Results of a year running nothing but base building mileage

I met a guy who was 53 and only ran slow miles (like 9 min pace according to him) and he was running 13 miles everyday. He ran a 1:13 half marathon at 53. Don't know if I should believe that he only runs slow miles but I did witness the 1:13 at world masters. He was probably an ex really good collegiate runner or something.

Probably Just a Troll But.... wrote:

Add in no girlfriend/wife in their life and this just might be real.

Yeah, seriously OP, is a faster time really worth not having a life?

And if this is such a good way to train, why aren't professional runners doing this?

Some do...the Japanese have had many sub-2:10 guys training huge, slow miles, including their NR holder Takoaka 2:06:16. Many of the Africans run VERY leisurely on recovery days and spend much of their childhood jogging from one place to another. I wish I had lived more than a half-mile from my grade school as I always jog/walked there and enjoyed it.And of course, the greatest older runner of all time, Ed Whitlock, is the grandaddy of this type of training.Pro runners are under massive pressure to deliver THIS season, and are willing to risk injuries or overtraining. Shorter faster training got them to the top by age 20 or so, and they stick with that. For longer-term results, like 10 years or more, they are not the ideal role models.

awesome blossom wrote:

Probably Just a Troll But.... wrote:

Add in no girlfriend/wife in their life and this just might be real.

Yeah, seriously OP, is a faster time really worth not having a life?

And if this is such a good way to train, why aren't professional runners doing this?

Correct me if I'm mistaken but I believe that the successful and long lasting elite athletes spend the majority of their time at aerobic pace. They definitely do the hard miles, but not with the frequency that one might think. I think that in this guy's case, he definitely has some innate ability to be able to run a 16 minute 5k. Not just anyone can go out and do that. BUT, it's also not necessary to do high intensity intervals day in and day out to be successful. I think that his high aerobic capacity was given a chance to develop because he wasn't running himself into the ground and was recovering well. Take a look at just about any age group athlete's metrics (such as on Strava), and you'll see that they do way too much training at medium and high intensity, and therefore it's no wonder that they get injured so much. I know quite a lot of very good runners who spend the majority of their miles at a lower effort and save their hard efforts for key workouts and for races, and in addition to not getting injured frequently, they kill it at races.

True. If you started your running career as a high school competitor in particular, you likely have the constant impulse to push too hard on what should be your easy days. It has taken me decades to overcome this, at the price of lots of injuries.

there's something to be said about the lost art of best aerobic pace

awesome blossom wrote:

Probably Just a Troll But.... wrote:

Add in no girlfriend/wife in their life and this just might be real.

Yeah, seriously OP, is a faster time really worth not having a life?

And if this is such a good way to train, why aren't professional runners doing this?

Why would you think that if the OP is training this way he doesn't have a life? Maybe he actually likes to run.

And for someone who doesn't respond well to hard or fast running this could be a good way to train. Note Burdett's comment about running easily today so he can be healthy enough to run easily tomorrow. It's probably not going to get you to world class but for most of us nothing else will either. People who make it as professionals are almost always people who do respond well to at least some hard and/or fast running and for them this is probably not the best way to train.

[quote]Soft Machine wrote:

Pro runners are under massive pressure to deliver THIS season, and are willing to risk injuries or overtraining. Shorter faster training got them to the top by age 20 or so, and they stick with that. For longer-term results, like 10 years or more, they are not the ideal role models.

[quote]awesome blossom wrote:

Brilliant - spot on! I couldn't agree more with this!

Well, I hate to say this, but the fact you (OP) never replied means you are trolling. But to give you the benefit of the doubt a similar thing happened to me when I was much younger (From 1979-1980)

I did almost the exact same thing you did because the guy that coached me thought so. Only difference: Once a week I was doing between 10-12 1k repeats at race pace. We didn't knew jack about VO2 max, lactic acid etc. The mileage was based on 10 miles at 4:30am, and 10 miles at 5:00pm at around 8:00 8:30 sometimes 9:00 per mile, very slow. The day of the 1k repeats Ill still do the 10 miles am and only one day off, Saturdays. In that year I did went from 1h:24 in the half to 1h16 and in the 10k from 35-36-ish to mid 32's. There were not many 5k were I grew up. In 1981, following the same training I ran 1h10:58 in the half and 30:24 for the 10k. I swore the secret was the high mileage not much the weekly 1k repeats, NOW I KNOW BETTER. On average I was doing 117 mpw. I thought it was suicidal to do anything over that. I never heard of an average Joe Schmuck doing 165 mpw just to run 16:15.

Not sure I'm following. Do you credit the high volume of easy running or the K repeats for your improvement?

LoneStarXC wrote:

That's literally impossible- there's no way you can run in the 16s when only running 8-9 min miles.

Dieter Baumann ran often 8min per mile on easy runs. Craig Mottram was close. Personally even when in my top shape (15:43) I almost never did go sub 8min mile pace in my easy runs. Steady runs near thresholds are different and still can do almost on daily basis.

UNO wrote:

LoneStarXC wrote:

That's literally impossible- there's no way you can run in the 16s when only running 8-9 min miles.

Dieter Baumann ran often 8min per mile on easy runs. Craig Mottram was close. Personally even when in my top shape (15:43) I almost never did go sub 8min mile pace in my easy runs. Steady runs near thresholds are different and still can do almost on daily basis.

Steady runs are my favorite. But can you do steady runs on a daily basis and still recover? I'm confused because you say that you went very slow on your easy days and yet you advocate steady runs on a daily basis.

Francis Burdett's training seems like what the Japanese have done for decades. Tons of slow-twitch volume monsters who run strong--they might not win races but they will hold X pace forever basically.

I like to work in some speed on Wednesdays but my runs Sunday-Friday are EZ runs and I have my Saturday long run, with the occasional Friday off.

I wish Hodgie-San's link was still working (bunnhill.com) but the site is down. It used to have good training logs of high-volume runners.

jecht wrote:

I wish Hodgie-San's link was still working (bunnhill.com) but the site is down. It used to have good training logs of high-volume runners.

Try going to:

Bobhodge.us

Actually, this simple method of base/EZ running but tons of volume will help in the summer with heat. You can't go super-fast in the blazing heat so you might as well go the other direction and just volume-load. This will get you strong and long for the fall marathon.

(Some speed can still be worked in once you're warmed up, i.e. progression runs and say 20 miles with the last 8 at MP). But no huge track workouts...

Bumping for wisdom...

I know doubles is a fast way to get EZ mileage up without too much stress on your legs. Then as you get stronger, add speed as needed.