The Most Mileage I Have Ever Run: How I Hit My First 70-Mile Week

My 70 mile week training journey was a game changer for my development as a D1 runner. Consistent volume is the single most important thing in running. Looking at my mileage graph over the past six years, you can tell I have not been a master of consistency. In my entire lifetime, I have run 7,055 miles, which averages out to about 22 miles per week since I started running. At times I have run as many as 70 miles in a week and as low as zero. This vlog documents the week I finally figured out how to maximize my training volume and hit my first ever 70-mile week.

70 Mile Week Training: Why Volume Matters More Than Speed

I sat myself down and identified a few key strategies to maximize my volume this summer while staying healthy. The way I think about training, there are really only three types of runs: easy runs, threshold runs, and race-specific or top-speed sessions. Easy runs serve two purposes. The first is volume itself, and the second is recovery. I hate using heart rate zones, so I describe easy pace as conversational effort, somewhere around 6:45 to 7:15 per mile for me. Increasing your volume will not directly make you faster at the 1500 meters, for example, but it will give you more target area in your key workouts, making it easier to hit the paces that actually matter.

Monday: Easy Miles and Cross-Training on the Bike

Mondays are all about easy running and building aerobic volume. I typically start the week with a relaxed run in the morning, though I did not film that part. By about five in the afternoon I was downstairs on the bike for a cross-training session. I originally started biking as a way to keep my volume up when I was injured, but now I use it as a permanent tool to maximize weekly mileage without the pounding of extra road miles. I crank out a 45-minute session while binging YouTube or anime. I just started Tokyo Ghoul, for anyone who cares. I keep the RPMs in the 90s and the heart rate somewhere in zone two. I have heard that cross-training is roughly one and a half to one relative to running, so 45 minutes of biking would equate to about 30 minutes of running. It is not exactly the same training stimulus as running, but it still builds aerobic fitness and contributes to overall volume.

Tuesday: Workout Day at the Track

Tuesday is the workout day, and realistically it is the day you are actually making the biggest gains. I drove 25 minutes to the nearest track because that is the reality of summer training away from campus. The workout on the docket was a four-mile rep run, and I averaged about 5:34 pace. After the rep run, we pivoted to two-mile repeats on the track. I also ran a couple of 400-meter reps to close it out. It was a solid session, and the key takeaway is that all of those easy miles from the rest of the week exist to support days like this. If you can run more volume during the week, you recover better and you show up stronger for these hard sessions.

Splitting Easy Days Into Doubles

One of the biggest secrets I have learned is splitting easy days into two separate sessions. Instead of running 10 miles in one go, I might run six in the morning and four in the afternoon. The reason we split our easy days up is that it is less taxing on the body to accumulate those miles in two sessions instead of one long grind. This has been a total cheat code for me. It became my lunch routine basically every single day of the summer. Whatever easy mileage I need to get in, I just split it up between morning and afternoon, and it feels drastically easier on the body while still hitting the same total volume.

Nutrition: Eat Like a Dog

I eat the same thing literally every single day. If you want to be a dog, you have to eat like a dog. And by that I mean eating the same meals every day for consistency and simplicity. When you are trying to run this kind of volume, you cannot afford to overthink your nutrition. You need to know exactly what fuels you well and then repeat it. I am not going to pretend I have some elaborate meal plan. It is about finding what works and sticking with it so that fueling never becomes a variable that holds your training back.

Thursday: The Biggest Session of the Week

Wednesday is a recovery day, and it sets up Thursday, which is the biggest session of the week. This is where the long tempo runs and harder threshold work happen. The combination of easy volume throughout the week and proper recovery on Wednesday means I can show up to Thursday ready to push. After the Thursday session, it is back to easy running and recovery leading into the weekend long run.

Saturday Long Run With the Wichita State Crew

Saturday I ran 8 miles with a group of Wichita State guys. In the last 36 hours leading into that run, I had already accumulated 26 miles, so the legs were definitely feeling it. Running with other people during the summer makes a huge difference for accountability and just making the miles go by faster. Even though I hate country music, the guys had it blasting during the run, and somehow it still felt good. Same breakfast every morning, same routine, just putting in the work.

Dealing With Hip and Ankle Issues

During this block I also identified that my hip was not stable enough, which was causing my knee to become more unstable and locking my ankle into a bad position. So by remobilizing my ankle, I actually started to undo the compensation pattern my body had naturally created. This is a reminder that volume means nothing if your body is breaking down from a mechanical issue. Addressing the root cause of my instability allowed me to keep stacking miles without falling apart.

Hitting 70 Miles for the First Time

And just like that, the training week was over. The final tally put me at 70 miles on the week, which is great because I have honestly never been able to maintain 70 before. I ran PRs of 3:48 in the 1500 and a time that converts to about a 4:06 full mile throughout the year, and I definitely believe that if I can hold 70-mile weeks consistently, some faster times could be on the table. I head back to campus a week from tomorrow, and the goal is to keep building on this foundation.

If you are trying to bump your mileage up to a new level and want to see exactly how I structure my week, check out more of my training content or connect with me on social media. The biggest lesson from this week is that volume is not about running yourself into the ground. It is about being smart with doubles, cross-training, nutrition, and recovery so that your body can handle more work without breaking down.