Marathon mileage

by Gareth
(Edinburgh, Scotland)

Marathon mileage - what is the deal with that ?

"Hi I have just bought your programme, and very excited.

I am very curious though as my uncle ( with a marathon of 2:33) reccomends at least 45 -70 miles of running, however your programme has little mileage and little hards runs(effort 4,5) I am worried as i have run 3:34 and thought i needed to do more training for next one, but on your sub 3:00hr programme it seems quite a low mileage easy ride.

Why is it such low mileage?
The intensity also does not seem very intense?

I have only done one marathon (3:34) and did not get any advice. I simply ran 5 times a week (ave 7miles with a longer run each week) at a heart rate of 165 continually. And this seems to be not intense, yours is even less so.
Should I be worried?"

Answer: Hi Gareth, in my own career I averaged over 100 miles weekly - with most weeks over 120-130 miles. And I think you have to do this at an elite level. So I'm not against high mileage but I believe this is something that you want to consider when your times get faster.

My personal experience is that for above 2:45 to 3:00 marathon in particular you have much more to gain from a structured, well balanced approach than just adding in miles. The risk of injuries is too great and benefits of periodization/structured anaerobic threshold work too great to ignore.

You will find plenty of hard work in this schedule, just wait and see ;) Have a look over at Rick training on the 100 day plan and look back into his archive (March/February this year) You'll see how hard he has been working to keep up with the schedule - even on the 2:45 one.

To sum it up, no worries at all - it will be plenty of hard work in there.

I wish you all the best,

Marius

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