What is the minimum mileage required to be decent as a masters?

You ain't old...

Local races, you mean like 5K/10K? I think 30mpw should be fine (if minimal), but I understand some will say that mileage is too low. Depends on how you personally respond, I guess.

How about something like this for a 30mpw approach:

M/T/Th/F - 5 mi easy plus 4 x 100m strides @ mile effort

W - 1 mi wu, 3 x mile OR 4 x 1200 @ faster than 10K pace (say, 8K pace?) OR 6 x 800 @ 5K pace, with 1 min rest, 1/2 mi cd.

Sat - 1 mi wu, 12 × 400 OR 8 x 600 at 5K pace with 30 sec rest (faster on the last 1 or 2 if you feel ok), OR 12 x 300 at 3K pace and jog the curve, 1/2 mi cd.

Sun - off

That's 30mpw ... if you could add an easy 10 miles on Sunday, that might help. That, and maybe a 2 week taper before a key race.

I'm not an expert; sorry if these pace suggestions are off. But I think I'm in the ballpark.

Just some ideas :)

Thanks for the information.

That's sort of what I 'try' and do, but also swap one for a longer run every other week, but struggling to be structured with workouts during lockdowns. I find it hard with a lot of the threads to figure how to adapt for training older folk (I'm >50 now).

Keep those thoughts coming :).

I used to be kinda fast but now slow wrote:

I’m 41. Qualified for Boston a few years ago, had an injury, now returning to running but leery of going back to old mileage, which wasn’t *that* high to be honest (50 mpw). Is there a way for a masters runner to be competitive for age group in local races running 30 mpw but with some quality sessions? Or is this just not enough?

Yeah, 41 ain't old. LOL!

Yes, you can get by on less training- if the marathon is not your race distance. 50s is good if it is. If you want to do some faster 1/2 marathons, you need more mileage (40s), but 5K-10k, I'd say mileage in the 30s would work, but 40s is better- unless you are a fast twitch guy, then 30s.

You can do all the workouts you did before, just might have to do less volume and allow for more recovery in between sessions, and maybe intervals- esp. if hot.

A weekly structure of three key runs was always my basic approach, and this works well for almost all runners, with 1-2 mile warmup, 1-2 cooldown- fill the rest of the week with easy miles and maybe 1-2 days off:

1. Shorter faster intervals-200s-400s @ 1mile ( maybe 800)> 5k (pace you can run now-adjust pace as you increase fitness). Can alt. with shorter hills of 30-1 min. 1-2 min rest.

2. Longer slower intervals- 800-1mile @ 5k>1/2 pace. If you are training for only mile and 5K, 800s @ 1mile-2mile can be good too. 1-3 min rest depending on speed and length of work interval.

3. Long run of 1:30, can alt. weeks with 3-6 miles @ about 1/2 pace, or last three miles fast finish- leave 1 mile cool down.

4. If you don't like intervals, or putting pace in a LR, do a 20-40 min Tempo @ 10mile> 1/2 pace, run either instead of, or alt. weeks with the longer intervals, but keep the shorter, faster work every week.

I'm 60 now, and any structured training is pretty well out the door. I just do what I can and try to keep easy miles, and in the 40s, and if I can get a injury free block of training, I'll race. But the above is what I've done you can keep doing barring injury, as long as you can and stay competitive.

Also, do this year round, just tapering a little the week before a race. As you age you get out of shape quick and trying to "peak" becomes harder. Better to stay in fairly good shape during the season, and allow races to bring the best out of you- don't over train but do your fastest/hardest work during race season. You can drop intensity during the "off" season a notch, and do some fartlek and hills, but try and do a little speedwork/tempo once a week, on or off the track, and keep the LR.

You might have to eventually just do one quality day a week and keep the longer run, and your paces might have to be only ran at about 5K pace to limit injury, but this is what you want to do to remain competitive. Good luck!

Bernard Lagat ran a 2:12 marathon at your age, and sub 28 10k. Lots of 40+ year olds can still run around 30 flat for a 10k, and sub 2:20's marathon

It depends on what "local" is for you. If you're in a larger city local race times are about the same as regional times. If you're out in the 'burbs then just being consistent and doing some speed work can get you age group awards.

For local 5k/10k type races 30 mi/week with some speed work could be fine. But, unless you're injury prone, don't be afraid of mileage. I'm well into my 50's and average 50 mi/week, peaking at a little over 60, during a marathon training cycle. That isn't even really high mileage for the distance or my age but still doesn't beat me up while still giving me respectable times.

Old and slow wrote:

You ain't old...

That's for sure. To be at least 41 again would be a joy. 55+ here still logging 30+ mpw but each run feels like one foot on the brake and one on the gas and what used to take two hours now takes all day.

I ran 15:55 at age 41 on 30 MPW. I ran 4-5 easy miles 4 days per week and ran cut down runs of 6 miles the other 2 days.

43 yo, my 10k PB this year is 38:21

I only run once a week, 10k as fast as I can. That's it.

The minimum mileage is 100 mpw. Age is just another number. You can run 100 mpw as long as you have motivation and commitment.