Anyone have any stories of getting way better with increased mileage? Let's hear it.

How old are you?

I went from a 2:53 marathon to a 2:35 by increasing my mileage. Average weekly mileage for 16 week block went from 30 to 65.

To be fair I had run 70+ in college and I had much faster relative shorter PRs. Just hadn't realized my potential in the marathon, and I think the higher mileage was the main catalyst.

I know of many runners who spoke of improvements from 50 to 75-90.

(I improved a lot from 35 to 45 and again 45 to 55.)

But if you run more, be prepared to devote sufficient time to sleep/recovery and nutrition, even if sleeping isn’t easy to fit in with your life demands.

mid-20s

in high school i never peaked past 30-40 mpw. PRs were 4:32 for 1600m and 16:12 for XC 5k.

graduated, got an actually good coach, and bumped up the mileage that summer before freshman year of college to 50-60mpw by november. was in low 15:00 maybe even sub 15 shape for the 5k. huge difference. never raced but did a few indicator workouts. e.g. 6x1mi with 3min recovery @ 5:11, 5:11, 5:04, 5:00, 4:58, 4:54. i remember having a LOT in the tank for this workout too. broke 16 during a tempo run too but i forget what the actual time was.

My first marathon in 1972 was on about 40 mpw and took 4:34:30. Over the next six years I worked up to over 100, maxing out at 155 and got to 2:35:21. Along the way I went from things like 18 plus for three miles to 15:33 for 5 km, 48 plus for six miles to 32:20 10 km. To the range you're asking about, getting to around 60 a week, the marathon went from that 4:34 to 3:24 something, the 3 and 6 from those 18 and 48 times to something like 17:04 and 34:31, both for miles, not kilometers.

My first half was a little over 1:18, off maybe 40 miles per week. Bumping the milegae up to about 60 (and also aging from 18-19) improved my time by over 3 minutes. It definitely gets you ready to do the most important workouts for the longer races (fast long runs), but you can probably improve you 5k time in a more time-efficient manner if that's a constraint.

I was a middling DIII runner on 30-50 mpw. 4:07 1500/16:07 5k off that. Grew up during the "harder is better era" of training. Was totally mediocre in my 30s, doing 30-50 mpw. Ran a 2:59 marathon, never broke 18 in my 30s. After a severe leg injury that required multiple surgeries at age 41, I started doing light doubles (20 minutes in the am and pm) to break up the volume. Discovered I kind of liked it, and for the first time built up to 50-60 miles a week. Within 5 months after surgery to remove serious hardware from my leg, I was running times that were basically as fast as I was in college. Then in my mid-40s, I built up to 70-80 mpw, and all the sudden I became a national-class masters runner, placing in my age group in major marathons and even winning my age group in one of the biggest road races in the country. I'm beating runners that always beat me in the past and keeping up with people I used to consider legends. My times now age grade to times that would have made me a competitive mid-tier DI runner. Wish I had known what I was capable of if I had taken things seriously when I was a younger man, but no time like the present!!!

50 MPW - 3:02/3:03 marathons

65-70 MPW the next year - 2:54 'thon

In my experience it’s good for about 20 sec per mile. That’s why ~30 miles per week is a popular number among solid hobby joggers.

For people with lives outside of running, it’s not worth running another 20-30 miles to take a minute off their 5K and a grand total of zero people will care.

That said, I’ll temporarily get to the 50-60 range for a half or full I care about.

At 50mpw, I ran 37 minutes for 10k.

At 80mpw, I ran 32 minutes.

If you're looking for inspiration, just read this thread: https://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=12130781

Sirpoc started at about where you're at, and ended up running a LOT faster within a couple of years.

You are kidding right?

Does Woody Kincaid count? He was an XC state champ in high school off of 30 mpw and eventually went pro after building up to high mileage

Of course more miles can make you faster. But also, more miles might create a bunch of injuries. If anybody could do more miles without getting injured, we all would have done sub 2:30 Marathons.

At the end you have to find your sweet spot for your running talent and your life schedule. Maybe you also want to do something else besides running as well.

The absolute key being how he developed a plan and system to allow him to increase mileage, without ever pushing beyond the limits of what is reasonable. I always think about that legendary thread when these questions come up.

2.46 with 70mpw.

2.40 with 150mpw.

Some people are just talented.

My average weekly mileage has been the single highest correlating factor in my race times. A few years of mile times (including some 1500 and 1600 conversions) as a sample:

1. 35-40 mpw, 4:36 mile

2. 40-45 mpw, 4:30 mile

3. 50-60 mpw, 4:22 mile

4. 60-70 mpw, 4:19 mile

5. 50-60 mpw, 4:23 mile

6. 70-80 mpw, 4:12 mile

7. 40-80 mpw (injured), 4:14 mile

8. 80-90 mpw, 4:08 mile

9. 80-90 mpw, 4:07 mile

10. 40-50 mpw, 4:17 mile

11. 40-50 mpw, 4:18 mile

12. 80-90 mpw, 4:05 mile

13. 100-110 mpw, times TBD...hopefully can give 4:00 a scare :)

While obviously some of the performance level difference between years is down to other factors, the correlation to mileage is pretty incredible.