How much?
How much running and how much overall exercise training should you be doing to prepare yourself for ultra-marathons or other major endurance adventures?
Near the end of 2020, I published an episode titled Mileage Matters Most, where I presented the science and practice supporting the notion that the most important factor in your training, after consistency, is the total mileage that you run. This episode is meant to complement that narrative and extend it by specifically addressing the question of how much you should be training. This is not a question about the optimal distribution of your training - in terms of intensity or modalities - but rather the simple question of overall volume. And, the simplest answer is that you should be doing as much as you can tolerate AND enjoy.
That may seem like dodging the question but I work hard to dig into the evidence and emerge with practical and actionable messages, following the rule that 'the simplest answers are most likely the best' whenever there isn't clear evidence that something more complicated is warranted.
There are, however, factors and ideas that will be useful for different people and for different times in your season, and over your running career...yes, even amateurs can call it a career.
Let's mention the elephant in the room first: should you quantify this volume by distance or time? There are reasons for and against using either. Some people have a difficult time keeping easier days truly easy when they run by distance and have a busy life...it's too tempting to run too fast on an easy day when you still have to go grocery shopping before heading home. Other people draw great motivation from relating distance run to an upcoming event...like running the equivalent of the upcoming event each week. We could list many other considerations and similar scenarios for running by time. There is some research that finds a stronger correlation between training distance and performance than between training time and performance. But, the quantity of evidence is very small and the quality is low given marginal differences in already low correlations. At this point, it's reasonable to say that it probably doesn't matter if you train by distance or time. What does matter is that you're providing the right stresses to your body so that appropriate strain, along with appropriate recovery, provides the adaptations relevant for your goals and objectives.
Which brings us back to the notion of running as much as you can handle without accumulating fatigue. It's okay to accumulate a little bit of fatigue but if you've taken on so much that a full recovery week of easy running and reduced volume doesn't turn you back into an excited, energetic, and motivated runner, then it was too much and your next cycle should be at a lower volume (and possibly with fewer high-intensity sessions; more on high-intensity sessions in a coming episode).
The recommendations for minimal durations or distances to achieve goals is based on coaching and athlete real-world practice, not on research, because we don't have any research specifically addressing this question. That isn't a failing of scientists but rather the result of an appreciation for the fact that different people can consistently tolerate huge differences in training programs. What may break one person will be trivial for another and yet, those two people may cross the finish line of an ultra-marathon in the same time. All that really matters for you is finding how much training you can do, how much training you want to do, and then going with whichever is less.
Your maximum will likely be determined by how much time you have to train, considering the rest of your life, rather than what your body can really handle...or be trained to handle. Start by writing down the days of the week and filling them in with how much time you have each day for training. Share that with your family and friends to get their input. It won't be sustainable to plan a program that doesn't have buy-in from the other important people in your life. A fitting observation made by James Clear is "You do not rise to the level of your goals; you fall to the level of your systems." Don't set up a system that is going to put undo strain on the things that are truly most important.
Your schedule may change predictably throughout different times of the year for work, family, or other commitments. If the weekly schedule can accommodate different amounts of training throughout the year, for whatever reasons, you might come up with a schedule for each quarter of the year or even each month depending on your circumstances. Whatever your situation, be clear and open about the time available each day of the week, for as long as you can make reasonable estimates. Then - and this bit is extremely important - be joyous about what you do have available. Don't question or second guess the plan. Do not, if you are prone to this type of thinking, question whether you can squeeze a little more time into the schedule this one time or be granted forgiveness by your spouse for running just an extra bit longer tonight or fantasizing about whether you could be a better athlete if you had more time for training. No, focus on what you have and go with it. It's fine to adjust the schedule by revisiting it with everyone in your life who's affected but bending and stretching the schedule generally leads to problems.
