dsrunner wrote:
US record at 3000/5000 is held by a guy who runs moderate mileage, roughly 1h/day training or just a bit less and 7 weeks rest/year.
1000/2000 records also achieved with moderate mileage, all remain untouched by high mileage runners.
the correct answer here is more US runners with 50 400m / 1:48 800m speed now racing the 5000 and 10000m. ie the general recognition that in distance races they hold a stopwatch not a sundial.
next and related factor is the abandonment of long slow mileage as a training approach.
third big factor is tons of east africans to set the pace and do the bulk of the work. no US records without Africans helping w pacing since Centrowitz crushed Salazar 30 years ago to run 13:10
demographics are another consideration, particularly the second baby boom. we've seen a doubling of US population since the racing days of Mills and Schul.
Fisher dominated HS distance running on 40 miles per week. most HS stars are doing moderate mileage.
So let me get this straight, you are attempting to prove your theory by pointing out a 2/3 people? Of which a few how some tremendous natural talents. The question was about the overall increase of a larger populations/group of runners and not a few people you try and use as examples. Thank God you don't control the future of American distance running as we would be in a much worse place.
As was stated earlier the move back to mileage and away from the lower mileage trend that caused us to send less than full squads has had a great impact on our slow rise. It isn't everything but it is a large piece of it.