I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about weekly mileage targets. There isn’t any single canned answer that works for everyone.
Your past training history, your injury history, the amount of sleep you’re able to get and the amount of time that you are able to dedicate to your training are some of the many factors that need to be considered when setting your personal mileage target. But the rule to keep in mind is that you want to be running as much as you can without breaking down.
To paraphrase something that I heard from a coach at a running camp that I attended many years ago “Training is pretty simple. You just need to build a really big engine (heart and lungs) inside a really lean and efficient chassis” (I was reminded of these words of wisdom after my run yesterday as I contemplated my need to work off about 7-8 pounds of holiday cookies that have accumulated on my not-so-lean-and-efficient chassis over the past couple of months). The way to build that really big engine is through big doses of aerobic training (long, slow distance).
For those of you who are limited in your ability to pile up a lot of long slow mileage by your susceptibility to stress related injuries, you have to find other ways to accumulate the aerobic training volume, and there are plenty of other ways to accomplish that through cross training. I would put pool running at the top of your cross training list since it has the benefit of using most of the major muscle groups that you employ when land running, but getting on a bike, elliptical machine or rowing machine will also accomplish the goal of building your aerobic training base.
For endurance athletes looking to perform at optimum levels, you need to put a premium on aerobic training volume and get it done any way that you can.
George Buckheit is the leader and coach of Capital Area Runners. CAP is a DC metropolitan area club that was founded to provide group training opportunities for highly motivated and competitive minded runners of all ability levels.
