Mileage decline

I've been feeling under prepared for the Voyageur 50 this coming weekend, so I decided to go back and look at my running logs to see just how I am doing relative to recent years. I was shocked at just how far my mileage has dropped off. Consider...

In 2009 I had run 1840 miles by late July, including an average of about 75 miles per week through June and Junly.

In 2010 I had run 1440 by the same date and but most of that drop off had been in the beginning of the year, and I had still been averaging 70 miles per week through June and July.

This year I have only covered 1100 miles to date, and have only been averaging about 45 miles per week over the last couple of months.

Yikes!

This got me thinking about the benefits of mileage in ultra running and broke them down into the following three categories; mental, metabolic, and anatomical fitness.

Certainly high mileage helps one prepare for the mental grind of an ultra race. In fact, if the goal is to just finish the race (as opposed to win or meet some time goal) this is probably the most important benefit of high mileage.

Another benefit of high mileage is that it encourages a change in metabolic fitness. This includes an increase in the mitochondrial count of the muscle cells, an increased reliance on using lipids over carbohydrates for energy, and even a change in the ratio of slow twitch to fast twitch muscle fibers.

Finally, there are the anatomical benefits. To me, this is just a matter of your muscles and joints getting used to the pounding that occurs over 50 miles, and developing the other muscles that your body begins to rely on after 30 miles or so that don't normally get used in shorter races.

So where do I stand? Well, we will see, but I am breaking it down as follows. I think I am in good shape in terms of mental fitness. I ran three 50 mile races last year, and it seems that this is a type of fitness that you lose only very slowly. I still know what to expect, and I know that I can push through the inevitable difficult periods. I also think that I am also OK in terms of metabolic fitness. Not great, but OK. This type of fitness also is lost only relatively slowly. Also, I have been doing some cross training and that will help here. Where I will really be suffering is with my anatomical fitness. Here is where specificity of training is most useful. Even in the Half Voyageur I ran last weekend, I was getting aches in muscles and tendons I don't normally think about. I shudder to think about how my legs will be feeling after 40 miles.

My guess is that it will hurt, and it will be slow, but I will finish and by doing so, I will be increasing my fitness in all three areas for my next event.