How hard was increasing mileage for you?

[Princess Roo]

I'm just curious...guessing this is somewhat of a personal thing. Once you got a solid base of 3 or so miles, how hard was it to increase those long weekly runs to the mileage you needed for your 1st half or full marathon?

I am training for a half-marathon and did my first 6-mile run this morning. I'm really surprised at how much easier it has been to grow my mileage from 3 to 6 miles than it was to go from 2 to 3 (or the awful start-up of even being able to do 2 in the first place). Is that common? Do you think it's likely to continue to be that "easy" if I keep following my training plan to the letter or is 10+ miles hard the first few times no matter what you do? (FWIW, my plan calls for a few more 6s, then some 8s, and a couple 10s and a 12 for the long runs, 2 additional weekly 3-4 mile runs + a cross-train day.)

 

[MouseDogMom]

I still remember my first 6 mile run as clearly as if it were yesterday! I did everything wrong, and I thought I'd die before I finished. After that, I joined a Galloway group and ever since have done all my long runs with them. But it has been really easy to increase the distance each week, and our regular plan does runs of 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10 in successive weeks. The first season I couldn't imagine doing that, but each week the additional mileage just happened and I came home feeling really proud of my accomplishment.

The distances after that, however, are another story!

And your plan sounds perfectly doable. I'm doing 2 midweek runs of 4-5 miles, still trying to get in that 3rd cross-training day, plus my long run, but I'm training for a full marathon.

Good luck with your half!

Jackie

 

[johde]

I think most people have some sort of "hiccup" somewhere when they ramp up mileage the first time for a half marathon. My first 9 mile walk, I was a walker at the time, wasn't pretty. The plan I was following had even called for a 10 but I was a couple of weeks ahead and decided to throw the 9 in to break the jump into 2 smaller pieces. After a cut back week, I was able to go on to 10 without too much problems.

 

[rundisneymom]

I also found going from 3 to 6 miles was MUCH easier than going from 1 to 3 miles. I am guessing my body is in better shape and I'm more conditioned for the "longer" runs. I am hoping going to 6 to 10 is even easier!

I believe a general rule of thumb, to avoid injury, is to increase your mileage by no more than 10% per week. Can anyone confirm this?

 

[justcrusin]

Although my time is much slower, I've found it relatively "easy" to move up my mileage. I started introducing a Power Bar or some Gu after 6 miles, and I think that has helped my energy. Going to 9 this week.

 

[J3nn78]

glad it went well. Going from 3-6 is definitely easier than 0-3.

Just don't expect every run to go so well. I trained and completed the full this past January. 6 went great, 8 was iffy, 10.5, 12, were great, 15 was terrible, 18 was great, 21 was terrible. At first I was really nervous about how I was going to make it when I had bad runs, but I found that sometimes a run, wether 6 miles or 24 miles can go either way and you will be trained no matter what. Just try to learn from the bad ones. Always keep track of what works and what doesn't. I keep track of every detail from liquids, foods, clothing, weather and use that to be as ready as possible for race day.

I see upping miles as two-fold. Part of it is accomplishing the distance and the other is learning what works for you.

 

[FireDancer]

Like some of the PPs I found it easier to increase miles once I was up to about 5 than before that. The hardest for me was going from 17 to 18 because that was when I went past 2 hours and started to feel that bonk.

 

[Tiger Lily 03]

Congratulations! You are doing it!

I found I struggled for a long time and my body just needed more of a slow increase in all areas.

I think that as long as you are following a plan, not doing too much too quickly that you will do great!

Expect some not so good training times, it is a learning experience too. As you get to doing this longer in days distance and time pay attention to how you feel so you do not become injured. Seems to me though that you have a good handle on it.

 

[Rupert B Puppenstein]

I won't lie...it was so tough and believe me, I had doubts like there was no tomorrow. I am glad that a Half Marathon was my first race because if the Marathon had been it, I would have collapsed! My advice is to modify the training plan if you need to...if say you don't get up to the mileage recommended, just add in an extra day because most of them have rest days so that you finish the week with the same amount of miles that the plan is telling you to do. I just pushed myself the first time around and hated every second! By the time the Princess came around, I just wanted it to be over and didn't enjoy the experience as much as I should have. When the DL half came around, I modified my training program with my mood ultimately...if I had a stressful day, and I was only going to get to four miles when it said six, and the next day was calling for four, I just switched them out. Also, work on a contingency plan. My view was to train for walking as well so that if worse came to worse, I could stay under the threshold walking. In the end, that helped my nerves if anything.

We all hit motivation bumps and endurance bumps but you will get over them and may become addicted to races like most of us. Good Luck! It sounds like you are off to a fantastic start so you will get there!

 

[stitchfan18]

It's different for everyone, so what I struggled with won't be the same thing that others struggle with. I've heard of people who go and run 1/2 marathons or marathons without really training. I certainly couldn't have been one of those people. My first time approaching 5 miles I had a horrible run. Probably my worst run ever. I literally couldn't run any further than 4.8 miles, and when I tried my body quickly shot the idea down. I ended up walking a mile home feeling pretty crummy, even though I had run almost 5 miles, which was something to be proud of! After that I didn't really struggle increasing mileage for 1/2 marathon training until I got to 11-12 miles. It was partly due to injury, and a partly due to the fact that my training plan at that time only had me do 2 long runs of 10 miles or more.

 

[johde]

When the DL half came around, I modified my training program with my mood ultimately...if I had a stressful day, and I was only going to get to four miles when it said six, and the next day was calling for four, I just switched them out. Also, work on a contingency plan. My view was to train for walking as well so that if worse came to worse, I could stay under the threshold walking. In the end, that helped my nerves if anything.

We all hit motivation bumps and endurance bumps but you will get over them and may become addicted to races like most of us. Good Luck! It sounds like you are off to a fantastic start so you will get there!

I do something similar, I've also done a couple of additional things as well. In my first 2 half marathons I padded the training plan by as it turn out almost a month. That gave me the ability to do several things. I was able to take an unplanned cut back week when the weather was just plain nasty all weekend and couldn't get my long run in. I added an extra week with a 9 mile long run when the plan wanted me to jump from 8 to 10 and I wasn't sure about the jump. I was then able to get a second 10 mile long run in before the race by repeating the peak week and the week before (a cutback week).

Now, going into my 4th half marathon, my training plan has become more of a general guideline than a hard and fast plan. I know what I need to do to be successful. And while I still use a canned plan as a guide, I've made significant changes to it to adjust for races I want to run, areas I want to improve on, and unexpected life events.

 

[Princess Roo]

Thanks for sharing your experiences!
I'll know not to freak out if I have a rotten week.