Umm if you are running 15
Umm if you are running 15 miles the first week of a month, the second you'll be running 16.5, the third 18.15, fourth 20. So in the period of a month you only increase 5 miles a week. Thats hardly anything. At 8 weeks you are only up to 29. So thats 14 more over a period of 2 months. I don't think doubling it over a period of 2 months is that excessive at low mileage rates unless you are really close to your maximum abilities anyway. Obviously at some point you just can't keep increasing at that rate which differs for everyone. If you know that you max out around 40 miles a week then when you start getting up there you probably have to slow down. If you don't max out till 80 or 100 a week, well then in the begining you're likely to be able to increase faster.
Now that being said I think most places that cite the 10% rule cite NO MORE than 10%. I don't think that this is a particularly large amount as a maximum. If you are just starting out and only running 10 miles a week, which I think for a lot of new barefoot runners and injured ones is really common, by the end of 4 weeks you'll only be doing 14.6 per week. That doesn't mean you absolutely should do that, its just not nearly as extreme as you make it out to be. When I built from scratch, and therefore had no injuries I was building at about a 15% or 20% rate until I had a decent mileage base and then slowed it down and did completely fine.
When I came back from a stress fracture (after switching to barefoot running and being stupid and sprinting downhill on concrete) I followed the 10% rule and also was completely fine because the injury was totally healed before I started running. Bone heals stronger than it was before it broke so as long as you aren't still healing it shouldn't be a huge deal. I've decided after coming back from this blasted knee injury (caused by hiking of all things), to follow a 5% increase but its not actually healed yet so I'm running on an injured leg. If I waited around for it to heal completely I'd probably go with 10%.
I think exactly what you follow really depends a lot on the person, its just that really no one should be going over 10% without risk, which is what most people who talk about the rule say. Its not a go 10% rule, its a you better not go over 10% rule, and I've really not heard that cited wrong that often. If you start running on an injury obviously maxing out your increase is a terrible idea. If you are completely healed up, well then 10% isn't that extreme. I think some of it also depends on how good of shape you are in in general. Its why when I started running I was able to crank up the mileage so quickly. I was in really impressive shape, I just didn't run so it wasn't that hard to build those muscles. Same issue with coming back from injuries. If you were able to keep cross training the whole time and didn't just sit around on the couch you can probably go toward the upper range of the 10% limit. I think age probably plays a role here too, the younger you are the better you heal, the better your bones are. As with everything you just have to know thyself. Know how you break, how you heal, where your discipline is lacking, when you are too tired to keep good form ect... But I also don't think it does justice to the rule to simply rail against what really I find to be a pretty good maximum mileage increase guideline. Most the times I got injured during increasing mileage it wasn't the mileage that injured me, it was doing something stupid when my body was weak from the increase or injury. Its why the mantra of not increasing intensity at the same time as mileage should really be repeated more often. If you don't have the discipline to stop yourself from doing dumb things then follow a more conservative mileage increase, if you don't have the discipline to keep your mileage low then don't do stupid things. Its when you both increasing mileage and doing things like sprinting barefoot downhill on concrete that you are going to end up hurting yourself.
Umm if you are running 15 miles the first week of a month, the second you'll be running 16.5, the third 18.15, fourth 20. So in the period of a month you only increase 5 miles a week. Thats hardly anything. At 8 weeks you are only up to 29. So thats 14 more over a period of 2 months. I don't think doubling it over a period of 2 months is that excessive at low mileage rates unless you are really close to your maximum abilities anyway. Obviously at some point you just can't keep increasing at that rate which differs for everyone. If you know that you max out around 40 miles a week then when you start getting up there you probably have to slow down. If you don't max out till 80 or 100 a week, well then in the begining you're likely to be able to increase faster.
Now that being said I think most places that cite the 10% rule cite NO MORE than 10%. I don't think that this is a particularly large amount as a maximum. If you are just starting out and only running 10 miles a week, which I think for a lot of new barefoot runners and injured ones is really common, by the end of 4 weeks you'll only be doing 14.6 per week. That doesn't mean you absolutely should do that, its just not nearly as extreme as you make it out to be. When I built from scratch, and therefore had no injuries I was building at about a 15% or 20% rate until I had a decent mileage base and then slowed it down and did completely fine.
When I came back from a stress fracture (after switching to barefoot running and being stupid and sprinting downhill on concrete) I followed the 10% rule and also was completely fine because the injury was totally healed before I started running. Bone heals stronger than it was before it broke so as long as you aren't still healing it shouldn't be a huge deal. I've decided after coming back from this blasted knee injury (caused by hiking of all things), to follow a 5% increase but its not actually healed yet so I'm running on an injured leg. If I waited around for it to heal completely I'd probably go with 10%.
I think exactly what you follow really depends a lot on the person, its just that really no one should be going over 10% without risk, which is what most people who talk about the rule say. Its not a go 10% rule, its a you better not go over 10% rule, and I've really not heard that cited wrong that often. If you start running on an injury obviously maxing out your increase is a terrible idea. If you are completely healed up, well then 10% isn't that extreme. I think some of it also depends on how good of shape you are in in general. Its why when I started running I was able to crank up the mileage so quickly. I was in really impressive shape, I just didn't run so it wasn't that hard to build those muscles. Same issue with coming back from injuries. If you were able to keep cross training the whole time and didn't just sit around on the couch you can probably go toward the upper range of the 10% limit. I think age probably plays a role here too, the younger you are the better you heal, the better your bones are. As with everything you just have to know thyself. Know how you break, how you heal, where your discipline is lacking, when you are too tired to keep good form ect... But I also don't think it does justice to the rule to simply rail against what really I find to be a pretty good maximum mileage increase guideline. Most the times I got injured during increasing mileage it wasn't the mileage that injured me, it was doing something stupid when my body was weak from the increase or injury. Its why the mantra of not increasing intensity at the same time as mileage should really be repeated more often. If you don't have the discipline to stop yourself from doing dumb things then follow a more conservative mileage increase, if you don't have the discipline to keep your mileage low then don't do stupid things. Its when you both increasing mileage and doing things like sprinting barefoot downhill on concrete that you are going to end up hurting yourself.
