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Posted: September 30, 2005

Science of Sport: A Mark Of Marathon Madness: Molto Mileage

By Owen Anderson, Ph. D. (Copyright © 2004-2005)

It is the marathon season, and many runners are making their final preparations for a 26.2-mile event. Often, such concluding primings involve peaks of mileage and arduous 20-mile runs, carried out on the "day of rest" (Sunday), of course.

Such practices bring to mind an important question: How much mileage is really necessary to optimize marathon performance? Should one run 50 miles per week? 60? 70? 120?

The marathon race and "molto mileage" are inextricably linked together in most marathoners' minds. The logic goes something like this: The marathon is an incredibly long race, one which really tests endurance. Endurance is maximized by running a lot. Therefore, I should increase my weekly mileage as much as possible. If I do, my marathon performance will magically improve.

Is such thinking really on target? To find out, researchers at the University of Northern Iowa recently divided 51 runners (18 males and 33 females) into two groups. Over an 18-week period, one group expanded weekly mileage to 48-50 miles, while the other collection of runners moved up to only 39 miles. The 50-milers trained six times per week, while the luckless 39-mile folks hit the roads just four times. After 18 weeks, the runners in both groups ran a marathon.

Since the runners in the 50-mile per week group had logged 20-percent more running volume, were they 20-percent faster in the marathon? Did they have 20-percent-more endurance?

In fact, average performance time was THE SAME for the two groups, indicating that a training strategy of advancing from ~40 mpw to ~50 mpw has little impact on marathon performance.

Nattering, naysaying nabobs may contend that a move to 100 mpw, not the simpering 50 utilized by the Hawkeyes, would have transformed the higher-mileage harriers into incredible marathoners. There is no evidence that this is actually the case. In fact, research suggests that such a strategy would do little more than increase the activity levels of nearby orthopedic physicians and surgeons.

There are a couple of key lessons to be learned from the Iowa research. One is that if you are going to enter a competition which involves covering 50 miles in one week, 50-mile training weeks would be great for you. If you are going to run a marathon, however, there is nothing transforming about a 50-mile week.

What really counts in a marathon is your OVERALL FITNESSS. If your vVO2max, lactate-threshold speed, running economy, strength, and power are all in place, you'll have a good race. Adding extra miles at moderate speed to your schedule (above about 40 mpw) won't have much impact on your fitness - and therefore won't influence your marathon finishing time.

What also counts in a marathon is race-specific preparation. If you can complete a 20- to 22-mile long run, with ~11 of those miles at goal marathon pace, about four to five weeks before your marathon, you are ready to race at your desired speed, regardless of whether your weekly mileage is 39, 50, 60, 70, or 120 miles (naturally, you will want to build up to such an effort, starting with ~6 miles with 3 at goal pace and progressing over time). To put it bluntly, there is no marathon magic in mileage. There is, however, marathon improvement which is guaranteed to come with upswings in vVO2max, lactate threshold, and economy. Those upswings are guaranteed - if the training is appropriately specific and intense.

Unfortunately, many marathoners are unsure about whether their training is really right. They wonder what to do during the last few weeks before the big event. They inquire about how long the tapering period should be - and about which workouts should be included in the taper. They are curious about when to carry out the last long run - and about how much quality running should be completed during the last couple of weeks. They may even want to know what to do on race morning - those last, little preparations which can spell the difference between a great race and a mediocre one.

Fortunately, these questions (and many more) have been answered in various issues of Running Research News. For example, to learn about optimal marathon tapering simply plug in the phrase "marathon taper" in the Search-Archives area of our web site (at http://www.runningresearchnews.com). To find out about the best long runs for the marathon, employ the phrase "long run" in the Search box. And to view our entire library of newsletters on marathon training, simply utilize the words "marathon training" in your search. You will find all the information you need to run your best-possible race.

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