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2018-12-11 4:17 PM

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Subject: How many miles do you run a week?

I am working with a local group that is planning a 10 man team to do a 500 mile run from Mississippi to Oklahoma. 

 

I have done some of these type of relays before and just did my standard Triathlon training with no special run focus for the relay and the relays were all a piece of cake.  The group I am currently working with is worried about people not being prepared and spoiling the experience for others so they are requiring everyone to build up to a minimum of 50 miles a week of running a week by the end of February and are leaving everyone home who doesn't submit a screen shot of their completed training showing 50 miles of running the last full week of February. 

 

I would like to peak at about 40 miles (with a balance of swimming and cycling too) for my 70.3 training.  finding another 10 miles in a week doesn't sound like a lot but when I look at the schedule the time is really tight unless I trade out running for cycling/swimming.  I am guessing that there are at least a few people doing 140.6 training plans that are doing 50 miles of running in there peak weeks but I really don't know how many miles typical triathletes run in a weeks. 

 

What distance are you training for and how many miles a week do you run? 

 

Anyone who peaks at 50+ running miles a week what what is your balance with swimming/cycling?

 

 

 



2018-12-11 5:24 PM
in reply to: BlueBoy26

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Subject: RE: How many miles do you run a week?

The people I know that are doing (have done) it are usually in a run-focused block.  They usually use the BarryP approach (running guru on Slowtwitch). 

BarryP approach (in a nutshell):

He suggests building the mileage using 6 runs a week using 3-2-1 approach.  Take your weekly mileage and divide it by 10.  For a 50 mile week that would be 5 miles...that's your short run and you'd do that 3 times/week.  Double that amount (10 miles) and you'd do that twice a week.  Your long run would be 3x your short run (in this case, 15 miles) and you'd run that once per week.  All of this is easy running.  If you were doing a marathon build, you could add some tempo efforts/strides in there but I would keep it all easy if you're planning on swimming or cycling at all.

2018-12-11 6:48 PM
in reply to: #5252620

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Subject: RE: How many miles do you run a week?
Two a days? I know a lot of runners that hit high mileage are running twice a day at least a couple times a week. Like Joel said, easy pace type stuff.
2018-12-11 7:34 PM
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Subject: RE: How many miles do you run a week?
I don't think I have done that many miles a week even when training for full IM. If I did, it would have been due to shifting my long runs around for some logistical reason so that two of them fell in a single calendar week, probably six days apart. That might have happened once when I wanted to do a long run in a particular place we were traveling to on a Monday, then had another one scheduled for the next Sunday.

For the highest run volume weeks of IM training otherwise, I don't think I did more than about 6 1/2 total hours of running. I'm not super-fast, especially in the middle of high-volume training. That probably worked out to 40 miles a week or so; possibly a little more some weeks, doubt it was fifty. Pretty similar for HIM, but my long run would be closer to 2 hours than 3. Guessing I average about five hours per week for HIM training. I think it would be hard to consistently find the time and energy for 50+ miles a week within IM or HIM training, unless I was quite a bit faster (and younger!) than I now am. Maybe in my 20's or early 30's, but not now, in the context of long-distance tri training. As a pure runner, sure, I think I could handle it (I have done upwards of 100 in my 20's), just most of it not very fast, and swim/bike would be more like short recovery workouts.

If 50 mph that last week is a requirement, then just do a run focus for the last week, IF you are confident you can handle the event on your typical run volume. If that's true then I think there's no need to consistently hit 50--your other training is no doubt helping build your endurance as well. Particularly true for a relay type event where the running is spread over many hours. (I always found these harder than marathons!) I'd integrate it into tri training by doing some of the run mileage as warmups to bike workouts, and/or as brick runs off the bike (maybe in the 4-5 mile range). Then a couple of medium length runs and one to two longer ones. If desperate, just to fulfill the requirement, you could do two long runs at opposite ends of a calendar week.

Edited by Hot Runner 2018-12-11 7:47 PM
2018-12-12 8:43 AM
in reply to: Hot Runner

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Subject: RE: How many miles do you run a week?

