" Up your mileage.. " ???

Even your athlete Sammy Nyokaye decided to up his mileage without initially telling you because he was getting crap results from your low-mileage approach.

Your biggest mistake is to pick a couple of examples of athletes who had success with low mileage and think that it works for most. That is really dumb. You should instead see what most successful athletes do.

Why don't you tell Gjert Ingebrigtsen or Patrcik Sang to get Jakob and Eliud on low-mileage training? I am sure they could learn a lot from the Swedish troll who can't get a 1:02:13 minute marathoner to run under 2:14 for the marathon.

There are numerous papers and training experience around to show that volume is the most important variable in endurance training.

If you think you can compensate 12h/week running, with 6h/week running at a higher intensity, this does not work and never has.

On the other side there seems to be a sweetspot for volume, depending on fitness level and other factors, as an athlete has to train also at higher intensities and can not handle endless volume.

Assume that both 6h and 12h of training are administered properly: is it always the case that 12h of training will beat 6h at a higher intensity?

Hi! Did you know I really expected you to be the very first poster to comment on this thread )) I guess you are a critical countryman or Scandinavian or at least European when it`s still night in USA, or you just have trouble to sleep?)) Anyway, I will comment your false claims of my coached runner Sammy one more time. When I started to coach him back in 2015 he ran his so far fastest half in 1:02:13 ( 2nd place in France). This is the only half he has run outside Africa with me as coach. Then in 2017 he won the big half Mully`s and beating a runner that after ran 59 min in Copenhagen half. Sammy had troubles to get "real" races by his management and mostly got pacemaking jobs abroad. Example given he pacemaked a Spanish "B" runner in Barcelona that couldn`t follow him and dropped out and Sammy ran alone to get 7th place and 2:14 and at least some good price money. Then came the covid to hit the world and opportunity to get races abroad almost impossible. Many Kenyans suffered of course and got trouble to just find money to food and daily living. Then I proposed to him to try run my original DANCAN on just 6 sessions per week because of lack of food and energy. He agreed and he reached the very best shape in his running life and was supposed to run in the Lagos marathon,but before he got malaria and had to recover and start over again. Then I had him back in good shape to run this years Nairobi marathon but again he got malaria. Now when covid isn`t the same problem again and he get enough food and energy he is back to his normal training with 2 runs per day and rest on Saturdays. When I started to coach him I didn`t change his routine of mileage and doubles , I just changed the effectiveness of his workouts and overall program. A short comment on Gjert Ingebrigtsen and Patrick Sang; Jacob didn`t run high mileage before he started to get more matured, he didn`t have to because he is an exeptional talent of course. When it comes to Sang I have told many times before that Geoffrey Kamworor chosed between Sang`s training schedule on a paper and my sample week for him and he asked me to coach him in secret to aim for the world record at 15 k in Netherlands Seven hills race. I know and understand of course that you and many more don`t believe this is the truth I tell, but it is .

I tend to agree.

It makes more sense to become as efficient as possible on low mileage. Then when you feel you have maxed out, increase the mileage a little bit.

It's more important to find a balance because more mileage doesn't always = faster times. It's not as simple as that.

Not necessarily. Sometimes recovery is more important than further stimulus.

Also, can most people absorb 12 hours of quality running every week AND not get tired AND stay injury free? No.

Well,... Lexel. We will never agree on that point. There are numerous examples as well in running history on runners being at world top on just relatively low volume. And in many endurance sports as swimming and cross country skiing many focus more on quality nowadays. Besides the sports I mentioned have different demands than running.

Training just 6h compared to 12 hours functions very well , but you got to know how to do it the most effective way.

A big problem is that many runners are looking for the sweet spot of volume they can stand before breakdown and many of them get severe injuries or overdoing troubles and so on, instead of looking for the sweet spot of volume that is enough to improve .

Increasing training volume, especially low intensity is of course one of the best ways to improve as a endurance athlete. Look at the tour de France happening right now, do you think any of the top contenders train via low volume, high intensity?

It`s a very different endurance sport with other demands than running. When you do the Giro de Italia or Tour de France you have to last huge kilometers , giant hills and for several days in a row.

I ran fine on lower mileage (40 MPW - high 15's 5k) but improved a lot on higher mileage. I kept my intensity relatively low so I could run more moderate intensity work like the Norwegians. I'd argue that running, over the course of a week, 15 miles around 5:50 to 6:00 pace will lead to better gains than 3 miles of running at 5:30 pace. But you need high mileage to do such a thing - moderate pace work is a tiny over 20% of my weekly mileage and has made me aerobically much stronger and more efficient

1 - Sammy improved 29 seconds in his first half marathon with you as a coach. He never improved after that. When was that? 2015. 7 years with zero improvement.

2 - If Sammy had a good coach and ran decent times, he would have place for racing in Europe. It is 100% your fault that a 62:13 runner hasn't run at least 2:10-2:11. There are plenty of Kenyans at that level racing in Europe.

3 - You always claim to have him in good shape but look what happened to him in Nigeria? Weak field, you talking about being a candidate to a top 3 if not the win, and he finished outside the prize money.

4 - You can't claim you changed the effectiveness of Sammy's training. If his results get worse over the years then there is no such thing as effectiveness in your training.

5 - Geoffrey Kamworor never asked you to coach him. Until you prove it, that's just another of your many proven lies. Repeating a lie doesn't make it the truth.

6 - Staying on topic, I repeat, you take exceptions hoping to prove your low-mileage approach is the best. I take the rule to show you your examples exist but they are just that, exceptions. Your athletes' results prove that you don't know how to coach.

There is a related question of how to get the best out of a given (relatively low) amount of mileage for your running goal. Most folks are not trying to be elites or even necessarily the best they can be, but approach running from a mindset of “here’s how much time I can afford to indulge in this hobby, and I’d like to get the best out of it”. Most responses to newbies seeking advice on this forum appear to be “just run more” frequently coupled with scolding for wanting to improve without putting in the work.

it wOuld take some s.e.rious ~MAGIC~ for me to believe t`his fool. *zooom*

Interesting the Swede re-invented , but didnt, he still has his head buried in the sand and only see's his way as the best way !

A great coach will have an open mind , respect other coaches rather than insult them and be flexible enough to realise that different horses in his stable might need a different route when it comes to training , all runners are individuals of course .

How many of your ' superstars' made Eugene ?

Where's his buddy Ghost ?

You have a very good point here 'runless'. So,so many people here, and of course not only here, puts equal sign to " work" and a need for high volume training. Most runners are of course not pros and have to study or perform a normal job and e.g take care of a family with kids and so on. They, at least, need to see that they can reach a very high individual level of running on just relatively very low volume of training.

Excellent post.

And you think you are saying something new?

Oh and I upvoted your post by mistake.

I believe there is a sweet spot for mileage for nearly everybody. You can only find that sweet spot through trial and error. Most people probably need to run more. That sweet spot will depend on the event that you’re training for, but the type of athlete that you are will also skew you towards the event that you’re best suited for, which goes hand in hand with the sweet spot mileage. Maybe your best event is the marathon and you need to run high mileage. Maybe your best event is the mile and somewhere more moderate is appropriate. You’ll never know until you try.

Well, some few comments to your words here. I don't insult other coaches, but it has happened some of them have insulted me as a first move. This,unfortunately, is a very common human reaction when one's conviction in a matter is overturned . As you probably know by now I have never questioned that high mileage programs functions very well and are/ have been used by the vast majority of top longdistance runners. To this I just add another dimension that demonstrably shows that relatively little time and training can lead to at least as good results.