High mileage for middle distance running experiment (finished)

Orient wrote:

Not broken:

Very interesting, but I wonder why this "experiment" was about 1500 m and not 5k/10k/HM?

Did not you check what was your improvement on longer (than 1.5k) distances?

I do plan on running some longer stuff eventually, but the mile will always have my heart. There are only so many times you can run as hard as you can in a year, and it`s hard to do that at every distance...

Maybe in a few months/next year I will try and dig this thread up and update.

Great thread, as others have mentioned.

What has been your total time per week of running? If your easy run pace was 7:30 instead of 6:30 would you have shot for less mileage? You mentioned tripling during lunch so you must work full time, how has running so much affected your work? energy or time-wise. congrats on your success thus far.

-RS

Real Dealer wrote:

The OP is a troll. He has caught many of you in his trap. Why do people want to know about 1 person's experience when we have data from thousands of runners and coaches over the past 50 years? I know it is because most of you are not talented so you desperately want to think that you too can make a huge improvement by ramping up your mileage. NCAA and world class milers do not do mileage anywhere near the level of this troll. It is garbage.

I think you'd find a few people have posted that some other guys faster than me have done similar training, so it's not completely unheard of.

Also, the data from those thousands of runners shows that everyone is not the same. I've already made the example in this thread, but Brazier highlights that different training works for different athletes.

Also, I know I'm not world class and will never run a 3:30 1500. I never said or implied I think my training will get me there. But why does that mean I can't continually try to just be my best?

RunnerSam wrote:

Great thread, as others have mentioned.

What has been your total time per week of running? If your easy run pace was 7:30 instead of 6:30 would you have shot for less mileage? You mentioned tripling during lunch so you must work full time, how has running so much affected your work? energy or time-wise. congrats on your success thus far.

-RS

Yep, I work full time. It's not too stressful though, never any overtime, and no commute when working from home through the pandemic so I can wake at 7 and get more than an hour run in easily. I also sometimes squeeze in a lunchtime nap instead of a jog, or a quick 20 minute power nap around 3pm. We will see what happens post pandemic....

The Con wrote:

OP - What do your strides look like (i.e. how long, what kind of recovery, at the end of a run after drills or mid run)?

Do you do strides after every run or just once per day? Is it every day, even during/after the 20 mile long run?

Do you do hills or hill sprints, and if so, what do these look like?

What are the drills that you are doing? How often per week?

60-80m or so, and just running in a way that feels light and easy and fast. I'll do anywhere from 3-6, depending on how much I can be bothered, and just walk back. Usually only after afternoon runs. Often they are slightly uphill, but I don't do many hill reps.

I think after long runs strides are most important, as that's when I think my body might be forgetting "fast form".

Drills are nothing special, just your standard 6-10 drills that any Highschool team would do. I do them on easy days for 30 minutes or so when I have more time because there are no workouts

Someone else found the thread and linked to it a few posts above this one. Thanks to him. It's called "140 Miles a Week" which is exactly what I typed into the search bar and did not find.

OP (on a different device) wrote:

RunnerSam wrote:

Great thread, as others have mentioned.

What has been your total time per week of running? If your easy run pace was 7:30 instead of 6:30 would you have shot for less mileage? You mentioned tripling during lunch so you must work full time, how has running so much affected your work? energy or time-wise. congrats on your success thus far.

-RS

Yep, I work full time. It's not too stressful though, never any overtime, and no commute when working from home through the pandemic so I can wake at 7 and get more than an hour run in easily. I also sometimes squeeze in a lunchtime nap instead of a jog, or a quick 20 minute power nap around 3pm. We will see what happens post pandemic....

Sorry I didn't answer the whole question.

I generally run to time (I posted everything in miles for simplicity, but I set out for a 60 min run, not a set distance). I guess I therefore would have shot for less mileage.

But I think that's splitting hairs a bit - the conversation I want to have is more about high mileage at steady state/threshold training.

Energy wise, I seem to adapt once I make it my routine. It's not like I wasn't a runner previously, so it wasn't a complete shock to the system

ShilohDoesntCare wrote:

I remember it being a theory that Coe simply didn't log his easy runs as training. I wanna say that Canova witnessed Coe training for XC and running 100mpw and that wasn't what he put in on paper leading people to believe that he ran more mileage than he claims and just didn't consider jogging to be training, lumping it in as recovery. Snell did very well with high mileage as did everyone Lydiard trained it seems and he never sought out good young athletes he just trained whoever was around and they all became good. I think as a blueprint higher mileage gets people the most consistent results. It's only the freaks that can run fast off of low mileage and because of it they usually suffer having to go through rounds.

I'm sure there are a lot of pro's (likely most) that say, "Oh yeah, I only run ____miles and done ____workouts," and "I set my world record off that," when in reality they're doing much more. Strategically, that leads their competition down a path of inadequate training.

Any pro that would tell their competition how to get where they are is stupid. Maybe after their career, in their tell-all book, but not during.

"Nah...I just run 40 mpw," then the laugh under their breath and go do 3 times that. They're also not going to tell you about a lot of things they're doing to gain an advantage, if you know what I mean.

Wise up, people.

anything athletes say should be taken with a grain of salt. they do lie, and their coaches especially encourage them to do so.

yeah, you can lie and underreport your mileage.

you can also lie and overreport your mileage.

flvmmox wrote:

anything athletes say should be taken with a grain of salt. they do lie, and their coaches especially encourage them to do so.

yeah, you can lie and underreport your mileage.

you can also lie and overreport your mileage.

Fair enough. But what do you do about this? Decide that the low mileage guys do more and the high mileage guys do less? And what do you base that on? Do you not believe anyone?

I remember watching Eric Holt at Swarthmore Last Chance Meet a few years ago before he reached that next level. I didn't know who he was but remember him on the starting line and thinking no way a guy that big can run that fast. Sure enough he ran a really solid race and I've been a big fan ever since.

It doesn't sound like OP is Holt based on the times he gave.

You don't understand how experiments. I have real life data just as the OP does. We experienced similar results by doing near the opposite things which therefore negates his experiment already after just w data sets. I think the OP got super shoes just like my son and that contributed greatly to both their improvements.

not go wrote:

You don't understand how experiments. I have real life data just as the OP does. We experienced similar results by doing near the opposite things which therefore negates his experiment already after just w data sets. I think the OP got super shoes just like my son and that contributed greatly to both their improvements.

I bothered to reply to you with a detailed answer already. Probably best to read that before you reply again

I don't believe any of it. You are just another slow guy here who loves to tout the fake benefits of super high mileage. There are no real life examples of 1500 runners for who this has worked.