Forgive me if this has been asked a million times before, but why does high mileage make you faster?

In a nutshell all that running builds up capillary density which means your blood has more places to go in your muscles and deliver oxygen and those same capillaries get rid of CO2 i.e. lactic acid more efficiently. Also by running a lot of miles you stimulate a whack of slow twitch fibres and once those are fully recruited your brain recruits fast twitch fibers and stimulates those and as we all know it's the fast twitch fibers that make you run fast.

Mechanism . . . you could spend a lifetime researching it and probably not get what you are looking for. But, for our purposes, think of fatigue as a bucket. There are many types of fatigue but it all gets accumulated in this one bucket. Once it's full, you have to slow down. Higher mileage diminishes some of the fatigue coming from several of the sources, which leaves more room for the others.

Another way of thinking about it, is comparatively speaking, running at a distance pace is much much more specific to racing than not running at all. And since you can spend a lot more time distance training than time at race pace, it makes a lot of sense to have a lot of this exposure.

But getting more endurance is getting faster... Think about it. The more endurance you have, the closer you can run to your top speed for a longer duration of time. So, you are faster, except for maybe your absolute top speed at short distances (I don't know, maybe 100-200m, but I do know people that increased their 400m time by running more)

Why does practicing the piano make you a better pianist?

Does cross training on the harp also make you a better pianist?

This post is so good it deserves to appear twice in this thread.

turkey leg wrote:

Mechanism . . . you could spend a lifetime researching it and probably not get what you are looking for. But, for our purposes, think of fatigue as a bucket. There are many types of fatigue but it all gets accumulated in this one bucket. Once it's full, you have to slow down. Higher mileage diminishes some of the fatigue coming from several of the sources, which leaves more room for the others.

Another way of thinking about it, is comparatively speaking, running at a distance pace is much much more specific to racing than not running at all. And since you can spend a lot more time distance training than time at race pace, it makes a lot of sense to have a lot of this exposure.

stoned irony wrote:

Why does practicing the piano make you a better pianist?

Does cross training on the harp also make you a better pianist?

But is playing chop sticks slowly over and over again for 2 hours day the most efficient way to Chopin fast as it was written...or might you be better off practicing for shorter periods of time at the pace of the actual performance?

Coach D wrote:

stoned irony wrote:

Why does practicing the piano make you a better pianist?

Does cross training on the harp also make you a better pianist?

But is playing chop sticks slowly over and over again for 2 hours day the most efficient way to Chopin fast as it was written...or might you be better off practicing for shorter periods of time at the pace of the actual performance?

If playing Chopin at full speed for 20 minutes every day tended to wear out your fingers and lead to finger injuries then, yes. Chopsticks slowly for 2 hours a day might be the best way to achieve long-term Chopin excellence.

I know it's not exactly the question you ask, but in his most recent post-race flotrack interview Solinsky explains why his inability to kick better in the race had more to do with a lack of strength than a lack of speed.

Running with the aid of oxygen (aerobically)= wayyyyyyyyy easier, more efficient, and more sustainable than running without the aid of oxygen (anaerobically). So if you can increase your bodys OXYGEN UPTAKE (the fastest pace at which it can run with oxygen being the main energy-giver) YOU CAN RUN AT HIGH SPEEDS WITHOUT FEELING FATIGUE. Why? Becuase when your body is using oxygen to supply the energy, it is very easy for it to do. But when you start running at a pace that requires, say X amount of oxygen and you can only transport Y amount of oxygen, you have to make up the difference with ANAEROBIC means. You won't be able to sustain this pace for too long though, as anaerobic-delivery of energy isn't a very sustainable mechanism. The problem is you can't just get up having never ran before and run at a fast pace and supply the energy AEROBICALLY, so you have to build up your aerobic system, your ability to transport oxygen (to the specific running muscles). The development of the aerobic system is the main goal of the training of most distance runners.

http://www.lydiardfoundation.org/pdfs/al_lecture.pdf

Read the first few pages at least.....

Intuitively for 1/2 marathon or marathon. Doing 15k runs every day year after year, you start to feel pretty comfortable at 15k in a race even if running hard.For a world class runner, 100 miles a week takes about 10-12 hours. That's a fairly small commitment to becoming world class at anything (of course they do supplementary training).

smeeeeeeee wrote:

What exactly is the mechanism that makes you faster? I would have thought it would just give you super high endurance. Why does it make you faster?

I'm a little surprised I haven't read a satisfactory answer.

In and of itself I don't think high mileage does make you faster. It gives you the base from which to sustain speed, but it doesn't make that speed. Doing speed training makes you go faster.

Maybe some of you were already saying that but in a more scientific way such as the "many types of fatigue in a bucket" analogy.

