I was wondering, how far can one get doing 100+ miles per week, but without high intensity workouts, just easy and tempo run, like one or two tempos a week (1 at LT and one at marathon pace)?
I was wondering, how far can one get doing 100+ miles per week, but without high intensity workouts, just easy and tempo run, like one or two tempos a week (1 at LT and one at marathon pace)?
If they race regularly, I'd say they could get pretty good at 10k and longer, but in most cases not quite their max potential. Let's say you take someone like Eliud Kipchoge and had him do a tempo on Wednesdays and long run on Saturdays and easy the other days for 120+ mpw, he'd probably still run sub 2:04 in Berlin on a good day and sub 2:05 on a bad day.
The easy answer is 100 miles a week.
The non-smartas$ answer is that someone training 100 MPW is going to develop much of their overall capacity at distances beyond 10K and up to the marathon.
My best marathons have followed training periods of my highest mileage, whether or not the 'quality' workout portions were carried out successfully.
Think you could do pretty well at the amateur level. Look up jason cherriman and Johnathan Walton. Both hit 100+ mpw using maffetone with a tempo/LT thrown in. Cherriman ran a 2:21 PB and Walton 2:28 as a masters runner
Talking about the marathon ^
Sounds like the EL COJOTE LOCO approach. Hé is a sub 14 minute 5k guy, so who knows. He ran insanely high mileage for the 5k off of easy miles+tempo’s and here and there some strides.
When I was 15-16, I ran 110-115 mpw for 10 weeks.
My PBs for the following (Jr) year were 3k 9:06 and 1.5k 4:08. Not great, but not terrible. I probably could have run better w/ half that summer mileage.
Some people react well to that much mileage. Others fold like a cheap suit. It is not because of how, "tough" or, "blue collar" one is. It is genetics. In my case, I developed undiagnosed hypothyroidism, and it took me 1-2 years to recover. I jumped right back into high mileage, and was a wreck about a year later as a result.
I only realized this was hypothyroidism because I started running at 40, built up mileage, and then crashed again w/ the same physical reactions. High mileage does a number on my endocrine system. Others, maybe no issue.
I would guess that running such high mileage as an undeveloped kid really could do a number on one's physiology. Have you considered whether that high mileage at such a young age jacked you up in ways that stuck with you?
Babydick Johnson wrote:
When I was 15-16, I ran 110-115 mpw for 10 weeks.
My PBs for the following (Jr) year were 3k 9:06 and 1.5k 4:08. Not great, but not terrible. I probably could have run better w/ half that summer mileage.
Some people react well to that much mileage. Others fold like a cheap suit. It is not because of how, "tough" or, "blue collar" one is. It is genetics. In my case, I developed undiagnosed hypothyroidism, and it took me 1-2 years to recover. I jumped right back into high mileage, and was a wreck about a year later as a result.
I only realized this was hypothyroidism because I started running at 40, built up mileage, and then crashed again w/ the same physical reactions. High mileage does a number on my endocrine system. Others, maybe no issue.
Theoretical Running wrote:
I was wondering, how far can one get doing 100+ miles per week, but without high intensity workouts, just easy and tempo run, like one or two tempos a week (1 at LT and one at marathon pace)?
Long, slow distance seemed to work pretty well for Ed Whitlock.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_WhitlockIn all cases I recovered. My health is fine now. No underlying problems w/ my endocrine system. There is no real way to tell how one will react until you try it. It is incumbent on coaches to recognize that athletes are not sandbagging when they say they are tired. In most cases, they actually are.