Now that I’m 3 yrs out of school, married and have a son, 16:xx on 30-40mpw is far superior. I get the best of both worlds.
I stay in decent shape, but only have to run over 1hr once a week. I can win all the local 5ks I want and be competitive enough in actual races so I don’t look like a hobby jogger.
I have time to spend with my family, help the wife at home, be invested in my career and work overtime when I need to. I can plan running around my life instead of the other way around.
I appear to friends as a hardworking dad who also gets after it and stays in shape. Meanwhile some of my school buddies remain single, work their entry-level job, run 90mpw, and still run 15:xx. Not that I am busting on their grind, but at some point you realize you can apply that same discipline to other areas in life and also be a runner.
You are making a good decision as husbandship, fatherhood, and career should be your highest priorities now that this is your life. At that point, 30-40 mpw and some lifting is ideal.
My approach to a running life was to try to be as good as I could be in college, and then devote a few years to seeing if I could make an Olympic team or sniff a “pro” contract. But that was it. I put the line in the sand that, if by age 25 I wasn’t a star, I’d move on. And I did, assisted in the decision by a rather intractable injury. I decided at that point that grad school and career and eventual family were far more important concerns, and I was tired of being tired all the time, as well as skinny fat, so I decided to start lifting and only keep running to stay in relatively decent shape, basically 20-30 min per day, 5-6 days per week.
And I would recommend this to anyone, shy of training for the Boston marathon or similar. See how good you can be in your early 20s, but have an off ramp or exit plan. Do not be a 32-year old chasing the dream at the cost of everything else in your life. But for those who still love running and aren’t quite there with the family obligations, why not run more? And even with, 50-60 mpw is still very, very doable. Basically 8-10 miles per day in six days.
Dudes, you've been brainwashed by the US media. Working hard, doing overtime and working for a "career" is not the point of life. Work to live, do not live to work.
How many people on their death beds said "I wish I worked more"?
I would rather run 16:01 on 25 mpw than 15:59 on 100 mpw
I'll maybe get the guy who says I have Barry Brown Syndrome going again but for me running 25 miles a week wouldn't have seemed worth the effort of getting out the door. I'd rather have run the 100 and taken whaever results it brought.
Yet I’d bet OP and everyone else agreeing puts in overtime at work for no gain at all. Slave to the system. At least overtime in running nets you improved times and fitness.
It's better to run sub 15 min at 5 k on 40-50 mpw and get plenty of time for other more important things in life than running. But you need to be quite talented for such a fast time anyway.
This is the age old LRC question. Of course the good coach would rather see low mileage 16, so you have room still to improve as a pro.
On the other hand high mileage might get you a high school title that lasts a lifetime.
That would be room to grow at about three levels below being a pro. A good coach will help his runners run as they possibly can as HSers. The goal isn’t to run for participation medals.