Average base phase mileage - nationally ranked teams

I ran on a hs national champ team ~10 yr ago and no one on the team ever went over 50 usually 35-45 at high intensity lots of repeats most runs turned into races or as I would now call them tempos. My school was a perennial powerhouse for years and I don't think the training ever varied much.

I remember reading a Running Times interview with Mike McClemens of Christian Brothers Academy when he was a senior two years ago. He said they typically build up to 80-85 mpw and hold that through the season. Their peak/taper phase is around 60 mpw.

And they do a good chunk of their mileage on the state championship course in Holmdel.

The powerhouse highschool in my state (midwest) runs around 40 mpw on the girls side. But they Also cross train for an average of 60 minutes everyday.

North Central WA have said they tend to do about 60-70 mpw

Christian Brothers NJ does something like 65-80 I believe?

American Fork UT did 50-70 mpw this summer

Arcadia CA, along with York and most of the other Illinois teams I believe, tend to do high mileage.

Also, in an interview with RunningTimes the Gig Harbor coach laid out what they did on a few of their weeks, with the biggest mileage week being a 400 minute week (which would probably be about 60-65 miles).

I averaged about 25-30 during the season and 33-35 during base. I was the third runner for our team. I peaked middle of the season but stayed steady in 20:xx range. I think if we had little more mileage w/long runs and little bit less racing I could have done better. I plan on running more during track pre season and definitely more mileage next summer.

I finished 10th at the State meet 15 years ago. I was running between 60-70 mpw my senior year. I believe the top CA teams are running at least that much if not more now.

Texas HS Coach wrote:

What do typical teams' top 5-7 runners average per week during their base phase?

I find it hard to believe that the majority of the teams at NXN just have really great workout strategies and gifted runners and that this is all off 40 mpw for girls and 50 mpw for guys.

I believe that the teams near the top are doing some serious mileage, yet there seems to be some stigma when talking about high mileage. Everyone keeps it hush hush.

Does anyone know what the teams that are consistently at NXN do volume-wise?

And before you say it - yes, I know mileage isn't everything... but it seems to be the one thing people try to avoid talking openly about.

I coach a team (boys) that will be at NXN this year. The mileage for our top 7 actually varies quite a bit. Generally more talent or more injuries = less mileage. Essentially no healthy runner on our top 7 (or top 20 for that matter) runs less than 50-55 miles per week by the end of the summer (on six runs in most cases). During the season they transiently run more than that (60-65 is about the minimum peak mileage for a healthy runner, some freshmen/sophomores exempted, on six runs or maybe a 20min jog on Sunday).

We don't really do "eggs at the wall" like some places do. We have some runners who reach close to 70 during the summer and 75ish at peak in the season (seven days of course). These are upperclassmen who have not had any significant injuries in the past, or who have personally lobbied for more mileage (e.g. "coach I want to run more because I want to make the top 7 / break 16:30 / etc." - this happens with one or two people per year). Once in a while we'll get a real mileage hog who will run upwards of 80 miles a week at times. These are special cases obviously--needs the right mentality for it, able to take care of the time management stuff it takes to double frequently, and the body that both handles the mileage well AND benefits from it. But these do happen, and you are short-changing their running career if you do not prescribe higher mileage to them. We will usually have 1-2 runners like this per class year.

Some people will say things like "high schoolers have no business doing 80 mpw" but try telling that to someone who gets a scholarship with that training, or a spot on a DI team, or been to NXN, who would have never gotten it with 50 miles a week. Much less 40 or 30 or whatever.

Some people will say things like "high schoolers have no business doing 80 mpw" but try telling that to someone who gets a scholarship with that training, or a spot on a DI team, or been to NXN, who would have never gotten it with 50 miles a week. Much less 40 or 30 or whatever.

I wish the forum had a "Like" button. I would hit it about 100 times.

Money matters and tuition is damn expensive. Pushing a mileage edge is worth it when college options and money can be on the line for a middle class family.

