Upping My Mileage

Runners have an infamous phrase that will almost invariably enter their vocabulary at some time. I hear it from injured and non-injured runners alike. Almost every runner will utter these words at some point during their running career:

“I need to be upping my mileage”.

I have a hard time maintaining a straight face even as I type these words.

Upping my mileage. The scourge of the modern day runner.

If increasing running mileage had a direct relationship with running performance, then the United States should own the world of distance running, especially marathon distance and beyond. There are far more runners in this country running 80 – 100 miles (or more) per week than any other place on the planet, yet we have not won an Olympic marathon gold in more than 27 years.

What’s wrong with this picture?

For those that need a reminder, the last American to win an Olympic gold medal in the men’s marathon was Frank Shorter in Munich in 1972. The women have it a little better, with Joan Benoit Samuelson winning gold in Los Angeles in 1984.

Over the years, the focus of training programs from coast to coast has been “upping the mileage”. And where are the results? If there was a direct relationship between mileage and performance, we have yet to witness it. The “increasing mileage improves performance” concept is a commonly-held belief and fallacy in the world of endurance sports that has somehow survived the test of time and in the face of contrary scientific research.

Human performance in the world of running – and running fast – has nothing to do with being from Kenya. Or having the right genes.

Or running enough miles.

The perception is that “upping my mileage” is just the right thing to do. When you ask a runner why they would do this, there is rarely a good reason offered, other than “that’s what I am supposed to do, isn’t it?”. To me, that doesn’t sound like a sufficient reason to do so – especially with the current dearth of medals to confirm its value.

How long does this mentality have to exist before runners come to the realization that “upping my mileage” isn’t the missing piece of the performance puzzle?

Photo credits: Wikipedia