So...It doesn't look like anyone does 50+ mile run weeks.  I am not too surprised.  My first 2 years in the sport my average run volume around 25 mi/week (3 sessions).  It was hard to justify more time than that running when I only have about 10 hours a week available to train and my run time was always in the top 10% of my AG while my bike ranks and swim ranges were about 30% lower than my run ranks.  I keep hearing about how 10 hours isn't enough to finish a Triathlon let along race it and that you really need to be doing 20-30 hours weeks.  I figure the people doing 20 hours a weeks would be running twice the run volume as I was on a 10 hours week.  ;-

 

Yes, I considered just ditching 1-2 bike sessions the last week of February so I can show that I did 50 miles.  I think that anyone in the group could slough off on their  training then survive a 50 mile run week so I was looking at actually trying to build to 50 miles win never increasing more than 10% run volumes from the previous week.  I am just not sure if I want to give up time to swimming or cycling through. That is always the catch 22 of Triathlon training.

 

The only thing I didn't like about past relays I have done was the lack of sleep.  They other relays I did were races and they went around the clock so you could be up supporting other runners on your team from 1AM to 4AM then have to do a 12 mile run at 5AM.  After doing a few of these relays I figured out how to get in more sleep and they became much more enjoyable.  I find the relays much easier than a Marathon.  The 28 miles that I did at 6:55 min/mi pace for my last 6-man relay were much easier for me than the 26.2 miles at 7:25 min/mi pace that I did at my last full marathon.  I am better at running 8-12 miles refueling, sleeping, and going for another 8-12 miles 6 hours later than I am at doing it all in one session. I struggle at distanced over about 17 miles. 

2018-12-12 8:48 AM
in reply to: BlueBoy26

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Subject: RE: How many miles do you run a week?
Originally posted by BlueBoy26

So...It doesn't look like anyone does 50+ mile run weeks.  I am not too surprised. 



Patrick Lange doesn't do 50+ mile weeks :-)

Kidding aside I break at over 40mpe. If I wanted to I would have to fix some of the "supporting infrastructure" ie adductors and other under developed muscles.

Also this ear I found and AlterG treadmill in town. Maybe I would use that more if I tried to do big volume.


2018-12-12 10:58 AM
in reply to: BlueBoy26

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Subject: RE: How many miles do you run a week?
20-30 hours a week WTF? I have qualified for two World Championships at 70.3 distance and have been an All World Athlete three times. I podiumed at my first full IM in the last six weeks of my AG. I'm not sure I have ever trained 20 hours a week, even for full IM. For HIM, a typical week would be 12-15 hours of training; IM in the neighborhood of 16-18, mainly due to the longer long rides. I am not some speed demon with a ton of natural talent either--zero background in biking prior to starting tri at 41; hadn't done a marathon in at least 20 years till I trained for the IM.

Where is a typical age group athlete with a job and family supposed to find the time to consistently hit 20-30 hours a week? Even if they had time, I doubt most age-groupers could handle it physically on a sustained basis.
2018-12-12 2:17 PM
in reply to: Hot Runner

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Subject: RE: How many miles do you run a week?

I am surprised that you haven't run into the people that are preaching the 20-30 hour training weeks. Some people act like if you aren't doing at least 20 yours you aren't dedicated to the sport.  :-)  That is not me though.   

2018-12-12 2:38 PM
in reply to: BlueBoy26

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Subject: RE: How many miles do you run a week?
I guess most of the athletes I know are typical age-groupers with other demands on their time. I did talk with one woman who was world champion at 70.3, I think a few AG above me (50's or maybe a young 60-64) about her training. She is Swiss (I think, or German?), retired, with a very supportive husband and grown kids. It sounds like she trains somewhat more than me (mainly biking--she lives in a great area for that and rides with an active club), but still not sure it would add up to 30 hours per week. Maybe some of the younger age-groupers do that.

My coach is not a big proponent of high volume, especially for running. More emphasis on quality and consistency week to week. For IM training, I would often do my long runs starting fatigued, the day after the long bike. So maybe that helped compensate for lower total run volume than some people do. I do A LOT of intensity, especially for bike and swim but also, I would guess, more than many athletes for HIM and IM for the run. Will be honest that I did not really see the point of it for full IM. I was doing a lot of my runs at about 2 minutes/mile or more under actual IM pace. But maybe that is just a reflection of my inexperience at that distance and tough (hot, humid) conditions for the actual race. I leave this stuff up to my coach--she's had great results with both herself and plenty of other athletes and knows a lot more than I do.
2018-12-12 5:12 PM
in reply to: BlueBoy26

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Subject: RE: How many miles do you run a week?

