What's more important: mileage or intervals?

Man, I've been wodering that myself. I can't seem to mix the two yet. I've kept my mileage high for three months and I keep waiting for the time I feel fresh enough to get out and do some speed.

Ya, the freshness factor...I've learned that I'm never as fresh as I want to be for intervals, like the mind knows it's coming and warns the body to get sluggish on me. But I still head out the door and am thankful on race day.

Depends on where you are at in the program; long-term and short-term.

Both. Neither.

Alan

Mileage alone could take you quite close to many of your PRs. If you consider the difference between an untrained 55 minute 10km and your mileage only 35 minute 10km, then by all means consider mileage most important. But the extra 3 minutes or whatever you could take off with intervals might be more valuable to you personally since you've had to work harder for them.

In any case, this kind of question, while not the stupidest ever, is at worst an implausible hypothetical (when would you be in the situtation you had to choose between doing either mileage or intervals) and at best a poor way of asking a good question (what is the right balance at the right time for me?).

1.) Specific event and goal you wish to accomplish

2.) Running Technique (ie..FORM)

3.) Strength training and Technique training

4.) Mileage and Intervals together for appropriate event.

Good luck!

Intervals! Next ?.

the mileage is gonna give you the ability to run a good race and the inteverals will give you those final touches to race at your best. but it heavily depends on the race distance.

overall i'm gonna say definitely mileage without a doubt. go run 30 miles a week for a year and then the next year run 60 miles a week and you are gonna make phenomenal improvements. if you run 30 miles a week the first year and then the second year run 30 miles a week but add in lots of intervals you are gonna make big improvement but the longer the race the less its gonna matter. roughly speaking: 1500 and over mileage wins. 800 and down intervals wins.

The answer is that neither is more important. To do your best you must have both. Some will say that they ran well off low mileage and lots of intervals. While that might be true. Most likely they would have run better had they been able to do more mileage. Simply because the more mileage you can do the more intervals you are able to do. The stronger you will be in the end. If you take someone and they want to improve, and say you find they can handle three days of intervals a week and continue to improve eventually they will stagnate at a given mileage. So then have to think ,What can I change to make them better?. You will come to the conclusion that even if you were able to run harder everyday that eventually you would either fall apart or not improve or both. So you would then have to increase mileage to reach another level. Even if you did intervals everyday. The only way you would improve is to do more intervals. Thus adding mileage.

the secret wrote:

the mileage is gonna give you the ability to run a good race and the inteverals will give you those final touches to race at your best. but it heavily depends on the race distance.

overall i'm gonna say definitely mileage without a doubt. go run 30 miles a week for a year and then the next year run 60 miles a week and you are gonna make phenomenal improvements. if you run 30 miles a week the first year and then the second year run 30 miles a week but add in lots of intervals you are gonna make big improvement but the longer the race the less its gonna matter. roughly speaking: 1500 and over mileage wins. 800 and down intervals wins.

Exactly! It all depends upon your race. But you gotta have a base to do intervals. And you gotta have some speed for your race. They compliment each other, but consider your race and that will tell you your emphasis.

It's more important to do enough of the former before doing the latter.

Intervals are the icing on the base mileage cake.

it doesnt matter which is more important becuase one without the other doesn't do all that much good

duhhhh wrote:

it doesnt matter which is more important becuase one without the other doesn't do all that much good

Depends on the race distance being run.

Aim High wrote:

It's more important to do enough of the former before doing the latter.

I agree.

HRE wrote:

Aim High wrote:

It's more important to do enough of the former before doing the latter.

I agree.

Not necessarily.

Pre Officer wrote:

Intervals are the icing on the base mileage cake.

I thought they were the gravy on the mileage mashed potatoes.

Maybe the bbq on the mileage rack of ribs.

How about the hot fudge topping on the mileage ice cream?

The sweet and sour sauce on the mileage Mcnuggets.

What? Intervals of course! Mileage, in and of itself, is pretty much useless. Daily intervals is the way to go. However, you will rack up quite a few miles doing all those intervals.

Speed, speed, speed. It's all that matters.