Maximum Mileage in High School???

Our state recently had about a dozen guys under 15 in the 5k, soooo...

But the women's records went down in steeple, 1500, 3k, 5k by women who ran low mileage in hs. 800 will go also.

Sham 69 wrote:

Our state recently had about a dozen guys under 15 in the 5k, soooo...

Good for them!

To each their own. I am just speaking of my personal experience. I ran more than those on my team and by soph track I was beating every one of them and beating those in the area who were previously beating me.

I think you run the mileage and intensity you can handle to achieve the success you want .

Alan

We are at the fastest time in history. High school and college running is barely comparable to 10 or 20 years ago. That is a verifiable fact.

Runningisfun075 wrote:

I'm going into my junior year of high school and this summer my coach has been putting a big emphasis on bringing up my mileage a lot. He also is focused a lot more on endurance training and not speed training. My questions are...

Is their a maximum amount of mileage that high schoolers should do?

And in high school what kind of workouts should I be doing?

I don't think you need more than 70, but the sky is the limit. High school is a great time to challenge yourself.

Lots of great advice on the boards, just ran man it's not complicated.

coahc wrote:

Runningart2004 wrote:

My very first week of organized XC practice I ran 40 miles. Had sporadically run 1-2 miles in the month prior.

Got up to 70 a week during offseason soph year....80 a week jr year offseason...80+ sr year.

Looking back I should have pushed it even more and gotten into 90-100 territory but I got complacent.

4:37/18:13

4:28/10:29/17:35

4:32/9:38/16:16

4:28/9:32/15:53

Alan

you ran an awful lot to achieve those times. I would suggest you didn't have very good coaching. 90-100 miles wouldn't have made much difference.

Also took me a year of avg 100 with streaks of 120-140 just to hit a 2:32 marathon PR. Yes yes had many long runs, marathon paced runs, mile repeats, tempos, did all that jazz. Some people are talented and are high responders.....Others are not.

Alan

do the dew wrote:

Coburn ran 15. Hocker ran 30. Knight ran 35. Schweizer ran 35. Fisher ran 40. Brazier ran 30. Houlihan ran 30. Purrier ran 30. Do you want to maximize potential or peak in high school? All top American 800-5k runners were low mileage in HS. And throw Knight in as Canadian.

I sort of agree and think that a lot of higher volume runners might be missing out on the weight lifting/plyometric/sprint specific training that will make them better runners and athletes. However, I also agree with some of the posts on here about getting the most out of yourself in high school because the vast majority won’t do much with the sport within a few years. I got by with 50-55 mpw max, but I wish I’d done 70-75. I don’t think that would be “peak” mileage. Now, 100-110 is probably too much. 70ish is the sweet spot imo.

I’m pretty sure Olympian Todd Williams ran the 500-mi summer before soph season, 750 miles before junior year, and 1000 mi before senior year. He surely didn’t peak in high school.

do the dew wrote:

But the women's records went down in steeple, 1500, 3k, 5k by women who ran low mileage in hs. 800 will go also.

Zero mens r

do the dew wrote:

But the women's records went down in steeple, 1500, 3k, 5k by women who ran low mileage in hs. 800 will go also.

sure if you dope in your 20s after doing low mileage in HS, you can set womans records😂 if your a guy, it doesnt seem to work as well.

obviously this is tongue in cheek. There is zero evidence that HS training has much effect on future results. low mile guys like Kennedy and high mileage like Ritz ended up in the same spot. The list of causalities of all the approaches are high. Cooper Teare running 65-85 mpw has had good success. hocker running 35 has also done well. We cant swap them and see if things would have turned out differently.

for most people the mid mileage (50-60) is the way to go. Sure your leaving some time out there but probably not a lot. And you are building a foundation to run more as you age. Go read the stories of all the people who didnt train in HS who spent there college career injuried...

