140 miles per week.

Bum wrote:

Fact remains, you need to run the right amount of mileage, and few of us ever do that. Most of the time it's much more than we are doing. I guess that's all I was trying to say with that.

Now you've got it: You need the 1) right mileage, 2) at the right time, and 3) for the right reasons.

Only took me 18 friggen posts! Problem is I'm sitting in the living room and my wife is watching this god-awful movie called Monster-in-Law and it's obviously affecting my ability to think, remember and reason. I need a beer, and bed.

Beaver Tranquilizer wrote:

In defense of Mee Yung Ho, it doesn't seem to me that he intended to disrespect HRE. The idea of the post is that 140 mpw doesn't automatically get you to a certain level. There are other factors that determine how fast you can run besides your motivation to work hard, and I don't think anyone on the board will dispute that.

Now that I know about him, HRE is a hero to me as well.

Uh, Ok... maybe that is what he meant, but nevertheless, I still think THAT is dumb, too. OF COURSE, not everyone can be a World Record Holder no matter how hard they work. Who WOULD dispute that, and who ever said that? On the other, if you want to see how fast YOU can go... damn HRE is convicting. I honestly believe that if he went 15:32/2:35, there are craploads that can go 2:15-18. But, not that many do and the only reason I can come up with is that they don't really want to (and least not enough to do more than talk about it).

Evil wrote:

How many on here are at or have been at 140 miles per week? I want to become as strong as possible for the 10k in the spring. Just want some feedback from people who have been there and done that. Did it feel like it made a big difference vs say 110-120?

Prepare to jack in the job and go full time as you'll be too tired to do anything.

No! That attitude is a big part of why we don't have the depth we once did.

I know that bringing up my own times is a mixed bag as a lot of people will think that I wasted my time for the performances I had. But I thought I didn't do too badly for a guy who never broke 13:00 for 2 miles in high school. Most of us want big improvements and you get them from doing lots of miles and it's not practical for everyone to go full time.

Typically, a really big day for me would have been a 15 mile run and a 7. The 15 usually took about an hour and three quarters, the 7 took about 50 minutes. So that's a shade more than two and a half hours a day. I was mostly a schoolteacher when doing this, so I had a bit more time than an office worker, but was still putting in 7-8 hours working in some form or other. It's tiring, especially at first, but you do adjust to it. Reading and watching TV became my favorite leisure activities, but I'd occasionally manage to play pick-up basketball or tennis. It's just a matter of deciding that you're going to do the miles and then figuring out how and when.

I don't really understand your post. But I'm a college student so no full time job.

Hi Dreamer ... and Tony Brien ... nice to hear from you too! (Wow, that race course up Sunset Ave. was pretty tough in LA '81!)

What I'm saying is simply this ... my "desire" to be a world class distance runner was greater than my ability ... I was willing to train very hard and be ultra consistent every day ... I was extremely lucky to NEVER get hurt running 140+ miles per week! Genetics I guess? My training was hard stuff but I loved it, and wanted to be good ... and wanted to win the Boston Marathon more than anything ... that was my # 1 goal ... winning NYC M twice meant nothing to me ... winning LA, Cleveland, Toronto were just "pay days" and nothing more to me ... I had a few challeneging goals and tired as hard as possible to acheive them ... as simple as that!

I believe we should have more sub 2:15 marathon runners in America ... true, it won't get you anywhere internationally, but there should be more runners going faster with 300 million population in America.

How about setting the American marathon standard higher? Lets train young runners (start at 19-20 years old and up to train and race (with 2:08 at least) in mind! 140 mpw is NOT a magic number once again..but you better be aware of what your compitition is doing in Africa. Its 2-3 workouts per day, 7 days a week! Its running high volume and up-tempo pace ... we must run more and it must progressively be done at a quicker pace!

I'm open and willing to coach any athlete, 2:20 guy can run 2:12 of course ... Joe Lemay had zero speed and was too tall etc etc .. but he achieved highly off 140 weekly mileage and fast tempo distance runs .. he's an example here (besides being a wonderful friend and athlete) who gave 110% all the tiime to his athletic goals!!

got to go..TF

Would you like to coach me? I'm young but willing to listen.

You would actually coach us kids?? (I'm 18)

HS kids have their HS coaches ... and HS kids don't run that kind of mileage of course! Does 75-80 mpw sound like a lot for you? It could be, and thats not bad!

I coach some HS kids privately of course ... it can be tricky with the HS program/coach agreeing! Coaching is VERY important for youth runners! The athlete must be focused, have attainable goals, great desire and the will to train consistently and progressively harder each year!

Coaching the post-college athlete is easier from that point of conflict ... but I can't seem to find any 22+ yo runners who are willing to do "the paradigm" through to the end!

TF

I graduated last year from high school and this fall am attending a university with a cross country and indoor team. I'm up north in Canada.

yes, he (Tabb), was known for doing alot of his distance training at 510-520 pace. (he's now the X-C coach at U of Pacific, up in the n.w.). Something I could never do, mentally. I would run a race every weekend, instead, to get the sub 5 minute pace in, mostly local 10ks, in the course of a 120 mile week. How about your compadre Paul Stemmer, there in Happy Valley?

So how would you recommend people who do get injured more easily progress to such high mielage? I am at a bit of a crossroads in my training, and I want to really bump up my summer mileage this year, but I have had injury problems in the past. I have decent speed, but my performances get progreessively worse as the race distance increases, and I think running higher mileage will fix that. Last XC season, I maxed out just short of 100, but probably only averaged 80 or so between July and September, averaging 6:45/mile on most of my non-workout runs. Should I slow down and jump up to higher mileage sooner, or keep at my recent training pace(more like 6:00-6:15)and build up to mileage more slowly?

6:00-6:15 is too fast for general aerobic running... unless your first name is Kenenisa.

TFFlyer wrote:

HS kids have their HS coaches ... and HS kids don't run that kind of mileage of course! Does 75-80 mpw sound like a lot for you? It could be, and thats not bad!

I coach some HS kids privately of course ... it can be tricky with the HS program/coach agreeing! Coaching is VERY important for youth runners! The athlete must be focused, have attainable goals, great desire and the will to train consistently and progressively harder each year!

Coaching the post-college athlete is easier from that point of conflict ... but I can't seem to find any 22+ yo runners who are willing to do "the paradigm" through to the end!

TF

OK I have to ask and maybe I missed it somewhere in the 16 pages of the thread. What is "the paradigm" include?

Yeah, I'm finding that out as the end of my season slowly circles the bottow of the toilet. Spent most of March and first half of April under 6:20 for pretty much everything, and I'm paying for it now. But I think part of that has to do with my mileage over the winter(way lower than I wanted, only ~50-60)so I'm not sure if it had to do with a lack of base, or if it was just way too fast. Although given the way my legs are feeling, I'm thinking it was probably both.

The only way to safely increase mileage is to slow down. This is a mental barrier for sure, as most competitive runners simply don't like running slower than they think they should. On general aerobic days, be disciplined about staying over 6:30 and preferably closer to 7:00. I am not saying that you should never go faster, but it is important to adapt to the increased mileage first and then let the pace come to you.

jscott wrote:

yes, he (Tabb), was known for doing alot of his distance training at 510-520 pace.

I know Tabb, and have run with him quite a few times. I've never observed what you've claimed, nor have I ever heard of such a thing until today. Perhaps you could enlighten me?

per Ron himself and Charlie Gray, (former training partner). I didn't mean to imply that 'every' run was at 510 pace, but a good percentage of them were 'fast'.