Here's what I wrote on RW forum in December:

How many miles should a marathoner run? 12/07...

This is THE question in competitive marathoning. Notice I didn't say "elite" marathoning." For elites it's always well into triple figures during training cycles. But I believe a healthy runner who wants to race well at the full marathon requires at least 65-75 mpw/average over 16 weeks, with 1-2 faster days and one long day.

But if you are under 35 or so and you can go 80-100mpw, you can't help but race even better.


That's what I said then, but I've seen some crash and burns on heavy mileage (75-100) and have also experienced a lot of pain building up my long runs from 12-19 miles over the last 7 weeks. So at 60mpw, I'm thinking that 65mpw is about my max After that, the speed can go up a bit. I'd like to keep running all year, and too high a peak doesn't feel healthy to me...And 2X a day isn't necessary for that kind of mileage...too many showers!