Safely Increasing Mileage

With a month until MIT starts, Fit For Life Physical Therapy has a few thoughts to help you safely increase your base mileage.

Of course, now is the ideal time to rest after the previous training season and to build a strong base for next season.  So, give yourself a break from all of the hard work you put in during the previous 4 months. Remember even the elite runners take a break from training following their goal race.

Some guidelines for race recovery time:  2 weeks of rest after the race. Rest is either complete rest, with no running at all, or easy runs of no more than 4 miles.  Please feel free to cross train as much as you want. And for your favorite Thanksgiving Day race, short fun races (such as 5k, 10k, 15k and trail races) are all OK as long as you're not “racing them."

Now, about that base mileage:  Begin a 3 week “reverse taper” of 25%, 30%, and then 40% of maximum weekly mileage.  For example, if your highest weekly mileage was 40 miles for the week, then plan:

      • Week 1 total = 10 miles

      • Week 2 total=  12 miles

      • Week 3 total=  16 miles

Maintain 40-50% of weekly maximum mileage until beginning our next training program.  And, if you feel like you need a day off either mentally or physically, take a day off!

Your longest run for the week should not be more than 50% of total mileage for the week, for example:

      • if total weekly mileage = 10 miles, long run should be <5 miles

      • if total weekly mileage = 12 miles, long run should be <6 miles

      • if total weekly mileage = 16 miles, long run should be <8 miles

All of these runs should be slow, at conversational pace, and please no speed work or tempo runs until after MIT starts.  Please call us if you have any questions (614-981-1979) and we'll see you on the Olentangy Trail on December 17th!

Fit For Life Physical Therapy - Joe, Laura, Frank, and Sean

Fit For Life Physical Therapy helps people of all activity levels prevent, recover from, or rehabilitate sports and orthopedic injuries.  Help for active people - from OTHER active people.

Reach us by email at info@fitforlifephysicaltherapy.com, or call or text us at any of the phone numbers for our three convenient locations inside Fleet Feet/FrontRunner stores: 

Polaris Location:  1270 East Powell Road Lewis Center, Ohio 43035 - 614-981-2065 

Upper Arlington Location:  1344 West Lane Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43221 - 614-981-1979 

New Albany Location:  5792 North Hamilton Road, Columbus, Ohio 43230 - 614-581-7441