Mileage matters. HOW TO MANAGE INCREASING MILEAGE

I get asked a lot “what’s your best piece of advice to get better at running.?"

If I was only allowed to give one answer, this would be... try and increase mileage

Now I’m not saying everyone needs to run 100 miles a week, but even if you can increase your weekly volume from say for example 40 miles/week to 50 miles week in a progressive manner, and stay consistent with the right variety, intensity, frequency and recovery you WILL see big improvements in fitness and performance.

When I’m supporting anyone towards a long distance running event, typically after assessing their personal factors, the next thing I will do is look at their current running mileage and see how we can increase it safely over the course of the next few weeks / months / longer.

The problem with just increasing mileage though, is that it has to be in context to other training

and lifestyle factors. So, for instance...

- How do we increase our mileage without getting injured?

- How do we increase our mileage without sacrificing the quality of the other runs?

- How do we do increase our mileage without getting burnt out?

Here are 5 generic measure I would recommend taking to avoid these problems above:

Step 1: Make sure you’re tracking your running mileage. I would recommend using a software such as TrainingPeaks or Strava. You can't manage what you can't measure

Step 2: Increase your mileage SLOWLY. Don’t rush it. It could be as simple as adding 1km a week onto your weekly mileage. The slower you do it, the lower the injury risk. My programmes will have the principle of progressive overload built into all plans.

Step 3: Include de-load weeks to allow your body to recover. As a beginner you may need one every 3-4 weeks. As you get more experienced you may only need one every 5-8 weeks.

Step 4: Look after your body. Strength & conditioning work, pre run mobility work, post run stretching etc. It all plays its part.

Step 5: This step is for those who struggle to increase their running mileage without getting injured. You may need to get creative about other ways of adding volume through cross training and increase strength and durability through weight training or other forms of resistance work.

If you wish to read more on this I'd recommend this article where Luke Humphries, renowned coach and author, gives many examples as to why it's so unique, different and complex in terms of increasing mileage. There is the podcast / audio version too.