Hello all, I have coached for quite some time and one thing is certain: Higher mileage = better results, if built up to cautiously and steadily. Many years ago when I first started coaching, I took the position of a previous coach (retired) who had an extremely hard working girls team.
These girls were very motivated and had great leadership (and all of them were very close/bonded) and were running 70+ mpw at the time. As time went by, I realized that 80-100 mpw was not actually a huge amount and definitely doable for many if built up to slowly and cautiously. And running this mileage sure trumps 30-40 mpw and really gets a runner faster and stronger.
Well, people might say "You are burning these girls out!! Ridiculous!" Not at all. In the past few years, I have known of many successful girls teams that are all running 80+ mpw. Just in Southern California for example, there are numerous girls teams hitting that sort of high mileage (something discussed in coaching clinics, etc). Many Ethiopians, Kenyans etc (See Dibaba, Defar, Kiplagat, Adere, Tulu, and more) started running from a young age and had a slow and steady development into the mileage that left them strong and fast.
So, over the course of years, here is the typical plan that is set out for the girls (Personally many coaches I know don't like to coach boys... I don't know if it's just the select experiences, but many of the coaches have had experiences where the boys don't work as hard... of course these all depends on the person):
Coming into freshman year summer - 20-25 mpw
Freshman year winter - 25-30 mpw
Sophomore year summer - 40-45 mpw
Sophomore year winter - 45-50
Junior year summer - 60-65
Junior year winter - 65-70
Senior year summer - 80+ (top girls will run around 100 mpw, lower level girls will be more around 80)
Winter - 80+ (same thing)
Over the summer, the girls meet up to run twice a day 4-5x a week with the morning runs usually being very easy. Weeks typically include a tempo (LT), hill repeats, and a long run.
Another way to motivate the runners is to have a "Professional/collegiate athlete of the week", where one or two runners will do research on a certain runner and present it to the group. In the past these have included many top runners and go back to decades ago with the likes of Budd, Slaney, Benoit, Waitz, Manning, Gallagher, and more. Recent up and coming runners like Barringer, Kipyego and more are also included.
Over the years, there have been 13 All Americans in college (from my team) who have gone on to run some great times for their respective universities. They agree that doing the high mileage in high school really prepared them to handle the workload in college and helped them get FAST.
The purpose of this thread is to basically show you all that it is possible for a team to run higher mileage and run some great times as well as succeed beyond. Don't shy away from that high mileage in fear of "burn out", because if you put in enough easy days and make sure everyone is RECOVERING so that they can run their workouts hard, runners will remain injury free, motivated, and competitive.
Lastly, make sure that YOU are involved! The girls are motivated enough to work out on their own/captains are great at leading the team, but in the beginning it is important to check on the team and just let them know that you are involved. Take an active role and know each runner/their strengths, weaknesses, etc (remember, sometimes you have to individualize plans). Give each runner the treatment they deserve and pay attention to the 25th runner just as much as the 1st runner (taking splits, going over goals, etc).
Good luck with your respective teams!