Who ran the highest mileage in the past?

The boys of summer from the 70s were doing insane mileage. Eric Hulst, Rudy Chapa, Jeff Nelson....do those names ring a bell? They were all doing 120+/week on a regular basis.

the bys of summer ran more thn 30 years ago. of course way before that Jerry Lindgren ran quite a bit

The one that really had a story sort of similar to Levins (as far as I know) that I remember was Keith Hanson.

The way I remember it, he decided really high-mileage was going to make him really good and he got up to 170 mpw as a college junior (before Junior XC season) and then felt that was a little too much and ran maybe 140-150 before senior XC season.

Keith went to Stevens Point HS and ran 8:56y as a senior. He was in HS in Wisconsin during a great period where they had the Hacker brothers, the Stintzi brothers, Easker and Jenkins and some other good ones who all ran between 8:56 and 9:11.

Keith went to Marquette and place Third in an epic 1985 NCAA XC duel in Milwaukee with Hacker and Ondieki (first man ever to run sub-27). Then he went on that Spring to win the 86 NCAA 10k.

I may have some of his "training plan" wrong as I was not trying to make things up, just remembering it from The Harrier way back then. I don't know how good Levins was as a HS'er, and I don't have any details about Hanson except that I was at both of those NCAA meets mentioned and saw his performances there. I admired Hanson for training that much when most of the rest of the country was shifting into a low mileage plan. I think Hanson placed 8th or so at FootLocker and with an 8:56y he was probably about the 60th fastest of all-time back in 1982 when he entered college. So he was definitely a blue-chip runner, but maybe because runners in the upper midwest tend to take until their senior years (and in the last part of track seasons) to really hit their potential, I don't think he was a very well-known athlete.

Anybody who has better knowledge, please correct me or fill in the gaps for me.

Marquette had a fairly strong program at that time as well.

Going back a wee bit more than 30 years, Galloway, Bacheler and Shorter were doing 140-170 (Galloway was the 140 guy) at Aspen in preparation for the '72 Trials and Games. Tom Fleming was no stranger to weeks on the high side of 150. Bill Rodgers often was over 150, at Fullerton Doug Schmenk and Dave White were in the 140-180 range and Mark Covert wasn't far behind, Dave Bedford got up to 200 a week and there were many of us whop had nowhere near that sort of success who got to 140 and beyond. It was not uncommon.

Gerry Lindgren ran more than anyone

someone had to do it wrote:

Gerry Lindgren ran more than anyone

Probably. But we've never been able to distinguish between fantasy v. reality.

I wouldn't trust Gerry to count the fingers on his left hand, much less his mileage.

Paul Cummings ran in the 200s multiple times and once ran 240 miles in a week. He was the 1984 10k Olympic trials champion. He also went under the indoor 1500 world record in a race where John Walker beat him by .2, he set the American Record obviously (3:37.2). Had the Millrose games mile record for a while. He had great range, from 3:37 in 1979 (world record was 3:32 then) to 13:19/27:43, to a 2:11 marathon.

Mr. Battery wrote:

Paul Cummings ran in the 200s multiple times and once ran 240 miles in a week. He was the 1984 10k Olympic trials champion. He also went under the indoor 1500 world record in a race where John Walker beat him by .2, he set the American Record obviously (3:37.2). Had the Millrose games mile record for a while. He had great range, from 3:37 in 1979 (world record was 3:32 then) to 13:19/27:43, to a 2:11 marathon.

Also forgot to mention he set a world half marathon record.

Yeah, Cam still has a ways to go before he hits the mileage ceiling.

Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about him. Runner's world had his training profile in an issue and showed him running forty miles a day on three separate days.