Overcoming fatigue with mileage

When preparing for a long distance race usually the best method to of training to run your best, is one that increases your mileage!!

When increasing mileage it is important to increase in small increments, going from low mileage to high mileage in a matter of weeks will definitely get you injured if not over-trained!

You should increase your mileage by 10% or 5 miles ( if 10% is less than 5 miles just increase by 5 miles! ). Then you should hold that mileage for 2-3 weeks as well as a down week to recover for a further increase in mileage. For example here is a progression in mileage for someone running 30 miles per week!

week 1: 30

week 2: 35

week 3: 35

week 4: 35

week 5: 30

week 6: 35

week 7: 40

week 8: 40

week 9: 30

week 10: 40

week 11: 45

week 12: 45

During the 2-3 weeks where you are holding a higher mileage than you have ever done before, you are going to be feeling very tired! This is the most important phase of increasing mileage. It is very very important that you should be eating and sleeping well.

I'd also back off from very intense sessions during this base phase as it will leave you feeling even more tired. You should be mainly running just easy miles, with 1 or 2 threshold runs added aswell!!

If you increase your mileage safely and continue to train properly you are guaranteed an increase in performance in any distance event!!