Real Low Mileage performers.

I remember Jackie Areson talking about her only peaking at 35 mpw and coming in second at NON with a 4:45. She said running anymore would get her injured.

aside from my 34:01 10k and my 1:18 half marathon, i have NEVER ran more than 20minutes in 1 day. honest to god truth. running any more that that just burns away all your muscle, high mileage is probably the reason of my hematurria and zero tolerance for hard plates.

and that's why you are only a 430 miler and not any quicker.

This has really helped out and given me some ideas for winter base. Smart training instead of just running high mileage with no idea why.

BUMP

This is an old thread, I know, but very interesting to read.

A 2:10:43 marathon performance just of 40 miles/week seems to be a true world record and a lesson for all training more than 120 miles/week without coming close to that result.

Also Bernie Allen´s 2:17 with no more than 45 miles is just great.

What I would like to know: What´s the story behind this incredible ratio of low mileage input and a superb output? Have there ever been years/months/weeks with more mileage? Is it one of the last taper weeks before race day or a typical, peak training week?

It's FAR better to be slightly-to-moderately undertrained than to be overtrained, as far as performance is concerned.

Hi António,

i'm sorry, but what you have write about José Regalo it's not corret.

He started is carrer in 1977, trained by coach António Pinto de Sousa

March 1982: José Regalo is 2.º on júnior nacional cross, behind Cipriano Lucas, Dionísio Castro anda José Correia. After that, he was 92.º on world cross championship on Rome.

june 1982: he was 3.º on júnior championship of Portugal in 1500 metros, with 3.51,7, after Rogério Cerqueira and Paulo Pinhal.

1983: he made 3.55.5 on 1500 m and 14.15.24 on 5000 m.

After reading this thread it appears that running on low-mileage can give you great results if you run a lot of quality miles. I ran 4:23, 9:20, 1:56 in HS off of mostly 20-30 mpw.

I did do marathons in my 20s and 30s and did get up to 90-100 mpw and ran a best of 2:27...

Now in my 40s, I've definitely gone with more quality over quantity...I ran 4:27 mi @ 44 off of 40 mpw - not crazy low, but not super high either...

Now in my late 40s I am trying a lot more tempo, LT and interval runs and it seems to be working well. I seem to ramp up to faster times quicker... most of my runs are only 3-5 miles long, but nearly all have some/all aspect of intervals, race pace (5k), LT or progression runs...

I'm going to see where this takes me and report back, even though this is a very old thread...

Off the Wall wrote:

One friend recently mentioned a guy he knew in the 70's who ran sub-3 hour marathons off of 25 miles a week of training. The fellow was coaching in New England somewhere of late.

Hell - I did that this year - sub-3 hour marathon off of 25 mpw on the treadmill. One long run was outside.

Tempos, LTs, and a couple long runs. Plenty of days off including a whole week off in the 12 week period, and virtually no easy runs.

Horrible diet - was at about 6', 180.

Blane wrote:

It's FAR better to be slightly-to-moderately undertrained than to be overtrained, as far as performance is concerned.

Lots of good info on this very old thread.

Something to consider! ?

The way to the top on low mileage.

Here are some books on that subject:

https://www.amazon.com/Low-Mileage-Running-Short-Faster-Injury/dp/1514865068/ref=sr_1_1?crid=870EMJOPYLPJ&keywords=low+mileage+running&qid=1551578214&s=gateway&sprefix=low+mileage+%2Caps%2C164&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/UltraMental-Updated-2017-Full-Color/dp/1548575453/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3P6382RAAB2SH&keywords=ultramental&qid=1551578653&s=books&sprefix=ultramental%2Cstripbooks%2C406&sr=1-1-catcorr

https://www.amazon.com/HIIT-Intensity-Interval-Training-Explained-ebook/dp/B074BK5PBB/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1_sspa?keywords=HIIT+HIGH+INTENSITY+INTERVAL+TRAINING+EXPLAINED&qid=1551578919&s=books&sr=1-1-fkmrnull-spons&psc=1

You really are a healthy fan in this forum where high mileage is most often cited as advice

for improvement.At least you've conviced me to take the low mileage route. Keep on your good work .

Have you been lying low or have I just not seen your posts? Definitely an interesting thread and I agree that lower mileage works for some people but I think they are a minority. The guy mentioning Bernie Allen must be responding to something I put up. Bernie actually got all the way to 50 a week at times for that 2:17. He'd have been 27. Ten years later on 120 mile weeks he ran 2:15:31.

Another low mileage runner was Doug Padilla. He was very good over 2 miles indoor. He just had the right build for that particular event. He also represented the USA in the Olympics running in the 5000m event. Generally ran between 30-50 miles with 40 being the sweet spot. Ran hills in the Fall. Did a lot of long intervals 800,1000,1200 type reps to build strength in addition to shorter faster stuff.

It's always possible to say "So and So would have been faster if he'd done things like I think he should have." Bernie got faster when he ran more. Three years before his 2:17 he set the course record at Enschede, beating Mamo Wolde, at 2:16:54 and he did that on slightly more volume, 60-70 mpw, for ten weeks. And then we get to the 2:15 at age 37 in what was his 97th or 98th marathon that came from a major increase in volume. Of course you can say "Think what he could have run if he'd done it my way" just as I can say "Think what he could have done if he'd run 160 mpw."

All we KNOW is that he got a lot faster (I'm thinking here that 2:15 at age 37 is a lot faster than 2:16 or 2:17 at age 25 or 27) when he ran a lot more. And that basically is what happened with distance running from Zatopek onward; the general trend was to more mileage and faster times with some very notable exceptions. The reason that 9 of 10 times the advice given here to people wanting to run faster is to run more is because there's a ton of observational data suggesting that it works.

I've said from the day you began posting here that I'm interested in what you're trying to do . I think it can be valuable to runners who want to be serious and competitive but who for whatever reason aren't going to spend two hours running every day . I believe you can get close to your best performances on relatively low volume but to get the most you need to run a lot more. I will keep watching your results, if I can find them, but to convince me your'e going to need to come up with multiple runners getting comparable or superior results to the high volume types.

Bump

An absolutely brilliant thread that unfortunately features JS posting from multiple handles right at the end. Mods would do great to remove his despicable self-promotion from a truly legendary discussion.

Don't know what people consider low/moderate/high mileage or what a "real performer" is, but I know a guy who runs around 70-75 mpw during his heavy training periods (total training time 7h30-8h) and recently ran a 7:51 3000m indoor and 13:41 5000m.

Weekly structure is:

M: 60min. easy (~6:25 pace)

T: 60min. easy or 2 x 40min. easy

W: Intervals

T: 60min. easy or 2 x 40min. easy

F: Hill work (usually 10 x 200m or 5x150m + 5x200m)

S: 80-90 min. easy long run

S: Intervals

Intervals are longer+slower in the off-season and shorter+faster closer to races.

Rinse, repeat...