20-30 hour training weeks are for tip of the spear athletes.  2 Strava buddies of mine hit 24 and 18 hours for there biggest weeks in Ironman builds.  Both are really good athletes and one of them punched his ticket to Kona this year.  20+ hours is unusual for anything less than a full ironman (and that is for a limited number of weeks).

Btw, both of them have done 50 mile/week training blocks in the off season but they dropped the swim/bike down to maintenance levels to do so.

2018-12-12 6:27 PM
in reply to: JoelO

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Subject: RE: How many miles do you run a week?
Just checked--My peak week (one) for IM training this past fall was 21 hours; a couple more weeks at about 18-19. Average more like 15-16. Not sure I am "tip of the spear", though! Due to kind of an unusual situation, I'm not working in the traditional sense right now, so I had a lot more recovery time than I normally would. Not at all sure I would be able to/want to do that volume of training while working full time, especially in my normal job (elementary teacher)! I think for HIM my peak weeks would be 15-16 (while working full time in most cases, except during summer breaks).


2018-12-13 1:52 PM
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Subject: RE: How many miles do you run a week?

I suspect if you asked this on a runners forum, plenty would be running 50+ weeks.  So, I wouldn't assume the lack of big mileage here means it's not done.  

Have you done relays that are that long?  I am not familiar with many.  The relays I know are all in the 200 mile range (Ragnar) with 12 runners.  I think you can do that easily on half marathon training volume.

The most I have run is like 35 miles/week and that was only 1 or 2 times during my two marathon training builds.   I am not a very good runner, though  



Edited by BikerGrrrl 2018-12-13 1:52 PM
2018-12-13 5:24 PM
in reply to: BikerGrrrl

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Subject: RE: How many miles do you run a week?

Originally posted by BikerGrrrl

...Have you done relays that are that long?...

I have done Ragnar relays with both 6-man teams and 12-man teams.   With a 12-man team you are doing three (3) legs that are an average of 5 miles each and for a 6-man team you are doing three (3) legs that average about 10 miles each.  The Ragnar races are less than 24 hours.  

When you are used to doing a 90 minute intense bike ride at 5:00 AM then hitting an easy 5 mile run at 12:00PM, or doing a 10 miles run at marathon race pace run at 5:00 AM followed by a mile swim at noon every day these relays don't have anything on you.  They are challenging for people that are not used to doing closely spaced training session nor multiple training sessions in a day, but when you are used to running to your limit and then doing another work out session 5 hours later day-in and day-out for 11 months a year these relays are as natural as breathing.

I have not done a 500 mile relay.  What I am preparing for will not be a race.  It will be a running tour.  There will only be one team so we won't be racing anyone.  We will do 100 miles each day then stop regroup and start over again the next day.  With the 10 man team we each will do 10 miles a day.  We will be hitting historical sites all along the way and a full time historian will caravan with the groups and do vignette at sites of interest. So we will take things at our own pace.  While on the tour I will be doing 10 miles a day for five days.  So for the event I will do 50 miles but that will only be about a 6-7 hour week for me.  Much more manageable than 10 hour Triathlon Training weeks.  :-)  I don't think the running group that is organizing this relay have any concept of that though and I don't have the time or energy to educate them so I will just do what they are asking and do my best to work it in to my biggest advantage for Triathlon training.

2018-12-13 8:25 PM
in reply to: BlueBoy26

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Subject: RE: How many miles do you run a week?
That really sounds like a lot of fun; would love to do something like that (also a history/geography buff). I think you're right--it doesn't sound as hard as a typical tri training week for someone at your level. I think most people who could handle HIM or IM training would be fine, as long as they didn't have serious issues with run resilience.

Have not done this type of relay before--the ones I did were competitive and went on all night/day, similar to Ragnar (Hood to Coast in Oregon). Our college XC alumni team at one point won and set the all-women's team record for Hood to Coast. I think that felt worse than almost any marathon I have done, quite possibly worse than a full IM. I wasn't particularly fit at the time--certainly hadn't made it to 50 MPW. Maybe 35, pre-tri days so no other training, and quite a bit over racing weight as well. It was literally an uphill battle!

