I wouldn't say all are running 80 mpw plus. Many are though.
Jack Foster (New Zealand) regularly ran about 50 miles per week in preparation, and ran a 2 hour 10 marathon (late thirties).
It is said that he regularly got in 3 long runs each week on offroad terrain. 20 miles long Sunday run, and two 12 to 15 milers.
On the other days, he often just rested as he said he was fatigued, (worked full time).
Before some of his best road races, given he had the time and the energy, he would get in another run, but on the roads at a steadier pace. He worked full time and had a wife and kids!
I wouldn't say all are running 80 mpw plus. Many are though.
Jack Foster (New Zealand) regularly ran about 50 miles per week in preparation, and ran a 2 hour 10 marathon (late thirties).
It is said that he regularly got in 3 long runs each week on offroad terrain. 20 miles long Sunday run, and two 12 to 15 milers.
On the other days, he often just rested as he said he was fatigued, (worked full time).
Before some of his best road races, given he had the time and the energy, he would get in another run, but on the roads at a steadier pace. He worked full time and had a wife and kids!
You need to better familiarise yourself with tense. I said, every elite runs not "has run" or "did run".
Choosing one runner that competed 50 years ago (from the 10,000 plus other elites that have existed since then) doesn't prove a point. We can all cherry-pick anecdotes that go against the overwhelming consensus.
I doubt you could find any examples of runners that competed at the Paris Olympics (from 1,500m - Marathon) that didn't run at least 80mpw in their base period. And if you excluded the 1,500m and the Steeplechase, I doubt you'd find any doing less than 90mpw. All male elite runners from 5k-marathon would regularly be doing over 100mpw. Not "many";All.
Well high intensity, low mileage training that dominated the 1990s didn’t work so well historically for American distance running. But if you want to try that again I say go for it!
Well, so far the scientists or anyone can't give a proof that there would be necessary to run 80 + mpw to reach optimum individual results in middle/ longdistance. Out from my very long experience( 50+ years) as a national elite runner and now online coach for 10 years practically I see around 50 mpw seems to be enough to reach once optimum level.
A lot is dependent on distance and genetics. Many people need mileage to convert muscle fibers. But some people have a preset that aligns well with the distance. The same is with capillaries. Some have a default that is high density, but others must train for it.
You need both of these two to be perfect to skip long distance. The odds of both of these to align is not that high.
Regarding running economy the ceiling is about 1 hour daily run. It should happen at the speed you compete at or faster- which is impossible for most distances, but is one of the main reasons why many can be competitive at ultras
One running book I read put it this way, and I paraphrase:
Mileage is a base for speedwork. If you try to fire a cannon from a canoe, the boat will capsize. You need a bigger base, like a battleship, for cannons.
Fair, but I don't think we need a metaphor to understand this. If you want to be a better long distance runner, you might ought to run more.
Well, it's more a question of running ENOUGH easy steady mileage to last the distance you are training for. Then you need quality faster running to complement the easier running for the ultimate best result.
What is often unknown to runners and some coaches is that even faster paces produce mitocondria that is less in volume compared to when running easy steady , but ' stronger ' and more efficient.This is probably the main reason why some world top runners in history have succeeded on relatively low mileage as 40-60 mpw.
From my take on this, Mileage running is a waste of time especially if you train for the middle distance events (800,1500m) you don't need to run longer than 30 mpw for these events or shorter. It's normal for these type of guys to go out for a 5 mile run now and then but you won't see them having the same training weeks as a 5k/10k guy who does long tempos and tons of vo2 max efforts. I'm not saying mileage running is bad but it is less of importance if you want to become an exceptional distance runner. I think Mo Farah fell in that trap of doing tons of mileage. Yes it improved his time over the 5k but his time over 1500m and 800m were very weak and he lowered it and added in some speed work.
In this review we integrate the scientific literature and results-proven practice and outline a novel framework for understanding the training and development of elite long-distance performance. Herein, we describe how fundam...