Know that doubles - where you train twice in one day - can be a great way of increasing stimulus on slightly less volume OR creating a greater stimulus on the same volume. By doing two runs in a day, or a run and a bike, starting the second within 2-5 hours of finishing the first, and each one being at least 30 minutes, you can potentially create a greater stimulus to some factors that support endurance adaptations. I discussed this research with the person who's done most of it in episode 126 with David Bishop. There are critical benefits of doing long runs. So, don't split up a long run when you CAN do it. Rather, keep in mind that it's okay, and perhaps even beneficial, to run some in the morning and then again at lunchtime, for example, if that helps with scheduling your training. You're not losing out by doing a double sometimes or even making it a regular thing when it works well for you. All of the best endurance athletes in the world train more than once per day on most days, after all. So, both the science and the practice support doing doubles.
You now have a rough guide for your schedule based on the time you have available. Should you fill all of it with training? Of course not. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. It's wonderful if you have four hours per day to exercise, but can your body really handle that much training? Maybe not. This is why you should plan for the lesser of the time you have available OR the amount you can handle without accumulating fatigue.
A funny thing happens in the minds of many runners at this point in the conversation. Most people are with me up to this point. But when the conversation turns to events a person is training for, these practical principles get pushed aside in the charge for the shiny object that is the finishers medallion or buckle. We choose a race without consideration for whether the required training volumes are within our reach. People charge on, overload the training - too much increase, too fast - arrive and survive (hopefully) - then lick wounds after the event while reveling in the stories of how rough it was. There's too much celebration of carnage and pain in our sport. I previously talked about not bending your training in episode 120. The key points to reiterate now are to choose events for which you can train in a manner that is both appropriate for the demands of the event AND comfortably achievable for your body, in the context of the time you have available. If you can't get to the necessary training load with comfortably adaptable progression by race day, then put that race on to the next year and seriously plan getting to that volume in time. I don't care if your name did get drawn in the lottery, shame on you for submitting for it when you weren't ready to get ready.
So, how much training volume is needed for races or events of different standard distances? I've melded of my own coaching experience with what other respected coaches have written on this subject to arrive at a rough guide.
For a 50K: 30 miles per week to finish and >50 miles per week to perform well, for at least 3 weeks before your taper
For a 50M or 100K: 40 miles per week to finish and >60 miles per week to perform well, for at least 5 weeks before your taper
For a 100M: 50 miles per week to finish and >70 miles per week to perform well, for at least 6 weeks before your taper
This is a very rough guide. It assumes that you'll also be getting the majority of your running over terrain similar to your event during those peak weeks. Many people will perform better with higher mileage, but others will break down.
It's important to work on increasing your mileage steadily and at a time when you aren't preparing for an important event so that you can find your limits. For example, knowing that you can tolerate 65 miles per week over mountainous terrain similar to the events you like to do before you can't recover week-to-week will become useful in planning the events you sign up for and the sorts of training you can handle. It may also help you plan a multi-year progression to test whether you can gently nudge that ceiling higher over years, especially if you want to really perform at races that are 100M or longer.
And, there are known maximums for our species. Almost nobody is going to push those boundaries but there are some people who try. Herman Pontzer, SOUP guest in episode 134, has published research showing that the upper limit for indefinite sustainable energy expenditure in homo sapiens is about 2.5 times resting metabolic rate, which means that you can expend more than 2.5 times your resting metabolic rate but only for short periods of time, days or weeks...possibly a couple of months. Long term, you can not absorb and utilize enough energy on a daily basis to sustain greater outputs indefinitely. That's roughly a marathon a day or possibly a 50K a day. While there are some people training well in excess of 200 miles per week, it's not sustainable for many months or years. But it is incredible to appreciate that volumes close to that are potentially sustainable for very long periods of time for some people. There is, however, no evidence that such huge volumes are useful for performance in ultra-marathons. It is likely that everyone will maximize the performance benefits of increasing training distance long before such huge distances.
