High School Mileage (please drop an opinion)

Nothing at all wrong with 70 if you built up to handle it.

A) That's not high mileage. B) Your teammates are probably trash and don't know what they are talking about. C) Volume doesn't cause injury. Bad life choices outside of running(not sleeping enough, eating well, drinking alcohol regularly etc.), and bad biomechanics do. D) The all time American greats(Ryan Hall and Dathan Ritzenhein) ran 100 mpw in high school, so this leads back to A.

Run 70 cause you will be better off for it if you can handle it. But make sure you continue to do the things outside of running that help you recover.

We all know there are three things you're never supposed to talk about: politic, religion, and high school mileage.

Some guys succeed on lower miles. Hocker was a 30 mile a week guy in high school. Some high milage like Ritz. He was 80-90 range his senior year. Everyone functions differently. I like the 50-60 mile range for good high school male runners.

I'll bite... sounds like you have had a planned gradual sensible build up so I don't see a problem if you are like you say healthy and mostly injury free. We have gotten a couple girls into the upper 50's with a similar approach to building mileage over the years which isn't that far off of a male hitting 70. Only thing I'm not sure of is two workouts during the summer. we generally just do mileage and strides for the 6-8 week summer build up then start workouts in August.

But if its working I would say keep it up but proceed with caution and be ready to back off if needed.

You are squeezing another 5 seconds out of a 5k instead of doing 50mpw and keeping injury risk lower.

the average mileage of an nxn qualifier is closer to 50 than 70

robert678 wrote:

We all know there are three things you're never supposed to talk about: politic, religion, and high school mileage.

#hottake

If you built up to it, it could be reasonable. I'd drop down to 60 once you start racing, if not sooner, to play it safe though. It's your senior year, make it a good memory with lots of races instead of possible injuries.

And mileage varies quite a bit and how people respond to it. Like Sara Hall ran 80 mpw in HS, most of it at a good pace, and she turned out fine. Some kids got burnt out and injured frequently on much less. Some like Cole Hocker and Adam Goucher ran 35 mpw in HS. Just believe in what you're doing and trust your coach.

You done good

Don't listen to your teammates. They're probably slow and suck.

Every state winner when I was in high school ran 10 miles a day. But not every runner I knew in high school that ran 10 miles a day won state.

If you've built up to it intelligently, no issue. I would consider going to 60 or 55 weekly once the season gets serious, though. Lift weights some, and work on your core, would be my other advice.

Not my real handle wrote:

Every state winner when I was in high school ran 10 miles a day. But not every runner I knew in high school that ran 10 miles a day won state.

If you've built up to it intelligently, no issue. I would consider going to 60 or 55 weekly once the season gets serious, though. Lift weights some, and work on your core, would be my other advice.

I ran 50-55 mpw w one day off every week and finished second at state in the big school division in a pretty competitive state. I got out kicked. However, I do wish I had tried 70-75. I don’t think a high schooler needs to run more than that unless they want to risk high school being “the end.”

i may have missed it but what event are you training for? What are your previous times? How about a 5k pr, mile pr, 400pr, etc... also body fat % is helpful. Are you doing any type of weight training? hill work etc??? Getting fit isn't all about the miles

faster now wrote:

You are squeezing another 5 seconds out of a 5k instead of doing 50mpw and keeping injury risk lower.

Facts?

Sub-9 guy wrote:

Not my real handle wrote:

Every state winner when I was in high school ran 10 miles a day. But not every runner I knew in high school that ran 10 miles a day won state.

If you've built up to it intelligently, no issue. I would consider going to 60 or 55 weekly once the season gets serious, though. Lift weights some, and work on your core, would be my other advice.

I ran 50-55 mpw w one day off every week and finished second at state in the big school division in a pretty competitive state. I got out kicked. However, I do wish I had tried 70-75. I don’t think a high schooler needs to run more than that unless they want to risk high school being “the end.”

When I was in HS, all the best boys in our conference and the state ran 50-60 mpw, usually in 6 days a week of running. For girls it was usually 40-50 mpw, also in 6 days a week of running. People didn't usually double though.

Consistency beats Volume beats Intensity.

The biggest open secret in distance running: consistency at whichever mileage you can maintain for YEARS maybe a DECADE. Is that 90 MPW? Doubtful.

Now back in the day I ran my best off 40-45 miles per week in High school. As a coach my athletes have had the same success with times such as 3:51 for 1500m and 1:50 for 800m. The focus for XC is to be ready to run fast come spring. Mileage is somewhat irrelevant. If not sure ask my 8th grade female that has run 17:54 for 5k.

A few suggestions during your summer months:

Short hill repeats

Easy 60-80 min runs

threshold running

easy is easy

alternations..ie fartlek is good stuff

Good luck!

Doing 70 the way you are doing it (workouts plus lots of easy/recovery mileage) seems fine. If you were out there hammering every run that would be another thing. I’ve spent a lifetime being injured by being dumb and running hard too often