trade-off between mileage and intervals for 800m, 1600m, and 5K?

There is no such trade-off.

Running more miles builds the fitness you need to handle more intervals.

76chine wrote:

What is the trade-off between mileage and intervals for 800m, 1600m, and 5k?

For an 800m specialist, in most cases there is no point in running lots of miles: 50-60 for the base period and then 30-40 miles is fairly typical.

For the mile and up, it may be beneficial, depending on your genetics as peak speed is less important for these distances.

HRE > Rupp wrote:

There is no such trade-off.

Running more miles builds the fitness you need to handle more intervals.

partly true. For the 5k, you don't need too many miles.