What made those events really hard (aside from general lack of fitness) was the irregular/poor sleep aspect---run 10 miles hard, "sleep" four hours; get up in the middle the night and run another 8 miles hard straight up a hill in the rain, and so on......I'm not good at dropping off for a few hours in a crowded RV or tent camp. Your event sounds a bit more humane!
2018-12-14 3:30 PM
in reply to: Hot Runner

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Subject: RE: How many miles do you run a week?

We will be doing the Choctaw Nations Trail of Tear.  There is even a chance that the Chief of the Choctaw Nation will join us for the last ten miles if we end in Durant, Oklahoma (otherwise we will end in Talahina, OK). 

I took European History, a Civilization of Spain class, and a Humanities class that covered Greek and Roman History.  I loved them all.  I have been know to watch dry history documentaries just because I find the history interesting but I am not the History Buff that my youngest brother is who teaches high school US History.  I do find that everywhere I move that I am interested in the local history.  Living in the Choctaw Nation since 2015 makes this an opportunity that I would regret passing up.

I have done some semi-competitive Ragnar team that have broke into the top 10 in finishing teams, but I have never treated any of the Ragnar Relays as races.  I do them to spend time with people.  They are my "just for fun" events. The last Ragnar I did was an all family team. My sister was going to run it with us as her first running even in about 30 years.  Her husband joined the band wagon too.  He lost 40 lbs from the time he started training to when we did the relay.

Anyone that has done one of these events know what you mean about them literally being up hill battles.  I have already pulled the elevation profiles of tentative routes from Mississippi to Oklahoma along the Trail of Tears.  :-

 

2018-12-15 10:25 AM
in reply to: BlueBoy26

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Subject: RE: How many miles do you run a week?

MOP age grouper here.  Last time I trained for a HIM, I was consistently over 30mpw for months and may have hit a week or two at 40mpw on five runs weekly.  But I ended up with a couple of overuse injuries that took a long time to recover from.  In fact, I don't think I'm 100% still.  With that run volume I had only 2 bike days, with one a long bike of 3.5-4 hours and a short of an hour.  And the swimming was mostly non-existent until 3 months out, then only 1x per week of about 30 minutes, with maybe 2x per week in the month before @30-40 minutes per swim.

Next time around I plan to stay in the mid 20-mpw range mostly with a peak of 27-30mpw max on four runs while trying to manage a more balanced training load of bike and swim.  Honestly, for me, I don't think it will make much difference at all in my result.  Figure on about a 10-hour training week for three months beforehand.  That's all the time I am willing to commit, and I'd expect a 5:3X - 5:5X finish at St. George with that training if I'm healthy.   I'm not sure how people manage 15+ hour training weeks and run volumes of 50+ mpw while working and having family responsibilities, but more power to them if they can do it.  Maybe they need less sleep, don't have commutes and have unbreakable bodies?



2018-12-15 12:23 PM
in reply to: SevenZulu

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Subject: RE: How many miles do you run a week?
Agree--that does not sound like a very balanced training plan! For HIM, I think I average about 25-35 mph of running (4-5 hours), 5-6 hours of biking, 8-10K yards/meters of swimming. 50+mpw, no, unless it was a run focus with just maintenance-level swim and bike. Might have done that a few times before a winter HM. As for 15+ hours training while working, it is hard. In my case, no kids, minimal commute, get up REALLY early (usually 4:15-4:30), very disciplined schedule (in bed by 8:30 no matter what), do the really long stuff on the weekend. It helps that my daily and weekly schedule was pretty predictable and Vietnam always had close to 12 hours of daylight year round. Really don't think I'd want to do it while caring for young kids, living somewhere it was cold/dark in the morning, in addition to commuting, or with the longer workouts for full IM while working full time. But some people do--I guess setting priorities and maybe being able to get by on less sleep?
2018-12-18 9:18 AM
in reply to: BlueBoy26

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Subject: RE: How many miles do you run a week?
I would peak at 50 for stand alone marathon training.
I would peak at 35 when training for 140.6.

Getting to 50 can be done, but you will need to be smart where you get that extra in.

I'd suggest sprinkling short easy runs on non-big runs days. Long run maybe 17 miles. 3 days at 8 miles. 2 days around 4 to 5.

It's going to be extra running, but I would not make longer days longer. Spread it out over days to get effective fitness gains AND recovery.
2018-12-18 10:07 PM
in reply to: BlueBoy26


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Subject: RE: How many miles do you run a week?
Originally posted by BlueBoy26

So...It doesn't look like anyone does 50+ mile run weeks.  I am not too surprised.  My first 2 years in the sport my average run volume around 25 mi/week (3 sessions). 




