Should high school guys be running 80MPW???

I don't think 70-80mpw is unreasonable for your peak mileage in your senior year. However, that doesn't mean you should be running 80mpw week in, week out. For most serious HS distance runners, I usually recommend they try and hit 70-80mpw their senior season providing they've already got 2-3 yrs of decent mileage behind them. Remember though, this should be your peak volume during your base phase so you hold this level for say 2-3 months at a time, probably no more.

Before reading, please know that I am not a high milege advocate for the simple reason that I have coached some successful athletes who have done well with much less milege. Part of this stems from the fact that I have never really coached a H.S. athlete to be a long distance runner. However, I know other coaches who have had success with high milege as well. Also, there is a big difference between 8 mpm long runs and 6 mpm and we don't how you are running your milege.

Obviously, for some types of 17-18 years olds, 80mpw and even more is not a problem, but for most athletes, there is a point of dimishing returns. And, there is always the potential for an overuse injury, which can set you back and even end your season. With out knowing your exact age, and your stats, etc., I would be inclinded to advise a H.S. athlete over the summer to run around 50 mpw in LSD and get in another 5-10 with hill repeats, striders and mile intervals. In H.S., a cross country race in only 3.1 miles and the furthest you run on the track is 2 miles.

With all of that said, you should follow your coaches advice, becasue they have thought threw all of this and know what's best for you.

yeah good point. a lot of people just don't get this.perhaps that 98% would be less if kids trained right.

In spite of the myths, injuries do not happen from running a lot of miles. They happen from too many fast miles. I have never seen an injury from 80-90-100 miles a week of easy running but I have seen many at 30 miles per week or less with too much quality.

I have been blessed with coaching some amazing runners who have gone on do be great runners in college and hopefully beyond. Currently I coach a 4:10 / 1:51 boy and have to agree with the comments here. I do like a little higher mileage in theory but I am big on my athletes listening to their body.

Our goal is to have 7-9 milers be our standard run. The trails we run are very hilly so the pace is usually much slower but we try to hit this mileage daily. Maybe a longer run here or there but only when it fits in (though we do try to have a weekly long run in the summer when we have no truly hard days or races).

My advice is work up to where you can run 60-75 min a day and then work on getting faster. 60 mpw is plenty now. I think some people get so caught up in training or getting mileage in they forget that our goal is to RACE fast. Why run 10 miles before a race and race tired?

Train to race, train consistantly and in time good things happen.

In my opinion, there is no magic number for how many miles a week you should be running. I think the key is to increase miles between years to improve like the guy who said his son increased 10 miles per week every year. Since you ran 60 miles per week over the winter in your buildup to this season, I would increase that by about 10 miles per week and try for about 70 miles a week max over the summer. The key isn't to do any specific amount. The key is to challenge your body more than you did previously so you can get better.

I would start out by taking two weeks off at the end of the season then build up the mileage about 5 extra miles per week until you hit 70-75 and then just hold it there for the rest of the summer. That's at least what I would suggest

Why the need to run 80 mpw? Imposed by you, or your coach?

Yes, if you are a junior and are doing 60 you can step and do 80. If it gets to be too much during track then step down and wait for the summer.

I'm still running hard in my 30's and I think the most important thing is lifetime mileage. That said I wish I had more 80 mpw in HS.

Mileage doesn't burn you out. Doing balls to the wall works and racing and racing and then more workouts in between racing does.

"In Kenya, even school girls run three times a day." Bro. O'Connell

Please note that I am not a high milege bigot, I know that some very successful H.S. athletes like Lingren, Ritz and McDougal ran a lot of miles, but there have been some really good ones who ran incredibly low milege as well. (Kids needs to be coached on what's best for them.) What I don't belive in is just logging endless miles over the summer and that you should work on some sort of speed stimulas year round.