You're a little surprised that you haven't heard an answer that you can comprehend? Really?

62 seconds per 400m is not very "fast" for an average high school level distance runner. As a kid struggling to break 4:40, I could run a 58, so 62 seconds was relatively easy, but it was mostly anaerobic work.

Summary: average people have the basic speed it takes to run a sub-13 minute 5000m, but running at that speed for 200m will put them into oxygen debt.

Now, pay attention. This is where the magic happens. When a person does high mileage, it improves their ability to sustain that basic speed without going into oxygen debt (anaerobic). Without changing your basic speed of 62 seconds per 400m, by increasing aerobic fitness through high mileage running, you will be able to sustain 62 second 400m pace for longer and longer periods of time. For the average person, 6 years of high mileage might allow them to sustain 62 second 400m speed for 1200m instead of 200.

Summary: The same person runs a 1600m, first without, and then with six years of high mileage training.

Without high mileage: 62,85,95,123 - 6:05

With 6 years of high mileage: 62,62,62,66 - 4:12

No increase in speed. Sustained pace, maintaining speed. High mileage makes you "faster".

This is a vast oversimplification, but it's essentially all you need to understand.

An athlete can only improve his maximum speed by running 100% speed! Nobody can run at 60% and improve his 100% speed. On the other hand running at 100% can improve stamina to a point.

Coach D wrote:

But is playing chop sticks slowly over and over again for 2 hours day the most efficient way to Chopin fast as it was written...or might you be better off practicing for shorter periods of time at the pace of the actual performance?

Man who catch fly with chopsticks accomplish anything. Practice with chopsticks two hour day till catch fly. Then you run faster.

Coach D wrote:

But is playing chop sticks slowly over and over again for 2 hours day the most efficient way to Chopin fast as it was written...or might you be better off practicing for shorter periods of time at the pace of the actual performance?

Your chopstix example is not really a good analogy. It wouldbe better if you had suggested playing Chopin slowly, hours upon end, to improve upon playing Chopin fast. Their is some neuromuscular/brain training that develops, in either practicing an instrument or running that can be enhanced through hours of slow repetition. But the physical aerobic development of the body--in addition to the gross physical development of muscles, bones and connective tissue-- which occurs from hours of slow repetition enhances the more physical exercise of running.

I can't believe that it takes an idiot like me to suggest a couple of other main reasons why high mileage makes you faster.

1) It strengthens your ligaments, tendons, and bones, over time. This is a kind of insurance against strain and breakage. It allows you to do a higher volume of faster training later on. Without this background of high mileage, you'd have a harder time sustaining high volume, high intensity work. Thus--through this chain of events--high mileage makes you faster. It lays the groundwork for you being able to TRAIN harder & faster later on, which is what it takes for you to race faster.

2) I've read lots of material to the effect that high mileage, over time, increases running economy at a given pace. Obviously, economy at EZ training pace is somewhat different from economy at race pace. But I suspect that the two begin to come together for those who race longer distances--marathoners and, to some extent, half marathoners. I suspect, for example, that ONE of the reason Ritz raced faster, and especially in that UK half marathon, after his high-mileage period with his previous coach was slightly increased economy. But the main reasons were probably others suggested earlier in this thread.

When you are 10 miles into a run, and 4 miles from home, and very fatigued, your body, consciously or unconsciously, will find the most efficient way of covering the distance.

You could become a very efficient runner by running 1 mile per day, but it may take 100 years to do it. To become a very efficient runner in a few years, it takes high mileage.

A friend of mine had a father that could hoe his garden in a matter of minutes, and at age 70, could put his teenage son to shame. Turns out, he had grown up on a farm, and had hoed a field of beans that was a mile long.

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But is playing chop sticks slowly over and over again for 2 hours day the most efficient way to Chopin fast as it was written...or might you be better off practicing for shorter periods of time at the pace of the actual performance?[/quote]

I actually played music very seriously in hs, not quite conservatory level, and there area a lot of similarities. First, you do long warm-ups . Second, repetitive use injuries happen all the time- I knew a sick pianist who had to take two years off on account of tendonitis. A lot of musicians do something called the Alexander Technique to improve their form, it's taught at Julliard

http://www.juilliard.edu/asp/evdiv_occ/course_details.php?course_code=EVDIV%20060

. Third, you drill sections of a piece at slower tempos to get them down. Then you slowly increase the tempo until it's at playable.

Not sure how this relates to aerobic endurance. If the OP is looking for the actual mechanism, he's out of luck- the science is still up in the air.

1st grade science wrote:

An athlete can only improve his maximum speed by running 100% speed! Nobody can run at 60% and improve his 100% speed. On the other hand running at 100% can improve stamina to a point.

For some reason . . . reminds me of: