Is 90-100mpw too much for a miler?

For some, everyone is different. It would be for me. If I was going to race the mile i'd do 60s

Silas Kiplagat had only trained for and raced longer distances before his breakout 1500m performance last year. He was likely running at least that much, perhaps more, before he crushed that race.

Of course there are many ways to train, but having a huge aerobic base can certainly not hurt you. Just be sure to stay in touch with your basic speed through the fall with hill sprints, strides, and an occasional session of 200m or 300m intervals on the track, focusing on form and efficiency rather than specificity. Then, come winter, start to work on the more common miler material.

Peter Snell ran 100+ miles per week and captured 1500 gold in '64 and 800 gold in '60 and '64.

Jim Ryun rann 100+ miles per week and set 8 world records from 800-mile, and had olympic silver at 1500.

Marty Liquori ran 120 miles per week and was ranked #1 in the world at 1500/mile in 1969 and in 1971. He also ran 3:52.2 for the mile which was something like #3 all time at the time.

Steve Ovett ran 120+ miles per week in preparation for Moscow and took gold in the 800 and bronze in the 1500.

In short, no it isn't too much.

There are two types of milers for a given ability level:

1. Those who run off aerobic strength and possess good speed endurance, e.g., Silas Kiplagat & El Guerrouj

2. Those who aren't as aerobically strong but possess greater high-end speed, e.g., Seb Coe

Personally I would rather be the guy who can hang with the pace and at least be in contention for the win if the pace is hot from the start.

However, if that guy with a nasty kick is still in the hunt and not aerobically spent. He's going to win 9 time out of 10.

You need to evaluate what type of miler you are. If aerobic strength is what you respond most to, then run 100 mpw. You can always taper down for the big meets.

clearing the bs up wrote:

Peter Snell ran 100+ miles per week and captured 1500 gold in '64 and 800 gold in '60 and '64.

Jim Ryun rann 100+ miles per week and set 8 world records from 800-mile, and had olympic silver at 1500.

Marty Liquori ran 120 miles per week and was ranked #1 in the world at 1500/mile in 1969 and in 1971. He also ran 3:52.2 for the mile which was something like #3 all time at the time.

Steve Ovett ran 120+ miles per week in preparation for Moscow and took gold in the 800 and bronze in the 1500.

In short, no it isn't too much.

You forgot Pekka Vasala, a high mileage miler who ran the last 800 in 1:48.9 to win olympic gold in 3:36.3. Quax won olympic silver off of high mileage in '76.

Anyway, this list is better:

El Guerrouj- ran 3:26.0, training based on that of the british milers of the early 80's (i.e. Seb Coe's training, related to that of Horwill)

Lagat- ran 3:26.3, widely known as a low mileage high intensity guy

Ngeny- ran 3:43 (mile), training based off of Horwill's

Coe- 2 olympic titles and a 3:29 clocking at 1500 meters, generally considered a low mileage high intensity guy

Aouita- ran 3:29, training based off of "british milers of early 80's" (i.e. close to Horwill's)

Wheating- 3:30.9 off of low mileage high intensity (highest week ever was in low 70's)

Webb- ran 3:46.9 (mile), training under Scott Rackzo, who would at times have him doing as little as 40 mpw

Cram- ran 3:29, ran no more than 70's (mpw) from the winter preceding his best season through his best season (where he ran all of his pb's, including his aforementioned 3:29)

While I'm sure a lot of these guys occasionally went over 100 mpw, they all defined themselves as GENERALLY being "low mileage, high intensity".

Yes.

In Cram's case, one'd say many tempo runs - not hard anaerobic intervals as is commonly(?) understood by

"low mileage, high intensity".

http://www.britishmilersclub.com/bmcnews/1995spring.pdf

fff wrote:

In Cram's case, one'd say many tempo runs - not hard anaerobic intervals as is commonly(?) understood by

"low mileage, high intensity".

http://www.britishmilersclub.com/bmcnews/1995spring.pdf

All I said with specific regard to Cram was that he ran no more than 70's for mpw from the winter preceding his best season where he set his pb's all the way through his best season.

you're right. I just want to make sure people know that Crammie didn't do the traditional type intervals. He trained like a Kenyan. Lots of AT work. When he was in Norway a few years ago, giving a seminar (together with Garderud), he said

"you gotta train like a distance runner".

Absolutely spot on, what a great post. It's sad that I feel most (non-pro) coaches have one mentality and they try shape the runner (especially middle-d guys) into one mould.

I personally have some great speed and natural talent, but like racing up to 10000 so I adopt the 100M/week approach. Works really well for 5000m races where I have the strength and the speed but my 1500m times have got slower with age (30 now)

Foot

The Biggest Boss wrote:

There are two types of milers for a given ability level:

1. Those who run off aerobic strength and possess good speed endurance, e.g., Silas Kiplagat & El Guerrouj

2. Those who aren't as aerobically strong but possess greater high-end speed, e.g., Seb Coe

Personally I would rather be the guy who can hang with the pace and at least be in contention for the win if the pace is hot from the start.

However, if that guy with a nasty kick is still in the hunt and not aerobically spent. He's going to win 9 time out of 10.

You need to evaluate what type of miler you are. If aerobic strength is what you respond most to, then run 100 mpw. You can always taper down for the big meets.

i guess you're right about this.

most young milers though, when confronted with these two types, tend to believe they are the anaerobic, high speed milers that don't need to run 100 mile weeks to be good.

i don't know whether it is because low miles and speed work seem like more fun than high aerobic training or whether it seems more glorious (see 800m popularity).

my input is, unless you run a blazing fast 200. run your miles

fff wrote:

you're right. I just want to make sure people know that Crammie didn't do the traditional type intervals. .

What the hell are you talking about? Everything Cram did was typical.

Read what Peter Snell had to say in this recent interview that was featured on letsrun a couple months ago http://www.garycohenrunning.com/Interviews/Snell.aspx

malmo wrote:

fff wrote:

you're right. I just want to make sure people know that Crammie didn't do the traditional type intervals. .

What the hell are you talking about? Everything Cram did was typical.

If Cram didn't do traditional intervals, then he could have hit about 3:41/3:25 if he had. But rest assured, he did do traditional intervals. Come the late spring/summer, he was doing lots of traditional intervals. During the winter before his best season, it's true that he probably wasn't doing many intervals, he was just doing mileage. But fairly low, fast mileage.

And to the guy that said "look at what snell had to say", why don't you look at the list I just gave it's much more informative than what ONE miler who certainly wasn't the fastest ever has to say. Snell's training was good not great, and training like a british/moroccan miler he would have been faster. Of course he probably won't admit that and will tell you that you need to do high mileage.

High mileage is great for building strength. Milers need strength. Still though, high mileage is not the best way to train for the mile. High mileage is not the most efficient way to build strength for the mile.

Bump

No.

You must be able to deliver oxygen to deliver speed, especially at the end of a race.

clearing the bs up wrote:

Peter Snell ran 100+ miles per week and captured 1500 gold in '64 and 800 gold in '60 and '64.

Jim Ryun rann 100+ miles per week and set 8 world records from 800-mile, and had olympic silver at 1500.

Marty Liquori ran 120 miles per week and was ranked #1 in the world at 1500/mile in 1969 and in 1971. He also ran 3:52.2 for the mile which was something like #3 all time at the time.

Steve Ovett ran 120+ miles per week in preparation for Moscow and took gold in the 800 and bronze in the 1500.

In short, no it isn't too much.

Levins ran 160mpw this year and made the Olympic final in both the 5000m and 10,000m