I would say 70 mpw is as much as the average high schooler would need. Anything less, and you may not reach your full potential. Anything more and you're facing injury and possible burnout later in your running career.

do the dew wrote:

Coburn ran 15. Hocker ran 30. Knight ran 35. Schweizer ran 35. Fisher ran 40. Brazier ran 30. Houlihan ran 30. Purrier ran 30. Do you want to maximize potential or peak in high school? All top American 800-5k runners were low mileage in HS. And throw Knight in as Canadian.

So if he runs 15 mpw we will go pro?

To the original OP I would say to you that the volume that you run is what should allow you to stay healthy and still enjoy your training. There is no reason to do 70-80 miles per week if you get injured or don't enjoy the grind. The sport is tough but if you enjoy the process the chances of success are very good.

Back in the mid 80's I ran on a team with 50 other guys and we all did the same training. Some got fit and ran well others ran ok. Every athlete is different in what they need as far as a training stimulus.

Maybe you are a middle distance athlete with a large endowment of FT fibres?

Stay healthy, be consistent, enjoy. Simple.

coahc wrote:

To the original OP I would say to you that the volume that you run is what should allow you to stay healthy and still enjoy your training. There is no reason to do 70-80 miles per week if you get injured or don't enjoy the grind. The sport is tough but if you enjoy the process the chances of success are very good.

Back in the mid 80's I ran on a team with 50 other guys and we all did the same training. Some got fit and ran well others ran ok. Every athlete is different in what they need as far as a training stimulus.

Maybe you are a middle distance athlete with a large endowment of FT fibres?

Stay healthy, be consistent, enjoy. Simple.

I like this answer.

Something around 60min a day and 90min on a Sunday also seems about right. Then you start seeing people add doubles. Doing doubles during the school year was a pain but I remember doing a few 3milers before school. It was loads easier during the summer. Helps to not have a life :)

But yea. Do what your body can handle.

Alan

The difference between 50 and 70 mpw is like 20 minutes a day.. an extra 20 minutes a day isn’t going to destroy your ability to have a life. I’m not saying you necessarily should run 70 mpw in hs, and I’m not saying that you shouldn’t. But, a runner that is reasonably fast and is going to run in college needs to learn how to handle high mileage and get stronger. Why? Because if you’re still running 50 mpw multiple years into college, you’re not reaching your potential. Of course, there are risks associated with high mileage (mainly doing so at a young age), but burning out probably isn’t it.

How can you say that a particular number will give a certain result. For example, i ran a 15:55 5k after nothing more than 30 miles a week with 3 great quality sessions. Quality>>>>>>>Mileage

I love the phrase “the more I ran, the more talented I became”. Think maybe from Malmo.

My son ran 12:44/5:57 as a freshman off 10-15mpw. 10:41/4:57 sophomore year off 25-30 mpw. 9:52/4:38 junior year off 35-40mpw. No one would have thought he had any talent as a freshman and now he’s running some pretty good times and wants to step it to 55-65 this summer. Maybe he runs low 9:00s next year. Maybe not. Won’t know until he tries it but he surely A) won’t be burnt and B) won’t have regrets.

I was at 17:00 on less than that.

I love that quote, and I do think it came from Malmo, though maybe paraphrased. And, speaking of Malmo, I don’t think you can do better than Summer of Malmo in the offseason for the extremely motivated runner who wants to improve. Why put a limit on miles per week. It’s going to be different for every runner, and “peak” mileage may differ substantially from average mileage.

Tinman is similar, though I don’t want to speak for him. But, he believed in running everyday to “keep the ball rolling,” and his weeks included one day of CV reps, followed by short hills at like 800 meter pace and then a Tinman tempo, which is pretty slow actually and doable in a week. I think his top athletes were around 70mpw for guys, and that’s a good target that still leaves plenty of room to progress in college. The key is keeping the CV and tempo easy, as kids have a tendency to run everything too hard, which erodes the “base” training.

why are you signing your name like youre somebody

bros typing on this board like hes on the titanic writing to his diary. Please hop off your own tip