Matching a marathon time to the second sounds like a statistical fluke. I ran 4:09:48 at the New York City Marathon this year—the same time I recorded there last year. But the clock hid a meaningful change: I ran the later miles faster, and they felt easier. The difference came down to a training choice: I increased my weekly mileage.
This was my seventh time running through New York’s five boroughs, and the race results don’t tell the whole story. My biggest lessons came from how the race felt, not from the finish time. Here’s how I changed my training, managed the extra load, and reached my strongest finish yet—even without a personal record.
How I Increased My Weekly Mileage
For the London Marathon in April, and for the New York and Sydney marathons last year, I used an AI training app and set it to three running days a week. That schedule left room for strength training two or three times a week. I also walk roughly four to five miles a day around New York City, on top of my runs.
Reporting on durability for Runner’s World made me question whether that routine was enough. I started looking harder at my weekly mileage and realized I’d peaked at about 30 to 35 miles in each of those three marathon builds. There was room to do more. When I had the chance to run New York again, I wanted to find out how much more I could handle without raising my injury risk.
I brought that question to Andrew Kastor, head coach of the Asics Mammoth Track Club. Before we spoke, I sent him the plan I intended to follow: Runner’s World’s Break Four Hours plan. I also planned to keep strength training twice a week.
The plan peaks at 48 miles a week and calls for running at least four days a week. That’s a substantial jump for me, even if it won’t look like much to runners who favor very high mileage. Kastor put the change in perspective: “Between 32 and 50 is night and day. You’re going to notice a big difference in your staying power after mile 20.”
I had built a solid base before starting the 16-week plan, so I felt ready for its first week. The plan also gives mileage ranges instead of fixed targets, which made it easier to adjust for how I felt. Kastor uses that approach with many of his athletes. “It kind of takes a little bit of the edge off or the pressure off,” he said: on a tired day, you can choose the lower end of the range. That flexibility matters when a bigger training load is the point, but pushing through every run isn’t.
He also recommended adding the plan’s optional run of up to three miles every other week—the sessions listed as zero to three miles. The benefit, he said, might show up late in the race, when “you’re able to hold that 9:07 pace or that nine flat pace” over the final mile or two.
How I Managed the Extra Training
More mileage only helps if you can absorb it. Kastor told me to watch for overtraining symptoms, including a higher resting heart rate, lower heart rate variability, unusual fatigue, or workouts that left me feeling flat. If my legs stopped bouncing back from week to week, he said, I should cut mileage and take two days off to recover.
I felt good throughout the build, and I credit some of that to a change in strength training that I made with my physical therapist. I lifted heavier weights with less total volume and added isometric exercises for tendon health. Running more often also changed how I felt about my schedule: I began looking forward to run days more than days off.
Kastor stressed that recovery and food have to keep pace with training. “In order to do more mileage, you have to sleep well and eat well,” he said. I made a point of eating more carbohydrates than I had in previous training cycles. I’d recently discovered that my focus on protein had left me short on carbs. Sleep was already a priority, so I kept aiming for eight to nine hours a night.
Following Kastor’s suggestion, I also scheduled a sports massage every other week. After long runs, and sometimes in the evenings, I used the Therabody JetBoots PRO Plus. I find they help me relax before bed.
Shoes were another part of the equation. Kastor said cushioning can help runners tolerate more time on their feet because it may reduce how much their bodies break down. I trained in the Asics Gel-Nimbus 28, a more cushioned shoe that Runner’s World reviewers describe as having a premium, long-lasting ride. For me, it brought a lively feel and support through the added miles.
How Mileage Boosts Durability
Higher mileage appears to have helped me most where a marathon asks the hardest questions: the final miles. That’s a more useful result than a personal record would have been, because it shows the training made a difference even though I didn’t fully capitalize on it with my pacing.
That lines up with what durability experts told me: weekly volume matters. Research on marathon durability points to long runs lasting at least 90 minutes and higher overall training volume as helpful; another study links greater mileage, especially easy running, with faster marathon times.
“We start where the athlete is with their fitness and then we progress upward because volume is king,” says Kastor. “More is better as long as you stay healthy.” He also thinks frequent running builds efficiency through repetition. His wife, Olympic marathon bronze medalist Deena Kastor, once ran more than 140 miles across 13 runs in a week. Kastor recalls her waking from a nap, still groggy, putting on her shoes, and heading out. The nervous system’s role in running mechanics, he says, is often overlooked: repeat a movement enough and you become better at it.
What the extra miles changed
I didn’t set a personal record. But the final four miles tell a different story:
2025
- Mile 23: 9:41
- Mile 24: 10:00
- Mile 25: 9:50
- Mile 26: 9:51
2026
- Mile 23: 9:23
- Mile 24: 9:38
- Mile 25: 9:18
- Mile 26: 9:02
The improvement was clear, and I felt it. In 2025, I was exhausted and surprised I could maintain those paces. This year, I felt strong heading toward mile 25 on 59th Street, then had enough energy to walk nearly a mile to dinner and back later that day.
My hesitation came earlier. I’d hit an 8:47 pace at miles 4 and 5, then backed off because I worried I’d run out of energy. By the finish, it was obvious that the limiting factor had been confidence more than fitness. Next time, I’ll have to trust the preparation enough to hold a faster pace sooner.
That’s the part I hadn’t trained for as deliberately. I ran most of my long runs at an easier pace, with only a handful featuring tempo miles, and the thought of sustaining 9:00 pace for 26 miles still unsettled me. Now I believe I can do it. More mileage helped build the strength; the next step is trusting that strength when the race is still unfolding.
