How good could you be off of just easy mileage and hard 200s/400s with nothing in between?

You could be 90 percent of all you can be on the mileage alone. This sounds like a good plan to me.

I doubt I'd be any slower, especially if I never got sick or injured.

As good as the '60s Villanova teams.

just the extremes wrote:

Lets say a runner decided to simplify their training, and just do a whole lot of easy mileage plus 1-2 sessions per week of hard 200s and/or 400s. No tempos, thresholds, or longer/slower repeats of any kind. Just a ton of easy mileage and a bit of hard speed work.

Could this training produce anything close to optimal results?

My guess: It would depend on race distance and the runner. For the average 800-1500 meter runner, I do think you'd get close to optimal with this (assuming, as you say, that there is a 'whole lot' of easy mileage), though it wouldn't be fully optimal. For runners who are heavier (think Snell) or who want to run longer distances, this would still produce results but would be less optimal.

FFF wrote:

You could be 90 percent of all you can be on the mileage alone. This sounds like a good plan to me.

You read too much lydiard

Or I remember what Mark Nenow did. Assuming, like with most people, you'd eventually be able to run quicker on your mileage, then do your hard intervals, well ...

I ran my best off this training. ~70 miles per week. most running was easy, but if i felt good i would hammer. typical week

M - AM 40 minutes, PM -40 minutes

T - AM 35 minutes, PM - 10 x 400 / 15 x 300 / 16 x 200

W - AM 30 mins, PM 50 minutes,

T - AM 30 minutes, PM - Hills

F - AM - 35, PM - 45 minutes

S - 80- 90 minutes

S - Off

I think most people's 'easy' miles are really tempos or just below tempo effort in that dangerous gray zone.

Well if my easy mileage can go from 7:50 - 6:25 pace, like it currently does, and I can do workouts like 16-20 x 400, or 30 x 200

Then.......

I'd be just fine.

http://www.ustfccca.org/assets/symposiums/2013/Damon%20Martin,%20Adams%20State%20-%205000m2013.pdf

First part of Adams state 5k training could be structured like:

25 x 200m in 33 seconds with 60 seconds rest

17 x 300m in 49 seconds with 60 seconds rest

13 x 400m in 67 seconds with 60 seconds rest

for 13:57.5 5k training. If perhaps the most successful collegiate program of all time suggests a workable training method that starts out like this, I am sure you could get plenty fast. Vigil also believed in very fast easy mileage, however, such as 5:50-6:20 pace for the faster athletes.

The title is basically how Herb Elliot's training was described in the "How They Train" book. Assuming you could vary the pace of the 400's (e.g. long set of 400s at 5k pace) you could get good at a range of distances I would think.

the430miler wrote:

FFF wrote:

You could be 90 percent of all you can be on the mileage alone. This sounds like a good plan to me.

You read too much lydiard

Explain Mark Nenow, who rarely ever did intervals.

Hardloper wrote:

The title is basically how Herb Elliot's training was described in the "How They Train" book. Assuming you could vary the pace of the 400's (e.g. long set of 400s at 5k pace) you could get good at a range of distances I would think.

Herbs 'easy' mileage definitely wasn't easy