Progression for Low-Mileage Runners (<30 miles per week)
Runners that fall into the “low-mileage” camp, which for this lesson I will refer to as those running less than 30 miles per week on average, are likely running a lower volume of mileage for several reasons. Young JV high school runners or casual adult runners training for races in the 5k-10k distances are most likely to comprise a large percentage of the runners in this camp.
If you are a freshman high school boy or girl and you are new to running, the demands of running can be a lot for your body to adapt to while physically developing while also having to deal with the peer pressures of other classmates that treat every run like it’s a race. To allow for soft tissue and bone development as well as physiological adaptations through training, the young high school athlete should start out with a conservative amount of mileage, and this should be handled by their high school coach. Because their training is likely to be overseen by somebody else in most instances, I don’t think anything further needs to be said about them.
When it comes to adults that are either new to running or have always only run a lower amount of mileage (< 30 per week) and want to try to do more, the first step is to consider what they are not doing. If you are handling low mileage without any issues, and want more of a challenge, then the answer might not simply be more mileage.
Are you running only easy mileage, or are you running workouts?
What kinds of workouts, and how often?
Are you doing long runs compromising 20-30% of your weekly volume?
Have you tried adding quality into their long runs in the form of pick-ups, alternations, progressions, or intervals in the middle of the long run at half marathon or marathon pace?
Do you have a consistent lifting regimen? How often are you doing it and what does it consist of?
The second step once you have identified what you’re not doing in your training, the next plan of action should be to incorporate those new variations of training runs or a consistent strength training program into your current training regimen. When training ourselves, it is often easy for us to choose the path of least resistance and do certain workouts that we enjoy and have always done. But at a certain point, your body adapts to that stimulus, it adapts to the mileage we have been doing for months or years on end, and it needs a new challenge. Begin by identifying what you are not currently doing and try to implement those aspects of training into your current weekly regimen and see if you notice a difference. I bet even without increasing your mileage, you will start to see some growth.