5k pr vs. mileage

30 miles per week isn't even low mileage.

It's almost guaranteed that you will run faster by increasing your mileage *if you can stay healthy*.

Now, how do you know that it was the mileage that caused your injury? Are you sure it wasn't the intensity? Have you tried slowing down your easy days quite a bit, say to 8+ min pace?

With only 30 mpw i feel like you are not developing aerobically enought to expect a decent 5k. Slowing down and running more is a good call. Back in college i was a mile/1500 guy. I only averaged 55mpw (which is still really low.) I ran 15:44 in the 5k, but given my mile times i should have run much faster. I think getting some decent volume (peaking at at least 70 mpw) is necessary for being a 5k guy.

have you read about the people running 100+ mile weeks running 12:37 5ks?

In HS I ran between 30 - 35 MPW and ended up running 15:41 on an XC course. In college I ran around 40 - 50 MPW (only one season because of constant injury) and ended up running 25:10 ish for 5 miles.

Would have loved to have increased mileage but was constantly injured.

You guys are f***ing ridiculous...I have to run avg 80 mpw for a 16:23...but then again that was a split in an 8k race...if that was an open 5k I could have probably run at least 16:05...

I am averaging about 80 mpw and hope to run high 15:30s come the end of indoor...but we shall see.

Ages 44-46, I restarted running.

At 12-14 mpw, I ran 21:30.

At 23 mpw, I ran 20:30.

At 33 mpw, I ran 19:50.

At 40 mpw (this October), I ran 19:44. Seems like I'm hitting a plateau consistent with my modest level of skill.

Only one person has ever run around 12:37 and that is Kenenisa Bekele so your point is moot.

deleuze wrote:

30 miles per week isn't even low mileage.

It's almost guaranteed that you will run faster by increasing your mileage *if you can stay healthy*.

Now, how do you know that it was the mileage that caused your injury? Are you sure it wasn't the intensity? Have you tried slowing down your easy days quite a bit, say to 8+ min pace?

I am pretty sure it wasn't intensity that did me in, I was on a pretty bad D3 team so while we were running hard we weren't running ridiculously fast either.

Arete wrote:

Ages 44-46, I restarted running.

At 12-14 mpw, I ran 21:30.

At 23 mpw, I ran 20:30.

At 33 mpw, I ran 19:50.

At 40 mpw (this October), I ran 19:44. Seems like I'm hitting a plateau consistent with my modest level of skill.

Your stats & time progression sound eerily like mine. I restarted at 45.

Keep up with 40-45 mpw for another couple of years. At 50, this spring, I ran 19:29. Then 19:33 a few weeks ago. I'm shooting for 19:15 next year or the year after.

That 19:29 and a 19:45 this fall won me two (smalltown) races this year, with a $50 savings bond thrown in. I say: cherrypick, old man. Live large. Beat the slow young men into submission.

18:05 at 30 mpw

17:19 at 40 mpw

16:37 at 45-50 mpw

15:39 at 55-60 mpw

15:12 at 75 mpw (and 31:45 10K)

But I was also getting more mature and stronger with age. What are you going for? To set big pr you will probably need more volume... If 35 mpw bothering you maybe it's not mileage but something else you are doing... Don't think it's cause of weight.

I really doubt you can not handle more than 30 mpw. If you want to, just add one mpw. In ten weeks you'd be at 40. Do some more intense stuff then just going for a run. Even at 30 mpw you do some fartlek stuff like [(4x200) (4x400) (4x200)] or something like 5x 2 min to ease into harder stuff.

My view [take with grain of salt] do some speed short rest important

20 x 200

with 40 sec rest

10 x 400

with 40 sec rest

6x800

with 40 sec rest

try doing 2 days in a row then two days rest

my body doesn't brake down and recover in 24 hour cycle.

If I run hard today I'm fine tommorow but screwed 2 days later.

body builders know this shit.

If I go 24 hour hard/easy I guickly end up resting when I'm fine and doing hard stuff when I'm tired.

find your own cycle of recovery

DII XC guy wrote:

You guys are f***ing ridiculous...I have to run avg 80 mpw for a 16:23.

I think we just validated why we call it "Baby Nationals".

All good thoughts, thanks for the advice. I think doing some fartlek stuff will be good, really enjoy doing that anyway. But it should work to strengthen my legs to be able to handle more mileage.

Do any of you do plyometrics? Has that helped anyone?

Former Olympian and BYU Cougar Doug Padilla managed 13:15 off of about 50 miles per week from what I remember.

16:51 - 20-40 mpw - high school mentality, run every workout as hard as possible, skip Sunday long runs, etc.

16:40 - 40-60 mpw - 6 days per week of running, all singles; mostly easy running with some light tempo runs; my long run got up to 14 miles, which was taking me almost 2 hours every week

15:42 - 50-65 mpw - 7 days of running per week, including doubles on workout days; long run was about 90 minutes instead of 120; 2 structured workouts on the track every week

My heavier mileage weeks when I was running 16:40 and 15:40 were similar in volume but couldn't have been more different in terms of how I was running. The keys to my improvement were:

- adding a 7th day of running to the week (much easier to reach mileage goals; 65 mpw on 6 days of running is 11 miles per day; 65 mpw on 7 days of running is 9 per day)

- adding doubles (did this on workout days, which meant my easy days could be shorter)

- reducing the length of my long run (two hours is a bit excessive on 60 mpw, but I was using the 25% rule; the long run didn't take as much out of me at 90 mpw)

These three elements allowed me to recover better, meaning I always got in good workouts on my hard days.

DII XC guy wrote:

You guys are f***ing ridiculous...I have to run avg 80 mpw for a 16:23...but then again that was a split in an 8k race...if that was an open 5k I could have probably run at least 16:05...

I am averaging about 80 mpw and hope to run high 15:30s come the end of indoor...but we shall see.

you have a no idea how to train properly, do you have a coach, I hope not because if your coach agrees to the amount of volume you are doing for the level I would highly question their creditials, if you have no coach then please get one

do yourself a favor and drop your mileage then let yourself develop before running 80 miles/week, at the rate you are going to break 15:30 you will be running 120/week and this will only hurt you, there is no way someone at your level needs to be running more than 50 miles / week, this holy grail mentality of 15-17 min 5k runners doing 80+ miles/week just doesn't make sense

a person wrote:

15:12 at 75 mpw (and 31:45 10K)

Very creepy....my PR's are

15:12

31:46

75 mpw

16:00 5k XC, 35mpw.