Surprised by the Mileage I've seen with HIGH SCHOOLERS

I did 50-60 through most of the season and consistent 70s during the summer and winter; my high was low 80s.

what are your PRs?

little violin wrote:

what are your PRs?

1:57, 4:20, 9:20 back in the day.

The sea yields to knowledge wrote:

little violin wrote:

what are your PRs?

1:57, 4:20, 9:20 back in the day.

Doubtful that you actually ran 4:20 and 9:20 on the dot. I suspect 4:27 and 9:28 were your actual PRs.

When exactly is "back in the day"? what pace was most of your mileage done at?

little violin wrote:

When exactly is "back in the day"? what pace was most of your mileage done at?

Late 90s. Probably 6:30-7:00; I was never too religious about timing my runs.

During my senior year, I was a consistent 60+ miles with a month or so over 70 miles during the end of the summer. I ran 16:12 and 9:42. Nothing special, I know, but I was 6 ft, 170-175 lbs. Pretty big for a distance runner.

I graduated hs in 2009, and did mostly 60-80 mpw during my junior and senior year. My 3200 was around 10:10

My team sucked back in the day. I did just over 200 miles over the summer before my senior year and had more than all but one of my teammates. My in-season mileage was maybe 20-25 miles.

I definitely think you are correct. I remember that there were rumours that Mike Sayenko (who was in my league) was doing 70mpw and this just seemed like such an unfathomably high number to me at the time.

I remember reading that the footlocker finalists were running peak mileage in the 60s and 70s. This was around 2001 or so. It seemed like most of us stuck to about 40 miles a week tops. Our longest runs were an hours.

with more people taking up running and all the knowledge out there, its getting harder and harder to make a college team. Especially with programs being cut under the guise of Title IX. It wouldn't surprise me to learn some high schoolers are exceeding 100 mpw, and in fact need that volume to be successful.

Problem is their mileage isn't real. I ran for Nike and when I measured out my runs they were all short. A 10 miler takes most HS runners 80-90 minutes. They are not running that.

However I do think athletes are running more. 45-60 is about what most varsity runners truly hit.

The Animal Within wrote:

Problem is their mileage isn't real. I ran for Nike and when I measured out my runs they were all short. A 10 miler takes most HS runners 80-90 minutes. They are not running that.

However I do think athletes are running more. 45-60 is about what most varsity runners truly hit.

What?

I don't think many 15-16 min guys do 10 milers in the 8:xx pace range. Probably more like 65 minutes if it's a reasonably steady run.

typically people are lying about their mileage. they report

too low numbers to look more talented than they really are.

dathan ritzenhein -> 100 miles/week

I did up to 70 a week one summer. Nobody else on my team did more than 40 or 50, including the fastest ones. It was a worthless waste of time and left me too burned out to get much from the in-season training.

I believed in mileage because the Church of High Mileage told me it was good.

Now I rarely run farther than race distance, and rarely run slowly either. It works very well. I probably can't run a marathon. I don't care.

I don't remember ever going over 35 mpw and I was on the high end! Our program wasn't that great but still ran 4:32.5 and 9:52 off of the quality of those miles.

yyy wrote:

typically people are lying about their mileage. they report

too low numbers to look more talented than they really are.

This is the LR mantra.

I ran back in the 80's similar times to the OP. Typical mileage pre-season was 40's, during the season was looowwww. We raced A LOT.

Back in the late 80's I ran 1:53, 4:09 and 9:10 and my mileage was in the high 40's - low 50's. Although it was almost all fairly high intensity training. I took one day a week off as well.

My team was notorious for high mileage, back then we considered 70 MPW as a really big week for a HS'er.

Honestly, I see no downside in 80-85MPW for a Senior in HS if the mileage progression is reasonable and the kid has good mechanics.