It's a very interesting and informative thread. Here's one representative passage that Leon quotes from sources:
"Atsushi Sato of Japan, who finished fourth at the Lake Biwa Marathon (the oldest marathon in Japan) this year in a time of 2:08:36, reportedly covered 2500 KM in the two months leading up to the marathon. That is 1,553 miles. That averages out to 776 miles a month / 195 miles per week / 27.8 miles per day."
Henry Rono stated in his thread yesterday, that he would run 90-120 miles a week in his prime. Don't ask me why, but the moderators deleted his post today.
Yeah the Japanese marathoners run extreme mileage. Toshihiko Seko says that he ran a marathon a day in training which averages out to just over 180 mies a week!
Anyone running 150-200mpw and not running sub-2:30? I've never heard of anyone running that kind of mileage and not being world-class (barring ultramarathoners), but I'm sure 180mpw for a year doesn't guarantee a 2:22, even if you do average 7:00/mi or better.
LukeTheRunner wrote:
Anyone running 150-200mpw and not running sub-2:30? I've never heard of anyone running that kind of mileage and not being world-class (barring ultramarathoners), but I'm sure 180mpw for a year doesn't guarantee a 2:22, even if you do average 7:00/mi or better.
Arthur Lydiard was never a world class runner (as far as I know), and he ran a lot more than that when he was experimenting with training. I'm sure there were others.
Lydiard started running only when he was 27 but became a pretty damn fine runner.
Never got much over 50MPW
i'd be more interested to hear about those top marathoners who ran low mileages. anyone?
Shorter Than Frank wrote:
i'd be more interested to hear about those top marathoners who ran low mileages. anyone?
define "low" .... ? You guys are talking about 200 mile weeks, so i guess we'll call that very high. Steve Jones rarely ran 1/2 that much. So is that "low" for a marathoner? There have been threads on this before, but I while I know he hit near 100 or a bit over 100 sometimes, I think he was averaging more like 90 for the months leading up to his 2:07. compared to what you are all talking about, and this on the low end, right? 2:07, with a first 1/2 of 1:01:4x, is pretty good, eh?
damn wrote:
200 miles a week......has anyone ever run this much, how did it feel?
200 in a week, hmm.... Well, that greek guy ran 180 in one day, so does that rate on your barometer? And I don't know how he felt, but I imagine he was tired.
typical letsrun response wrote:
Those miles are all over 7:00 pace, therefore they don't count
You may also have noticed that he was running up mountains.
Viren ran 200/week in his base training.