Gains from increasing mileage?

I went from 429 mile to 416 mile after going from 30-40 mpw to 70-80 mpw during cross country and winter, through the new year. Aug-Feb, when track workouts started. the hardest part was Nov-Feb on my own with teammates sometimes and yes, you do need to run in the mornings a few times a week to keep it up around 80s. (just an easy 5 miles). Racing the mile is more strength/endurance than it is pure speed. do that this fall and winter and you will see a good drop in your pr next year at this time.

start gradual build up to avoid injury now during base period. Run as often as you can to build up miles with steady runs until August then start some speedwork reps/intervals. A weekly average of around 70miles should see some decent improvement to around 4.16/

Be disciplined and stay determined and focussed man!

Might not help your mile dramatically if it cuts into your speedwork, but should definitely cut your two mile time down a lot if you ever run that. Bumping mileage for me led to a modest 5K PR, but a huge (90+ second) 10K PR.

[quote]Paul T wrote:

Might not help your mile dramatically if it cuts into your speedwork, but should definitely cut your two mile time down a lot if you ever run that.

misconception

to run a 416 mile you need to run 64 second 1/4's. that is strength my friend, not speed.

THanks guys, any other opinions?

I don't remember the exact numbers but I went from 4:52/10:40 to 4:31/9:53 after going from probably 40-50 to 50-60. Obviously there were a lot of other factors to that as well, but a lot of my gains have come when I increase mileage. The next year, for example, I averaged 60 miles per week for the summer (3 months) and ran 9:03 (indoor 3K) and 15:41 (indoor 5K)

I was a 4:49 miler running 35 mpw. I gradually worked up to 60-70 mpw and ran 4:31 the next year.

Be prepared to take a serious shot at the 2 mile. My experience is that increasing mileage will lead to PRs at the longer distances within the first 8/9 months, but can take more like 18-24 months to bring improvements at the shorter distances.

ie, 30 --> 60 mpw will help your 3200 short-term, and your 1600 long-term.

60 --> 90 mpw will help your 10k short-term, and your 5k long-term.

90 --> 110 mpw will help your half-marathon short-term, and your 10k long-term.

My freshman year I ran 2:16, 5:09, 11:10, and 19:49 for the 800-1600-3200-5k.

That summer I got up to 60-70 miles a week, then I ran 2:09, 4:48, 10:08, and 17:56.

That next summer I ran 70-80 miles a week, then I ran 2:05, 4:35, 9:55, and 16:51.

That next summer I got up to 80-85 miles a week, then I ran 2:01, 4:34(just ran to win, beat 3-4 sub 4:30 milers), 9:41, and 16:04. That was my senior year.

That next summer I got up to 90 miles a week, and ran 90-100 during the winter. I then ran 4:29, 9:04(3k), 15:46, and 32:10 for the 10k (which, at the time was a 2 minute PR.

I didn't really have to write all that out, but I just wanted to show how my progression has went since I started running more. Right now I do about 110-120 miles a week and run a 14:41, 30:44, and an 8:45 3k.

My freshman year I ran 2:16, 5:09, 11:10, and 19:49 for the 800-1600-3200-5k.

That summer I got up to 60-70 miles a week, then I ran 2:09, 4:48, 10:08, and 17:56.

That next summer I ran 70-80 miles a week, then I ran 2:05, 4:35, 9:55, and 16:51.

That next summer I got up to 80-85 miles a week, then I ran 2:01, 4:34(just ran to win, beat 3-4 sub 4:30 milers), 9:41, and 16:04. That was my senior year.

That next summer I got up to 90 miles a week, and ran 90-100 during the winter. I then ran 4:29, 9:04(3k), 15:46, and 32:10 for the 10k (which, at the time was a 2 minute PR.

I didn't really have to write all that out, but I just wanted to show how my progression has went since I started running more. Right now I do about 110-120 miles a week and run a 14:41, 30:44, and an 8:45 3k.