I routinely knocked out 50+ mpw when only running. It's not a hard number to hit when you've only got one sport to worry about and that amount of volume did wonders for my run fitness. When I was training all three sports. . . I believe I ranged between 20-30 mpw.

I don't think it's unfair of them to set an expectation for each team member. I would be up front and honest. . . show them your training. . . and see what they say. You've got some decent run times and relay experience. . . they'll probably be just fine with what you're doing. If they aren't, you'll have to make a decision on whether you should adjust your training around this event.

2018-12-18 10:34 PM
in reply to: ziggie204

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Subject: RE: How many miles do you run a week?

Thanks for the feed back Ryan and Mark.  I like to do a big Triathlon in the Spring and another in the Fall, but haven't found a solid option for my Spring Triathlon yet so I may not be doing another Triathlon race until the middle of next September.  If that is the case I will be just fine on either going run focused or trying to educate the relay team on the difference between running 50 miles without cross training and running 20-40 miles with two other sports in the balance.  I will just keep building my Tri base for now.  I took a month off after my race season and am now only 5 week back into my base training.  I will finish out the year on why I have set up and then decide which way to got from my next 8 week block.  I do appreciate the feed back.  It looks clear that 50 weeks is not common in triathlon training ever for full ironman training.  The helps me keep things in perspective.

2018-12-19 10:09 AM
in reply to: BlueBoy26

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Subject: RE: How many miles do you run a week?
Just to be clear, there are a large majority of IRONMAN distance people that may hit 50 miles a week. They are either elite or uneducated that they don't need that much.

I do what I need and avoid injury with 30 to 40 for IM training.



2018-12-21 8:39 AM
in reply to: BlueBoy26

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Subject: RE: How many miles do you run a week?
When I was in peak IM phase I was at around 50+ miles. That was within a 21-24 hour week and based on a IM run of around 3:15.

I would not run over 2:30 in training. None of my athletes do, even the slower ones. I have found the recovery required and injury risk too great. I am also 46, so take regular 30s walk break and sometimes split my long run. I also am very vocal about making long runs easy. I don't feel you finish them feeling 'wiped' if at all possible. Save the guts and glory for the guts and glory days.

You don't mention how long in total you are running (you say team) and if it is 500 miles total, how many days that is spread over.
2018-12-21 12:14 PM
in reply to: JayPeeWhy

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Subject: RE: How many miles do you run a week?

Cliff Young did the 540 mile Ultra race from Sydney to Melbourne on his own in 5 days at age 61.  His long run was 540 miles.  My long run will be shorter than that.  I am not sure how much shorter but we will have 10 runners and I think the group is leaning toward everyone doing one ten (10) mile leg a day (possibly 2-3 shorter legs a day if I that is what we decided on).  We plan to complete the run in the same 5 day time frame as Cliff Young. 

The last 100 mile race that my younger brother did he got additional bling for completing the race under 24 hours.  About half of the finishers made it under the 24 hours mark.  

We will have ten people doing the number of miles a day that that one age group athlete  could do on his own in a day and the number of miles in 5 days that one elite runner could do on his own in that time.  This is very doable.  I am not worried about the 500 mile relay.   It will be less work than what I do in a typical triathlon training week.  I am just wondering how many miles everyone does. I figured there may be some Ultra Distance Triathletes doing 50 miles a week.  If so I was going to look at what they were doing to see how to balance my training.  If there wasn't then I was considering not going high run volume and just sticking to my triathlon plan and then either trying to educated the running team about multi-sport training (pretty much a lost cause. They don't get it) or doing a one one time run week to show that I can do 50 miles in a week with out any problems.    

2018-12-21 12:48 PM
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Subject: RE: How many miles do you run a week?

Most people who run regularly can pull off a 50 mile week ONCE with very little trouble......it's going week after week that catches you.



Edited by Left Brain 2018-12-21 12:48 PM
2018-12-23 11:29 PM
in reply to: #5252620

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Subject: RE: How many miles do you run a week?
Ya...not doing the week after week thing feels like cheating which is why I was considering actually building to 50 mi/wk without ever increasing more than 10% a week. My triathlon goal was to build to 40 mi/week. I will start with that and see where I am at.
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