legs feel better the higher the mileage, anyone else like me?

Sounds like the more you run, the fitter you’ve gotten. Imagine that, it’s like Lydiard was right all those years ago.

Similar thing happened to me. In high school between senior xc and tf in the winter, I went from 20-40 mpw to 70 for 10 straight weeks and dropped 15 seconds in the mile and 80 in the 3200 (soft PR, went from 17:20 5k xc to 10 flat 3200 same year). Workouts were an easier effort but longer. Thing was, legs were DEAD 24/7, but whenever I asked them to, they could move. Had the best kick ever up to that point in my career, was able to close any race in a 60-63 last 400, which was insane to me because the year prior I could barely break 60 once.

You're on the right path! Use what you learn to keep improving and my one piece of advice, just because mileage has helped, don't ignore your speed! Short hill sprints and strides are great year round.

The biggest benefit I noticed from consistent high mileage was being able to recover in between reps for hard interval workouts and always feeling ready to go for the next one. And then the cumulative fitness gains you get from repeating that week in, week out.... hard to sustain for injury prone guys like me but absolutely addicting.

So you are like 16? Well this probably wouldn’t be true if you were 50. But this is good for sure.

pretty crazy how much lydiard had right with the lack of current technology and knowledge

Agree. I'm over 50 (barely) and was running volume close to that up until my spring marathon. My legs felt tired nearly all the time. However, by keeping the majority of my runs on the low intensity side, I was able to keep going AND I do believe with higher volume (to a point), you are actually less likely to get injured, as long as you do it smartly.

I'm 58. I've been running off and on since 1982. I just ran my first 100-mile week, after spending about 5 weeks apiece in the 90s, the 80s, and the 70s. Maybe I'll get injured tomorrow. But for now, I feel stronger. Would I have been afraid to run a 100-mile week at age 16? I would. But I've always believed higher mileage is the way to go.