I am not certain as to how much of a storied "history" this question will require in order to be discussed effectively, so I'll give a synopsis without specifics. If you want to know more, just ask.
As a junior athlete (in the early-mid 90's)I competed (in varying capacities) in swimming, cycling (both track and on the road), and triathlon, with the odd XC race thrown in during high school to maintain access to the facilities. In the grand scheme of sport I did not achieve much for a lack of commitment to one program, but I managed to compete (read not place highly) at an international level in triathlon and a national level in cycling.
Upon entering college, I made a prototypically poor decision and said "stuff sport". I was sick of my lack of direction and my willingness to subject those around me to an intensely selfish lifestyle. Although I did not become a chronic substance abuser through college (nor an obese drop-out), my schedule reflected the change in priority. I still commuted by bike to campus, and ran when the urge struck me, tried some other sports for kicks, but nothing much. Through it all, I made the most of my opportunities to party. I was pretty good at it.
Jump ahead a few years. Now I'm in grad school and have been living as cleanly (though now largely out of necessity) as I have since my youth. The term "health" is more than just a memory! I've dabbled with some running for the past couple months and have found it to be, well, fun. Nothing much, just once a day, around 4 - 8 miles, all easy.
My questions concern a training progression from a long, long layoff (it will be four years in July since I've last run to "train"). I have a fairly good picture of training intensities...I was tested extensively in all three sports (dug up last VO2 ramp test - 70.2 ml/min/kg, nothing remarkable there), however, after reading Lydiard et al., I realize had no right to be moving as quickly as I was on the base run training that I was doing. Again, nothing spectacular, but I cannot recall running over 30 miles a week, yet my PR's were a 16:30 5k off the bike, and 15:51 in a stand-alone 5k. Basal speed of 25.1s/200m, so I'm not a gazelle. BTW..during the junior years, I was never injured, although given my complete lack of flexibility, I should have been.
Alot of the aerobic component could have been attributed to the volume of "supplemental" training in lesser impacting sports, but now my dilemma is how to structure the volume of a running-only program without the ancillary swim and bike miles. Obviously my responsibilities have changed somewhat since I was younger, but the time and resources are still there to pursue some semblance of dedicated training. I know my body fairly well, but I've never submitted it to higher running mileage. What would be a good starting point? How about inclusion of progression runs?
Thanks for your time.