Average runners and 100-mile weeks.

that makes sense...thank you

I'm 53 and know my best years are behind me.

I lost about a decade owing to physical issues. I got into lifting and got bigger (during my sciatica, post-surgical and PF phases), and improved my bench dramatically, but running became very difficult. 174 lbs on a 5' 8" frame. Was running from 1985-1994 when the problems started. I couldn't get consistent mileage over 50MPW as I always seemed to get the flu or colds or bronchitis (especially in fall and winter). I had training partners uniformly far superior to myself, so I may have been straining 'way too much instead of building up at my own sensible rate.

(OLD PR's sub-37 for 10K, sub-19 for 5K, sub-5:20 for the mile...today I'd be ecstatic to get under 21:00 for 5K again, 21:30 would be fine. those PR's are all at least 12 or more years ago)

I ran a 33-second 200 meters (on a lark in a very low key club event) this summer which came as a pleasant shock, guess I gained some sprinting speed? The races lately seem to wind up in the mid-7:30's per mile from 5K to 8K.

This guy has done it, and with very good results.

http://rubbishrunner.blogspot.com/

Consistency is more important than miles...better to get 60, 70, 80 consistently for long periods of time than to go higher and get hurt, bored, etc.

Don't let anyone tell you what is or isn't worth your effort. Decide for yourself, and good luck! Cheers!

Whit wrote: Instead of just running more, and taking up more time, you can definitely run much faster in a 5000 if you stress the systems that are most important to you in a 5000m race. You are taking about training more like a marathoner or ultra runner.

You could run 50 miles a week, 5 of the 7 days at 8:40 pace with Mondays being intervals at 7:20 pace and Fridays a tempo run at 8:00 pace, and with dedication you could get far.

Maybe. But some of us have tried it both ways and found the mileage to be truly key in our own cases. It's not just a cult here with zero basis in experience, ya know.

After hovering around 50-55 MPW for a couple or three years, with a pretty standard 21st century mix of intervals, tempos, and other workouts (per Daniels, Glover, et al), boosting my mileage into the 80s with 2 runs most days and longer lower intensity workouts (lot of stuff at MP or a bit faster, few intervals, no "20 minutes worth of hour race pace" tempos, a couple 5-10 km races) did a whole lot more for me at all distances, including 5k, than anything else ever did at lower volume.

"The system that is most important in a 5000m race" is aerobic fitness. It might not be quite as dominant a factor as in a marathon, but it's still pretty huge.

Oh I know I support high mileage, in certain situations.

In high school I took 2 minutes off of my 2 mile time, from the previous year, by averaging just 30 easy miles more per week over one winter.

It can make a huge difference.

I'm just trying to see how much time he would want to put into it.

Being 32, with no really responsibilities like a wife and kids, I can put in my 120 mpw over the summer.

I now see that in high school if I added something like 30-40 intervals on the track twice a week in addition to more miles I could have gone to a W&M or a UVA instead of DIII.

FWIW, I'm a 44 year-old man who's PRs for shorter distances were all at age 18 or 19. I have PRs of 5:19 for the mile; 17:47 for 5K; 1:24:01 for the half-marathon.

These were all 25 years ago. At that time, I was running 60 MPW. My marathon PR is also at about that MPW.

This year, with the Boston qualifying time for 45-49 year-olds (I'll be there soon), I upped my mileage gradually from about 30 MPW (where I've been the last few years) to 80 MPW over the summer. I didn't increase speedwork at all. As a result, I've knocked my 5K time back down from 22:00 to 21:00 with no other changes - which doesn't sound like that much, but for the marathon - the 3:30 sounds attainable that I need - and I couldn't have done 3:45 6 months ago.

I don't think I could do 100 MPW; my running takes me too much longer than the elites - but the higher mileage is a real help for my more modest goals.

Ah OK, Whit. I misinterpreted your post the first time to mean "you can run much faster focusing on 5000m-specific stuff at 50 MPW than you could at higher mileage" but you really just meant "faster than you are currently."