Well we are well into June, about halfway through the year, and I can now cover an ultra marathon distance…in a week! I wonder if that counts as running an ultra or not if it takes you a seven days? Probably not.

Most of my weekly mileage has hovered around 20-25 miles per week this year. I cracked 30 miles a couple times this year. One was before an injury and the second was a last-minute cram session for marathon training. Luckily, I have built up to the 30 mile mark injury-free, just in time for a sweaty Texas summer!

Now, this amount of miles per week isn’t an astounding number. The largest change in my life it has led to is a slight decrease to my fried cheese and beer pooch. Does that mean a six pack is on the way? Nope.

Since this blog is all about the “average runner”, I wanted to see how 30 miles per week compared with the pros. And when I say pros, I mean the runners out there that could eat chip and dip without any decrease in performance (or heart burn). What a good life that must be.

The highest weekly mileage record I could find belongs to Yiannis Kouros for completing 645.51 in just six days! SIX DAYS! Woah! I am almost within 600 miles of that weekly amount. What a stud. Yiannis is the stud to clarify (I figured you all weren’t thinking me). I am convinced he could eat anything he wanted to and still run a marathon.

I follow a few local semi-pro marathoners on Strava and they typically log 80-100 miles of running per week. These runners are throwing done hard workouts during their running week too, not just easy mileage. Some of us can’t say the same…(me…)

Now, some of the professional ultra runners are going even further. Let’s see what the top ultra runners do in no particular order:

• Courtney Dauwalter – 100-130 miles per week
• Killian Jornet – 100 – 125 miles per week
• Katie Schide – 80-90 miles per week
• Zach Miller – 120-150
• John Kelly – 455 miles per week!!! *(Currently trying to run the FKT on the Appalachian Trail)
• Camille Herron – 90 – 130 miles per week

What a group of champs! Outside of John Kelly’s recent adventure, this technically puts me within 100 miles per week of some of the greatest ultra runners of all time. Not too shabby average Paul, not too shabby.

It’s always fun to see what the top runners are doing day in and day out. Add in thousands of vertical gain with brutally hard workouts and we see why this group is among the best. But honestly, if you can just manage to burn off that extra fried food I would call it a win in my books!

So what’s after 30 miles per week? On to the next milestone for me and hopefully it leads to more eating without consequences. Now that’s a good reason to run.

Time for the best part, questions for you all! What’s your weekly mileage at for the year? Are you happy with the result so far? Thanks in advance for sharing!

Average Runner Paul