One way to increase your total training volume, and a great way to maximize your cardiovascular strain is to cross-train. By hiking, biking, skiing, rowing, using an elliptical machine or any other exercise modality, you can add overall fitness without the damaging wear and tear of extra running. This can be useful early in the running season, for people returning from time off or injury, if you just need a mental break, for those new to running, and for those who are more susceptible to impact-related breakdown, such as older athletes.
An important caveat here, however, is that older runners should be exercising most days of the week, if not all. It's far better to do some exercise every day - even for 30 minutes - than to exercise 60 minutes every other day as we age. The more regular stimulus is necessary as we age because we become more resistant to the exercise stimulus. This is also why we have to weight lift with higher weights to maintain muscle mass - we become resistant to the stimulus and require a higher and more regular input signal. A good approach for older athletes is to increase overall training volume by adding non-running, non-impact training like cycling, elliptical, rowing, swimming, hiking, etc. and then decide how much of that - if any - can be converted to running. But make the conversion at a reduced amount because the trauma of pounding while running is a greater stress per unit of time. For example after adding up to three hours of cycling per week for a few weeks or months, you might consider converting that cycling time to running and you'd exchange each hour of cycling with 20 minutes of running.
Now, a quick note on progression. How do you safely progress your volume if that's what you have time for, what you want to do, and you're handling your current volume easily. I'm a fan of exercising at least six days per week for everyone who can do it, even if it isn't always running. Once a person is exercising at least 30 minutes per day for six days per week, then the duration of each session can be increased, or we can add doubles on any day. I would rather distribute the increases in volume as we go so that were adding 20 minutes to three days per week rather than a full hour on one day, for example. In general, I try to keep the longest days of a week within three times the shortest days. So, if we're doing a 3-hour long day, then none of the other exercise days contain less than an hour of total exercise. We can deviate from that rule when you do really long days for those who need extra long sessions in preparation for an event but I find that this is a useful framework for general training because it keeps the overall load distributed throughout the week. We want to avoid the weekend-warrior effect where we train just a little, or not at all, during the week and then have massive weekends. That leads to stagnated development and increases injury risk.
As you increase time or distance, avoid increasing the quantity of high-intensity work too much. I sometimes hear the rule to increase only distance or intensity but never both. I think that's too rigid. It can be okay to increase both sometimes as long as the combined additional strain is tolerable.
If you have more training time available than your body can handle, then increment your time or distance a little bit every few weeks. Sustain that volume for a few weeks, and take careful notes on the conditions you're running in along with how you feel overall. When I say 'conditions' you're running in, I'm talking about everything that impacts how you feel overall...from road vs trail, to cold vs hot, to sleeping and eating, to relationships and mental health. Because your ability to develop and grow with more training depends upon all of these factors aligning to support you. Continue to add 30-60 minutes of running every few weeks, spread out over 2-3 of your sessions (like 20 minutes added to 2 sessions every 3 weeks), until you feel that you're carrying fatigue across weeks, then back off a bit. At the end of each week, ask whether you're feeling more fatigued than you felt at the end of the previous week. If the answer is yes, drop the volume a little for the next week. This as a multi-year project.
When you're preparing for a specific race, event, or adventure, it can be okay to increase the total volume a bit above what you've identified as indefinitely sustainable. And, once in a while, you may undertake a big weekend that pushes you over your weekly limit. These things are all fine when they're temporary and for a specific purpose, knowing that you've planned a proper recovery period immediately after the increase. What we're focused on right now, is finding the sustainable volume to use as your ongoing in-season baseline.
Over the season and especially over years, this baseline may increase. Or it may not. Or you may even find that you don't need quite as much volume to happily achieve your goals. Once you find that baseline, and again it may take a year or more, then you can explore the efficacy of adjustments to your training intensity distribution - how much moderate, hard, and severe intensity training you do. Training intensity distribution will be the subject of a new episode a little later this spring.
Getting this right takes planning, consistent training, a well-populated training diary and attention to all the facets of your training. Because how you sleep, think, eat, and move all play a role in helping you become your ultra best.