Billy Mills mileage

this thread is great...keep it going

It IS theoretically possible to run a marathon on 10 miles a day, but I am not sure I have the guts to try it.

10 miles per day could well enable one to run a very decent 10K (road or track) if speed is employed.

For what it's worth.

Distribution of running over a 70 Mile week is important when considering race distance. I think 10 a day is bad for the Marathon, but 20 every second day might work well. 2x5 a day is probably best for middle distance.

exactly my point

Absolutely.

I'm friends with this hopi native and he ran no more than 60-65 miles per week to run the hardrock 100 and his longest run was 3.5 hours and finished in the top 10...Amazing.

What quality of marathon is being discussed? Are you actually discussing racing a marathon all out or just running one? It is possible to run a marathon off of much less than 70 miles a week.

I think Mills must have meant he was doing 35 miles per week in college, which is possible. After college, he upped his mileage to 80 or 90, according to most literature on the subject. Lots of 110 meter repeats to hone his speed.

arnoldwgt wrote:

I spoke with Mills once about how he developed his amazing kick. He said the key was lots of 300 meter intervals. Before he won the 10k in Tokyo, he ran a time trial 400 in 49 seconds.

That is amazing, since he ran a PR 24.3 for 200 meters a few days before the 10k.

REFISH wrote:

I saw a training log excerpt from 1965 and he was doing 80 to 90 miles per-week.

Well, I guess somebody better let Billy know.

Heathen wrote:

I have heard Billy speak on two separate occasions. After he was done giving his speech some teammates and I asked Billy about his mileage. He gave the exact same answer both times. He claimed that he ran 100 mpw, but he considered a week to be 10 days long for training purposes. He said it gave himself sort of a mental boost to think he was doing 100 because he knew the competition was most likely running 100 mpw.

This is true.

Billy certainly did not run 35 miles a week in 1964!

Billy himself has shown me his training logs from that year, and he was doing 70 miles a week. He also incorporated lots of 200 and 300 meter sessions to work on speed, as well as a weekly 10-mile run at a progressively faster pace to get down to sub-50. Pat Clohessy was in Australia at the time telling Billy about Ron Clarke doing these.

According to the book Run with the Champions it gives a sample week from his training diary that totaled 90 miles for a 7 day week, including lots of 110 repeats like the above poster mentioned.

It also says that leading up to his 6mi world record he averaged 82 mpw for 8 weeks.

Take it for what it's worth.

The allegation that Billy Mils accomplished his great results off of 25 to 35 miles a seven day week of training is an insult to the other athletes of the time. He could have, on the other hand, done so with 70 miles a week of training.

When discussing a subject such as this we must also remember that we are talking of a time when running was very different than it is taday. Mills ran an Olympic record 28:24.4 and 2:22:56 one week later. That is doable off 70 miles a week.

I do not believe that Billy Mills attended formal Mihaly Igloi training sessions between October 1962 and the fall of 1966.

Does the name Kip Keino ring a bell?

I will back up his claim...i have met Billy Mills at a motivational talk at a casino on a reservation here in ND. The MOST he ran was 35 mpw like the original poster wrote, it baffled my mind also, but all of his running was near race pace training, no easy days at all

mike5krnr wrote:

30:36 Cross Country 10k in Riverside at the 1979 NCAA Div II finals, 3:53 1500 and 14:51 5k several times in Junior College. 9:02.0 2 mile at West Coast Relays in 1978. I think all of that on only 26 miles a week...............

too bad... you could've been good...

sjm1368 wrote:

According to the book Run with the Champions it gives a sample week from his training diary that totaled 90 miles for a 7 day week, including lots of 110 repeats like the above poster mentioned.

It also says that leading up to his 6mi world record he averaged 82 mpw for 8 weeks.

Take it for what it's worth.

Sample week that was taken from "Run with the champions":

Mon: A.M--2 mile w/u, 4 mile "tee to greens" on golf course 2 mile cooldown

P.M-- 2 mile warmup, 2 miles of repeat 110s, 1 mile cooldown.

Tue: A.M.--2 mile warmup; 1 mile repeat 110s, 2 mile cooldown.

P.M.--1 mile w/u 2 miles of sprint 150, float 70, in 8:50, 4 mile cooldown.

Wed: A.M.--3 mile w/u; 1 mile of repeat 110s; 1 mile easy; 4x 880s in 1:59-2:00 with 330 rest; 2 mile c/d.

P.M.-- 4 mile w/u; xc run on sand with 1.5 miles easy and 1.5 miles at race pace, 2 mile cooldown.

Thu; A.M--3 mile w/u; 2 miles of easy 110s.

P.M--whirlpool and rest.

Fri: A.M--1 mile w/u, whirlpool

P.M--14 miles easy

Sat: A.M--3 mile w/u, 1 mile of repeat 110s; 6 x 1000 yards (slower than race pace) w/330 rest; 1 mile c/d

P.M--4 miles easy; 4 miles hard, 1 mile easy 110s, 1 mile cooldown.

Sun: A.M--2 mile w/u 1 mile easy 110s, 1 mile hard 110s; 1 mile easy; 1 mile cooldown.

Total: 90 miles

Sounds right in line with the igloi and the 'speed' influence

Houlihan was running 4:30 for 1500 on 40 MPW. She knocked 30 seconds off after bumping mileage to 80 MPW. That's a 1500, not a 10k.