base miles for regular dudes

i hope so, bc that's the boat i'm in!

Why, if your best marathon was run on 60 mpw, are you thinking of dropping down to 40-45 mpw? Or are you currently below that level right now?

It depends...

What's your most recent 10K and/or HM times? What's your goal for the upcoming marathon? Do you want to just run it or are you looking to go sub-3:00?

OP:

doing a 3:0X on 60-70mpw is underperformance.

I don't know your training, but i suspect you need more quality, not quantity. dropping to 40-50mpw will not give you a PR.

get your workouts right or lower your expectations.

That's about my situation, too.

I've been thinking alternating 4, 10, 4, 10, 4, 10, off would be a good way to do a low mileage base.

fungus among us wrote:

OP:

doing a 3:0X on 60-70mpw is underperformance.

I don't know your training, but i suspect you need more quality, not quantity. dropping to 40-50mpw will not give you a PR.

get your workouts right or lower your expectations.

To the contrary, I went from 3:0X to low 2:50 by going for quantity (70-90 mpw). The marathon is an endurance event.

Also, I think you might not be using the term "base" the way others may use it. Base generally refers to a period of high mileage, but minimal speed work or marathon specific work, that people do before specific training starts. Many marathon training plans have you build up your mileage while increasing the intensity of your workouts. For faster runner who can take high mileage, I think it works better to build up your mileage and then add the specific work (and possibly back the mileage down).

I am currently doing 90-100 mpw with only two or three up tempo runs a week for about two months before going into more specific marathon training. Building a base of high mileage has made a noticeable difference in my fitness. If you are more than 12-16 weeks out from your next marathon, try building your mileage up to 70-80 mpw with mostly easy runs (really easy, not your usual off-day pace). You will feel a big difference.

John Smallberries wrote:

Many marathon training plans have you build up your mileage while increasing the intensity of your workouts.

Yes, many plans do this...but why? It spits in the face of conventional wisdom that:

more intensity + more volume = injury?

John Smallberries wrote:

try building your mileage up to 70-80 mpw with mostly easy runs (really easy, not your usual off-day pace). You will feel a big difference

Distinguish "really easy" from "usual off-day pace"...?? If I'm not running a workout, then I'm running "really easy"...??

Depends how much you are running before you start your 8-10 weeks of base building. I think many months of 30-50 MPW is better than 8 weeks of 40-45, but generally I think what you're saying is okay. Good luck.

John Smallberries: Many marathon training plans have you build up your mileage while increasing the intensity of your workouts.

batmannequin: Yes, many plans do this...but why? It spits in the face of conventional wisdom that:

more intensity + more volume = injury?

I'm with you, batmannequin. It's not just the conventional wisdom, it's also my experience.

My interpretation is that these canned plans are geared toward the casual runner who's motivated to work harder only for three months of marathon buildup, but not the rest of the year. They try to accommodate the reality that most of their audience is unwilling to run decent mileage regularly.

But if I were for some reason going from a slack base to a robust marathon training mileage, my body would be much happier with a rapid ramp up to peak mileage, then fold in workouts once acclimated to that.

i guess i wasn't clear...sorry.

i am not suggesting that i will drop to 40-50 mpw during marathon training. i am more wondering what i can get away w/ for mileage before i start marathon specific stuff.

during previous training i avg 60-70 mpw during marathon specific training. i am seeking info on how much base mileage to build prior to beginning about 14 weeks of marathon specific trng.

prior to PR race i did about 8 weeks at 40 mpw of very easy aerobic only training, then during the 14 weeks prior to PR race averaged about 60-70 mpw.

i have no idea how much (or little) i could get away with prior to a 14 week regimen at 60-70 mpw.

anyway, very modest PR's in 1/2 (1:25:19), 10k (38:58), 5k (18:22).

thanks.

If you're specific phase is 60-70 MPW, I'd build up to at least 60to 65 and hold it there for a few weeks.

During my last base phase, over 12 weeks, I built up from 70 MPW to 100 MPW averaging 85/week. When I got to my specific phase, I backed the mileage down as the intensity increased and averaged about 80 MPW for 15 weeks before a 3 week taper. Not sure if this is conventional or common, but it worked well for me.

If you really aren't training for anything, just run for an hour a day taking an occasional day off if you want. That should give you 50-60 miles a week. Don't even worry about the miles. Just put in the time.

What I always wonder about is how people say: "I have a job, family and life to take care of, I can only train XX miles per week."

I get not being able to do it physically, and maybe these things limit their ability physically, but it is not a time issue. If you actually have the time to run AT ALL, to suit up, to go run for even 30 minutes (3.5 hrs per week) and to stretch and to shower the additional time this generally involves ... that is 6-7 hrs a week. If you run just 5 x a week maybe that is just 5 hr/wk.

But if you decide to run 70 mpw (if you do it right) you can do this in 10.5 hr/wk. stretch for :10, run for :70 and shower for :10. It isn't enough difference from the 8 or 9 hr/wk that "lower" mileage takes to make decent mileage prohibitive.