How many hours required to achieve elite running?

Training Advice/Discussion 5k/10k

14 years ago 05/02/2009 9:48am EDT

I read something where the world's elite at their respective disciplines need to spend 10,000 hours performing that activity in order to arrive at their skill level. Now, this can't apply to running b/c that would mean somewhere around 80-100K miles, or 20-30 years of high mileage running. On a similar note, how many miles would need to be run before you considered someone a "serious" runner? Here are my 2 cents:

-Novice runner: 0-5k runner

-Amateur runner: 5k-10k miles(5-10 years of 20MPW): has run enough to know the basic principles of training, and through trial and error has by now learned how to minimize injury.

-Veteran runner: 15k-35k miles(10-20 years of 50MPW): has reaped the vast majority of improvements in running economy over the years

-Seasoned runner: beyond

14 years ago 05/02/2009 1:13pm EDT

re: romanrunner

there is no hour criteria

there is no mileage criteria

there is no # of races criteria

there is no single or multi-factor criteria

There is one cirteria that seems to be common - they all do 'work' ... running work - with no particular 'scheme' - except there is work involved

14 years ago 05/02/2009 1:27pm EDT

re: romanrunner

Michael Johnson says he used to do 4 to 5 hours daily.majority of the kenyan elites do 3 hours average 6 days a week but have a coplete rest day usually on sunday.Bear in mind that after the hard sessions they have long and thorough sports massage.

14 years ago 05/02/2009 2:58pm EDT

re: romanrunner

10,000 hours....

Sports, music, any business profession... 10,000 hours is the minimum needed to reach your peak abilities.

14 years ago 05/02/2009 3:31pm EDT

re: romanrunner

14 years ago 05/02/2009 3:32pm EDT

re: romanrunner

This was the subject of an earlier thread about Malcolm Gladwell's book "Outliners," which discusses the so-called 10,000-hour rule. Of course, what counts as time devoted to an activity isn't always clear. In the sport of distance running, if you only count the actual time spent running, and you exclude playful running during childhood and before any systematic training, I'd guess that somewhere in the range of 25,000 to 30,000 miles of training might be typical for a runner to get close to his peak competitive levels, although important incremental gains might continue for a while thereafter. Obviously, you'd expect more miles for marathoners than for middle-distance runners; 25,000 miles seems very low for a marathoner, but not for a speed-oriented 1500-meter runner like Seb Coe.

Over the years, many people have referred to a ten-year period of improvement for runners. It's obviously an extremely rough rule of thumb.

14 years ago 05/02/2009 7:58pm EDT

re: romanrunner

If you look at the history it appears there is generally a 7 to 10 year period of conditioning/training to get to the elite level even in sports. However, in distance running where so much is dependent on innate physiology (that must be developed of course), I am not sure it is as clear cut.

I also think the idea that there is a mileage barrier to being a "serious" runner is silly. If you say 60 mpw, then consider that Seb Coe claims to have a typical week being 50 mpw. Anyone care to classify Coe as not being a "serious" runner.

As noted in Gladwell and the similar book (the title and author of which I cannot recall) the 10K hour volume seems to be about right. How many hours did Tiger Woods practice?

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