. According to this age-old wisdom, you should be increasing your weekly mileage by 10% every week. So if you are currently doing 3 runs of 3 miles each (total of 9 miles), the next week you would increase to 9.9 miles by adding an extra .9 mile to one of your runs or splitting it between the runs. I know it may seem like a slow progress, but you are out there giving your best, stick to it! Adding too much mileage too fast may lead to an injury or cause you to feel tired all the time. In the long run (no pun intended), it will be counterproductive. Some sources even recommend that after adding 10% to your weekly mileage, you stay at that level for a couple of weeks until your body adapts and then do another 10% increase.
Once you have a solid higher mileage base, you can start working on your long runs or rides. I looked at many marathon plans and advice on mileage before starting a specific training plan range from 15 to 35 miles per week for several weeks. You should probably be able to do a six mile run at least once per week as part of your base before you start your marathon training plan or adding serious mileage to your long runs. Marathon training plans tend to range in length from 12 to 20 weeks and you should keep in mind that at some point, you will be expected to do at least one 20 mile run. You need to make sure your body will be able to do it. And yes, you will be increasing your mileage gradually, but the more solid your base, the easier it will be.
For the long runs, common rule is adding 1 mile per week or 10 minutes per week. Since I tend to do 10 minute per mile (maybe a bit slower) for my long runs, it tends to be the same…
Biking
Advice for extending your mileage on a bike appears to be a derivative of what was developed for marathon training, with the magical 10% weekly increase. Since this cap was created to help stave off injury and biking is lower impact than running, you may be able to get away with faster increases. Nonetheless, pace yourself.
Triathlon
You have no idea how few articles are out there on this subject… Believe me, I checked! The closest I got to a relevant information was an article in Men’s Health. Although, at the end of the day, they said the same thing as the marathon advice already did: 10% mileage increase per week. There was one difference though, which was to have a low mileage week every few weeks to allow your body to recover. As I kept pushing the question, I learned from various materials that you should cap training amount, but that’s a whole another article (which now I feel like pursuing immediately because it got my interest). I asked Diana (my personal trainer and total goddess of all things fitness) about extending my long runs and rides. She said that the 10% rule holds true for all types of exercise. No wonder going from 5lbs to 10lbs is such an awful experience in weight training 😉. So I guess the advice is: if you are riding 50 miles, next step would be 55 miles. Same thing for running: going from 10 miles to 11 miles (for nice, round math).
Final thoughts
Whatever you are doing to your mileage, whether a long run/ride or weekly mileage, remember to listen to your body if it starts aching or you are experiencing general fatigue. On the other hand, don’t listen to it when it tells you that you can do more! You may be able to add more mileage over the next week or two, but you are increasing your chances of injury and setting yourself up for a lot of exhaustion. Pace yourself! Patience is paramount in endurance sports!