That's OK. 50 miles a week with 2 race days is pretty good. I coach high school out in Virginia and during the outdoor season and normally once April hits we race every Wednesday and Saturday and our varsity guys are averaging between 50-55 miles a week. During March our mileage will probably peak at 60. During the summer for cross we start small with a progression and work our way up. Because our varsity guys train year round, at the end of June we'll start with about 40-45 miles, then increase to 50, 60, and maybe 70. We do a lot of long runs (70-90 minutes), hill strides, maybe some tempos. I had a teammate in high school who burned himself out by going >80 a week over the summer; had a mediocre cross season, mono in indoor, and mediocre outdoor season and quit his team in college. I think hitting 60-70 over the summer is fine. 80 may be overdoing it.

Smell what The Rock is Cookin? wrote:

I had a teammate in high school who burned himself out by going >80 a week over the summer; had a mediocre cross season, mono in indoor, and mediocre outdoor season and quit his team in college. I think hitting 60-70 over the summer is fine. 80 may be overdoing it.

Pretty much my experience as well with guys I've known who were average to mediocre runners who all of a sudden got a fire lit under them as sophomores or juniors in high school and decided that by doing miles and miles and miles they were going to somehow have these huge breakthroughs, set school records, make Foot Locker nationals, etc. One kid decided he'd run a hundred miles a week over the summer prior to his senior cross season. He went from being an ok runner to being chronically sick and sore and fatigued and had a horrible season. Several others like that.

You need a good coach. Sure, running miles is good, but consistency, year round training, smart training, mixed terrain, losing weight (if that's an issue), healthy lifestyle with lots of sleep and good food, listening to your body and learning what that means, etc etc are equally, if not more, important.

Does anyone have opinions/experiences for girl's mileage increases throughout high school? I'm coaching a 5:05/10:45 sophomore who is at ~40mi/wk. Last summer max weekly mileage was 45. Is moving up to 55 too much? She has had no injuries so far.

Chances are, these kids were running their miles too hard, not eating properly, and or not getting enough sleep, which is where a coach comes in to make sure they are holding back enough, not getting iron depleted, etc. I would not go over 80 and I would never jump into it. I still like the advice of the "1000-mile summer," IF the kid has built up to it. That assumes a summer of 3 months or 13 weeks, though it could be 12-14 depending on the athlete. A down week is important after the season and every now and again during the base.

70 is solid for a high school runner though. OP, maybe try 70 over the summer, then bump to 80 next winter before track. Slow progression.

Girl's Coach wrote:

Does anyone have opinions/experiences for girl's mileage increases throughout high school? I'm coaching a 5:05/10:45 sophomore who is at ~40mi/wk. Last summer max weekly mileage was 45. Is moving up to 55 too much? She has had no injuries so far.

I tend to look at it more in terms of time spent running than actual mileage. So, determine the mileage of your boys of comparable ability and age, then approximate how much the girl will cover in the same amount of time. You'll probably end up with 5-10 mpw less.

Dan

Girl's Coach wrote:

Does anyone have opinions/experiences for girl's mileage increases throughout high school? I'm coaching a 5:05/10:45 sophomore who is at ~40mi/wk. Last summer max weekly mileage was 45. Is moving up to 55 too much? She has had no injuries so far.

I don't think 55 is too much, but the same advice about the guys also applies to girls. It's the intensity you have to watch. High schoolers have the tendency to run too hard on easy days.

I don't think there is a magic number that fits all, 80 mpw will probably work for some, but for most it will be the point of deminishing returns. I have coached athletes who racked up a lot of milege over the summer and started the XC season in a slump and didn't start to improve until their milege was cut way back. I have also had athletes who made major improvements over the summer with a big increase in milege. I just don't think a coach can say to a group of H.S. athletes to run 80 mpw over the summer because it will benefit a few, but most of the kids will breakdown. A few things to keep in mind,(1) most H.S. kids are milers, (2) 80 mpw is average for an ncaa D1 major conference school, (3) Galen Rupp never ran over 80 mpw while he was at Oregon.

If a kid is an LDR type looking to qualify for Footlocker, perhaps that one kid can get up to 80 mpw in the last week or two of the summer, but for everyone else 65 is a reasonable number of boys and 45 for girls. This includes hill repeats, fartlet, striders, etc.