Well, so far the scientists or anyone can't give a proof that there would be necessary to run 80 + mpw to reach optimum individual results in middle/ longdistance. Out from my very long experience( 50+ years) as a national elite runner and now online coach for 10 years practically I see around 50 mpw seems to be enough to reach once optimum level.
Coach J.S , 🇸🇪🤠🇸🇪
When was the last time your Kenyan athlete Sammy Nyokaye ran a PR? Over 10 years ago. Not even supershoes can help when the coach is you.
Ryan Flaherty was at Nike for awhile, not sure what he is doing now, but he hypothesized based on his work with hundreds of athletes, that really all that mattered for speed was how strong someone was relative to weight. He measured this using a scale and one rep max with the hex bar deadlift. He mainly worked with football players, but he did help train Meb in the deadlift prior to his 2014 victory at Boston.
My guess is that the vast majority of runners would see more improvement from getting lighter rather than running more miles - it is much easier to improve strength to weight ratio by decreasing weight rather than increasing strength.
Some of Flaherty's more nuanced discussion from Ferris podcast transcript: "
"Ryan Flaherty: Really simply, stride length and frequency is the product of mass-specific force.
If you help someone increase their mass-specific force, naturally, those two things are going to occur. When you’re a marathon runner, on average, it will take 20,000 strides to run a marathon. Well, if I can increase your stride length by increasing your mass-specific force and your normal running gait by three inches – big increase, three inches – on your normal running gait and your stride length, three inches times 20,000 is 60,000 inches, which is around 5,000 feet, which is close to a mile. So, you’re a mile ahead of where you were last time you ran that marathon purely by increasing your mass-specific force. It’s that simple.
Tim Ferriss: Got it. How did your training differ – if at all – for Meb versus your sprinter – “sprinters” meaning track and field, football players, fill-in-the-blank.
Ryan Flaherty: The majority of marathoners don’t have a desire to get in the weight room and strength train.
For a long time, the thought has been that it can only go to hurt you and injure you or add size, which is what most marathoners don’t want. So, the biggest thing was teaching him that by hex bar deadlift training in the concentric zone only – so, doing no eccentric loading – that he could stress his nervous system, recruit larger motor units without adding any weight. He started at 127 pounds, ended at 127 pounds, and by just introducing that one exercise – I didn’t touch his running or touch anything else that he did in the weight room; it was simply that one exercise – once a week, it improved his stride length and his running gait, which in turn helped him run faster.
Tim Ferriss: Love it. Love the simplicity of it. Ryan Flaherty: It’s super-efficient, right?
Assuming you have a somewhat athletic person who is not weak, you need to run more to run faster. They are already capable of running 'fast' for a short amount of time. They need to run more so that they can maintain the speed. If you have a complete weakling who can't even do a pushup then ya you need to do strength training/hills/short fast reps to get them to where they can run 'fast enough'.
Casado, A, Hanley, B, Santos-Concejero, J, and Ruiz-Pérez, LM. World-class long-distance running performances are best predicted by volume of easy runs and deliberate practice of short-interval and tempo runs. J Strength Cond...
Well, so far the scientists or anyone can't give a proof that there would be necessary to run 80 + mpw to reach optimum individual results in middle/ longdistance. Out from my very long experience( 50+ years) as a national elite runner and now online coach for 10 years practically I see around 50 mpw seems to be enough to reach once optimum level.
Coach J.S , 🇸🇪🤠🇸🇪
Au contraire JS. More mileage every week increases:
-Burns body fat which helps make you lighter.
-It increases efficiency which helps lower injury chances
Intense physical activity contributes to an increased consumption of oxygen transported by red blood cells. The red blood cells’ differentiation and proliferation process is mainly stimulated by erythropoietin (EPO) and eryth...
Regular exercise is crucial to keeping the circulatory system functioning optimally, which in turn is beneficial to overall health and protection from heart disease. ...
