After Kelvin Kiptum set the marathon world record in Chicago this fall—becoming the first human to run under 2:01 in an official race—his coach revealed that Kiptum ran more than 186 miles per week for three weeks during training. Similarly, before the 2023 New York City Marathon, Canadian record holder Cameron Levins said he averaged about 170 miles a week in training.

Those numbers—and the results they yield—are staggering. They’re not totally outside the norm; most elite runners consistently rack up 100-plus-mile weeks. But it’s becoming increasingly common to see regular runners creeping past 80 and 90 miles a week into those triple digits.

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What Is Considered High Mileage Running And Does It Work?

“Part of the high mileage appeal is that it truly does work,” says Kim Nedeau, USATF Mountain Running World Champion, running coach, and injury prevention specialist. In marathon runners, a low training volume (less than 25 miles per week) was related to a slower finish time, and a high training volume (greater than 40 miles per week) to a faster finish time, according to 2020 research published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports. The volume of easy runs was most correlated with world-class long-distance running performance scores—compared to tempo runs, long-interval training, and short-interval training—in a 2021 study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.

Social media underlines the trend, giving runners unprecedented access to the training plans of not just elite athletes but other high mileage runners, which makes it easy to get seduced by the “more is more” messaging, says Mary Johnson, USATF Level 1 certified running coach and founder of Lift.Run.Perform. In a culture where extremes are often lauded, it shouldn’t be surprising that many people would admire someone who runs 80 miles a week over someone who runs 40 miles a week.

Proceed With Caution

“But there’s this delicate balance—based largely on genetics—that differentiates someone who could handle a ton or miles and someone who can not,” says Johnson. Elite athletes are genetically gifted. As a result, running is their job, meaning they have ample time to amass mileage, recover properly, eat well, sleep a ton, etc. On the flip side, most amateur athletes are not paid to work out. Too much mileage (especially piled on top of life’s other stressors, and without prioritizing those other fundamental pillars of health and performance) can be detrimental.

Running is a repetitive sport: A 10-minute mile consists of approximately 1,700 steps, according to research from the ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal, and each step generates forces of approximately 2.5 times your body weight, a study published in Human Movement Science found. That’s a lot of stress for your body to absorb, and it may be why over 40 percent of runners experience injuries—70 percent of which result from overuse (AKA doing too much), according to a 2021 review of research published in the Journal of Sport and Health Science.

For most runners, less may actually be more, in that accumulating less volume keeps you healthy and in the sport for longer. But what does “less is more” look like? “When I program a runner’s weekly mileage, I think about time, motivation, energy to train, and injury history and risk,” says Nedeau. As a result, she generally recommends 20 to 40 miles per week (that number might increase a bit if you’re training for a longer race, like a marathon).

Training history is also a huge factor. People who accumulate tons of volume (while keeping their body intact) can usually do so because they have years of training under their belt, says Johnson. Of course, “there’s an element of trial and error involved,” she adds; you don’t necessarily know what kind of mileage you can handle until you try to increase it—that’s why all runners need a base-building phase of training. But to determine whether it’s right for you, she suggests asking yourself, “What is your experience?” and “When did you feel your best?”

Those questions can help you determine whether your body can tolerate higher mileage. Because you don’t have to increase volume to get faster—you just have to pack more quality into the miles your body can handle. Johnson starts loading on the intensity once runners are comfortable running in the mid-30s each week. “That’s where I start trying to maximize what they’re getting out of those miles,” she says.

When Nedeau programs lower mileage training plans, she generally includes two higher-intensity sessions, like short, fast intervals and longer tempos. Johnson also emphasizes the importance of speed. “What I constantly see people not touching before they start working with me is turnover,” she says. “Simple strides, hill strides, and then spending a solid amount of work playing with intervals ranging from 45 seconds up to three minutes.” The goal: to increase your anaerobic threshold, which will allow you to exercise at a higher intensity before reaching the point of fatigue.

If you’re below 35 miles a week and tolerating your current mileage well, you can add a few extra miles and check for tolerance before increasing again, says Nedeau; at 40 miles, though, she recommends find a cross-training option, like cycling, ElliptiGOing, stair climbing, or deep water running (lower-volume runners can also do more intense workouts as cross training in order to lessen the risk of injury). You may not be increasing mileage, but you are increasing overall training volume. The body knows stress, not miles.

For runners experimenting with higher volume, though, it’s super important to be in tune with your body. “The start of a new niggle/injury, relapse of an old injury, delayed recovery despite carefully managing the balance of intensity, or training is no longer fun or your motivation decreases are all signs that it’s time to back off for a few weeks and reassess the why behind increasing volume,” says Nedeau.

And it’s OK if your body throws up a white flag in response to increased mileage. “There is a tremendous amount of time that goes into 60 or 70 miles per week compared with 30 miles per week,” says Nedeau. “When we think about the reward-risk benefit, the lower end might be a compromise, but it’s a pretty small performance compromise, and instead, you gain longevity, reduced injury risk, and the time to do all the things that busy amateurs do.”

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