Has anyone ever averaged more MPW than Gerry Lindgren?

Who really has any idea how many MPW Lindgren actually averaged?

True. So who did the highest mpw average?

Ma's army girls supposedly ran about 183 (marathon per day). Shorter was up there. That British kid who just retired said he did a lot... I forget how many. Can anyone help with these specifics?

I would be cautious of Lindgren's mileage claims. My experience with him was that he tended to inflate his mileage a bit. An easy 40 minute run was "... that was a good eight...".

As far as other high mileage runners, Dave Bedford immediately springs to mind.

A fellow in Southern California ran over 400 miles in a week in the mid 1970's (1976?) and then ran a 2:19 at Boston. I think his name was Jim Boles but not sure.

He told me he ran it during his vacation week as that was the only time it was possible. He ran 8 to times a day, stopping only to eat and sleep and then heading back out. I don't recall the exact number of miles, it might have been closer to 490.

Miki Gorman ran a very high number of miles when she was just beginning to run marathons.

A few years ago, Guinness Book of World Records had a note in their about a man from Asia who ran over 13,000 miles in one year.

I knew Gerry Lindgren and you are no Gerry Lindgren

tacomafan wrote:

I would be cautious of Lindgren's mileage claims. My experience with him was that he tended to inflate his mileage a bit. An easy 40 minute run was "... that was a good eight...".

Kind of like grade inflation hey?

tacomafan wrote:

I would be cautious of Lindgren's mileage claims. My experience with him was that he tended to inflate his mileage a bit. An easy 40 minute run was "... that was a good eight...".

As far as other high mileage runners, Dave Bedford immediately springs to mind.

Tacoma is quite right...for example, in Lindgren's book, one run he mentions as being "eighty eight miles" is probably, knowing where he started and where he ran to, really around 55-60 miles. Gerry tends to exaggerate things a touch. I think he believes it though, too.

As I understand it, Gerry's running was not training but an excuse to be away from home. So knowing where he started and where he ran to has little to do with how far he ran as he may well have ran in circles in between.

My guess is Gerry's training wasn't that different than peers of his era, including 40 minute 8 milers. When he got tired, he spent the hours between training runs walking or trotting. When asked, he divides the total time by 7 or 8 minutes per mile to get a distance. While this leaves lots of room for systematic error, its not exactly exaggerating until the miles from the easy portion are greater than the miles from the hard portion or so.

But even 55-60 miles is way more than most people do. Similarly I've seen posts here where someone will dispute Lindgren's claims of 350 mile weeks saying something like "they were probably only 250 miles" as if that's just fitness jogger's mileage. I really doubt that anyone did more miles than Gerry when he was in that stage of his life.

But I also recall a Runner's World article by Rick Riley who roomed with Gerry at Washington State in which Riley says by the later part of Gerry's collegiate career he was doing about only 50-60 miles a week.

This leads to the matter of how "extended" an extended period the OP means. If he's talking about a stretch of a few years I'd bet that Gerry's the far and away leader. But there are a handful of people who have run over 200,000 miles in their lives. If we're defining "extended time" as lasting for decades I'd bet on one of them.

While that is all possible (regardin Lindgren's mileage) the truth of the matter is that we have no idea how much he ran. There is no way to say whether anybody did more mileage then him if we can't nail down a number. Maybe it was 350, maybe it was 250, maybe it was 200, maybe it was 150. The details make a difference. To a great extent we accept mileage claims on the honor system from every runner, but in Lindgren's case I am much less willing to take his claims at face value.

The highest consistent mileage was probably some ultrarunner. There was an interview with Anton Krupicka (sp?) posted recently where he talks about "only" running 130, and generally hitting 180-200. As to Lindgren's claims, I'm sure he did very high mileage (his high school times certainly indicate high mileage), but no way he did 350. I don't know if I believe the human body can even handle that much. That's 50 miles a day.

[quote]J.R. wrote:

A fellow in Southern California ran over 400 miles in a week in the mid 1970's (1976?) and then ran a 2:19 at Boston. I think his name was Jim Boles but not sure.

He told me he ran it during his vacation week as that was the only time it was possible. He ran 8 to times a day, stopping only to eat and sleep and then heading back out. I don't recall the exact number of miles, it might have been closer to 490.

I think that you mean James Bowles. He posts here from time to time.

I don't think that he thought twice about running 186 or more miles a week for fairly lengthy periods.

Jerry also claims he was on sub 2hour pace through 26 miles on a training run and blacked out in the past 1/4 mile.

I would take whatever mileage he said he did and decrease it by a third or half. He has serious issues and is a pathological liar.

Bob Wildes wrote:

J.R. wrote:

A fellow in Southern California ran over 400 miles in a week in the mid 1970's (1976?) and then ran a 2:19 at Boston. I think his name was Jim Boles but not sure.

He told me he ran it during his vacation week as that was the only time it was possible. He ran 8 to times a day, stopping only to eat and sleep and then heading back out. I don't recall the exact number of miles, it might have been closer to 490.

I think that you mean James Bowles. He posts here from time to time.

I don't think that he thought twice about running 186 or more miles a week for fairly lengthy periods.

That could have been him.

I think he went to Humboldt State after that.

I saw him run a 10k on the track in 32:20 or so at Hayward, and he had basically no knee lift at all.

Maybe he can verify how many miles he ran that week.

Toward the end of the 19th Century and into the start of the 20th a popular form of athletic competition was the Six Day Go As You Please event. They were run on an indoor track and competitors ran and walked as far as they could in that time. It was common for guys to get well over 400 miles in their six days and 500 was not unheard of. So absolutely it is possible for the hunan body to cover 350 miles in a seven day week.

Of course that doesn't mean Gerry did that. But it also means that he could have. There's really no way to validate ANYONE'S claims to have run a certain number of miles. If I tell you I ran 75 miles last week you'll probably beieve me but your belief is based more on the fact that I've given you a believable figure. If I told you I ran 175 miles you might still believe me but you might wonder if I was exaggerating or overestimating. If I told you I'd run 275 you might very well say that I had not really done that much. But your reaction would be based largely on your own preconceptions and would have no real bearing on what I had or hadn't done.

J.R. wrote: A fellow in Southern California ran over 400 miles in a week in the mid 1970's (1976?)...

Ultra runner Michael Henze (2nd American & 12th OA at 24 hr championships this year) ran 1,989.5 miles during a 10 week span in prep for the championships this year. That's an avg of 198.9 per week...with a high week of 253 tossed in there, and 938 miles in the month of March alone (30.25 AVG per day).