What is there to save a kid for? Their wedding night?

I'll third this. Most kids goals aren't to have a dream career progression like a Brian Sell. I would hope few high schoolers have a goal to be competitive at a national stage post collegiately. Let them get their mileage and pursue the little goals. You couldn't have said it better

Keep up the good work.

Just check out the athletes' twitter accounts and you know the coaches are overly sensitive and lying about the mileage their kids run each week... comments such as "18 miles in 13 hours" or "2nd 13 mile run this week" gives you some hints. Top coaches also seem quick to blame their athlete's overtraining injuries on another sport like soccer, but the kids brag about their stress fractures LOL.

Agree 100%.

How do you progress the younger kids? Do you set mileage limits by age?

Slopenguinrunner wrote:

Some people will say things like "high schoolers have no business doing 80 mpw" but try telling that to someone who gets a scholarship with that training, or a spot on a DI team, or been to NXN, who would have never gotten it with 50 miles a week. Much less 40 or 30 or whatever.

I wish the forum had a "Like" button. I would hit it about 100 times.

Money matters and tuition is damn expensive. Pushing a mileage edge is worth it when college options and money can be on the line for a middle class family.

What is there to save a kid for? Their wedding night?

Thank you! I am a collegiate coach and don't find a single thing wrong with a 15:30 5k runner doing 80 miles a week.

Think about it:

Kids have middle school/high school and rarely go over 60 miles a week.

Most of the best do 100-120 miles a week in college.

I'd rather have someone who I can progress with less worry.

Even then, most coaches put their freshmen at 80-85 / week. What's one of two more years at the same level??

They talk about "longetivity".

So, a high school kid hit college-like miles for two years. TWO YEARS.

So what? They peak at 30 instead of 32? Oh man, someone stop me.

I'd take a 15:20s guy doing 85 miles a week over a 15:55 guy doing 65. All day.

Nxner wrote:

Agree 100%.

How do you progress the younger kids? Do you set mileage limits by age?

I've been doing that. Girls get 5 miles for peak daily run as freshman. 5.5 in the spring.

6 as sophomore. 6.5 in spring. Then we have a conversation. Some don't like the big mileage.

We have a few at 8 per daily run right now. Peak long run was roughly 90min this fall. I believe in the weekly day off, though, so our highest hit roughly 55ish. We're allowed two doubles per week and i let some girls get 5 those afternoons. Might go to 6 this spring.

I stopped having people "finish mileage" on structured workout runs because i think the additional mileage in a fatigued state is high risk low reward.

Totally agree with Texas HS Coach.

I ran about 40 mpw my first couple years of high school and sucked. I was debating quitting running or really going for it, and I ended up doing the latter -- I ran 80-100mpw for most of a year.

A year later, I was ranked first in the state and was getting calls from college coaches. I ended up going to a top Ivy school where I ran all four years, but didn't improve much. I watched as my teammates who had done significantly less high school training gradually outclassed me.

But so what? I wouldn't have even been on that team if I hadn't killed myself for the last half of high school. I got to run D-1 and shake hands with Ritz at the starting line in Terre Haute. Nevermind that I got my ass handed to me... I got to be there!

Texas HS Coach has it right. I was never going to set any records, so if I hadn't done intense high school training, I wouldn't have been able to run in college. The fact that I didn't improve much was pretty small peas compared to the lifelong friends I made doing long runs every weekend and traveling to meets together.

I actually read an article about this a couple years ago. It studied the weekly mileages of men and women at Footlocker for the past 20 years. Since Ritz/Webb/Hall and letsrun brought American Running back from life support, its been 60-80 mpw for guys with basically no cross training, and 40-50 mpw for girls with decent amounts of cross training (swimming being most common).

Generally speaking, the kids do easy mileage in base with maybe a light fartlek and/or light tempo each week during base, then hit the event specific stuff during the xc and track seasons.