16:45 on 90 MPW is a poor ROI

Not everyone thinks of every activity as a transaction.

If you do, then you're the joke in this scenario.

You're allowed to do things you actually enjoy, and they can be rewards in themselves.

Anyway, race times don't come with a caveat. Running 90mpw doesn't make 16:45 any slower. No one's handing out Olympic gold medals to the people doing the least amount of mileage for the fastest times.

My best 5k was a 17:06, and I was probably doing only about 30 mpw, if that. But I was young and in decent shape. I'm sure I could have gone faster if I trained more (and smarter), but I would not have wanted to invest 90 miles a week of running just to shave 21 seconds off my PB. I do like running, but not *that* much.

If they keep running 90mpw it won't be 16:45 it'll be faster, some people run for the long term goals and actually enjoy it. I did a 160 mile week at 4:15/km (I love running) before my 16:21 5K PB I won the race with a sick kick and I was super strong from the mileage so never got injured.

Oh and my friend is useless with less than 100mpw, he run 15 min 5K then when he did 190 miles a week he run 13:50 regularly

Sorry for triple post forgot to mention some people are speed based like Bruce Tulloh and run 13:40 5K off 3 months of 30mpw and others are strength based.

Maybe its a woman....

Ran 17 mins off 40-50 mpw

Different people have different talent levels. I was running 70-80 mpw when I ran my PR of 16:48. You might call that poor ROI, I call that a fun memorable experience. Some people are more talented than others. Just because you're more talented than someone else doesn't mean you should be a snob about it. As long as they had fun and are happy with their results, that's all that matters.

6 mi
3.8
sick
sick
12.7
9.7
16
6.9
12.7
22.7
19.1
20.8
15 (including race) - 17:21 5k

Lifting twice per week. Roughly one 3 mile workout per week

For all any of us know you’re talking about an elite masters woman who races marathons.

The point is definitely right, although Tulloh was more about 40 mpw when he won the Europeans. He went up to 60 mpw heading into the next Olympics but kept getting sick.

Oddly enough I was at an age when I competed against both Bruce and his son, Clive.

Personally, I was more speed-based, loved running intervals, and all the steady running to get to 90 mpw would have probably have destroyed my enjoyment of running. I was one who'd rather do 20x200m on the track, than a slow 2 hours in the woods.

My neighbor is pushing 40. He had been running that type of mileage for 20 years but still only races 7-7:30 pace.

Why not?

13:30 won't qualify any male for a major championship.

The standard at the last Olympics was 13:05.

Also, 90 miles will likely take 11-12 hours per week. Running 50 will take 6-7 hours.

Given that you likely waste 8 hours a day on your phone, a whole extra 4-5 hours of additional time each week doesn't seem like "plenty of time for recovery and doing other things in life."

I also only have ~1 hour/day to run. I'm currently running the singles Norwegian method with some slight tweaks. On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, I warm up, go straight into the workout, and then straight into the cool down. I do a twenty minute warm up on Tuesday and Thursday and fifteen on Saturday. Monday is a Rubio style speed maintenance day. The rest of the days are easy, Sunday is my long run.

I recently saw interview with our best female distance runner in our country. What really struck me was her training. She runs around 100 miles per week plus minus. She dont fancy weight lifting, running hills or any fast repeats apart from some half assed strides every now and then. She was asked how fast she runs her cruise mile intervals? She told that around 3:30 or more like 3:35. But she mostly ran 20x500m repeats with 45s rest recently. Her long run is more like fartlek when she is changing paces every 10 minutes easy-4:30-4:00. She recently ran 1:08 and 2:23. Her progression is slow but steady. I still cant understand how she can run that fast.

those 500m repeats were half marathon pace

If he enjoys it, good for him. I ran 16:00 on 45-55 mpw. I look back and wonder what I would have run on more mileage and consistency.

At least he will have no regrets.

you were young and in decent shape?! you were young, scared of a bit of graft and now have a sh1t PB to show for your efforts. how can you have the balls to coach anyone with a hint of ambition if you ever ran 30 miles per week yourself