Is mileage overrated? Brandon Johnson ran 1:43 on 50-60 mpw, 1:46 on 80 to 90?

Yeah rojo ...he's an 800 runner. 50-60 is high mileage for a straight 800 guy. 80-90 is too much. You think Duane Soloman is running 80-90 mpw? No.

0/10

800m runners, in my opinion, should not be running that much volume. It is clear that Brandon Johnson is a SPEED based athlete (west african?) and responds best to that. I was very surprised to hear he wanted to do a 1500m. I respect the effort though. I hope he does well. I didn't know he was so old.

I wasn't trolling.

To me, high mileage is essential for EVERYONE. But high mileage is the highest amount you can handle.

I had a superstar 800 recruit at Cornell. We did our basic fall training. I had him up to maybe 40 or 50 mpw and he ran like 2:00 in the opener. I couldn't believe it was so slow.

I came to the realization that I could basically not train him, let him do all speed stuff and he could run 150-2. Any sort of 'real' training tired him out and resulted in a disaster. Now maybe in 3-4 years if he stuck with it it would pay off but I left after his frosh year.

Considering the 800 is almost 50/50 aerobic/anaerobic I'd say above 60 there's definitely going to be decreasing benefits to having that large of an aerobic base.

I think Brandon made a smart move of switching up coaches, no coach in their right mind would have an 800m runner in the 80-90 range unless he planned on him running the 1500 as well.

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rojo wrote:

I had a superstar 800 recruit at Cornell. We did our basic fall training. I had him up to maybe 40 or 50 mpw and he ran like 2:00 in the opener. I couldn't believe it was so slow.

I came to the realization that I could basically not train him, let him do all speed stuff and he could run 150-2. Any sort of 'real' training tired him out and resulted in a disaster. Now maybe in 3-4 years if he stuck with it it would pay off but I left after his frosh year.

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The problem probably wasn't the 80-90 (although that's really high for a legit speed guy like Johnson), but in relation to what he did in the past, that's a ridiculous jump.

Don't go somewhere in training unless you have to.

(The fact that he could handle 50-60 mpw and race incredibly fast in 2013 is impressive though because before that, he wasn't doing anything.)

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rojo wrote:

To me, high mileage is essential for EVERYONE. But high mileage is the highest amount you can handle.

.

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rojo wrote:
I had a superstar 800 recruit at Cornell. We did our basic fall training. I had him up to maybe 40 or 50 mpw and he ran like 2:00 in the opener. I couldn't believe it was so slow.

I came to the realization that I could basically not train him, let him do all speed stuff and he could run 150-2. Any sort of 'real' training tired him out and resulted in a disaster. Now maybe in 3-4 years if he stuck with it it would pay off but I left after his frosh year.

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That was a huge jump, particularly for a speed-based athlete stepping up from the 400mH, and an amount of mileage that you'd want to see in the offseason maybe for an 800m/1500m guy like Steve Cram or Steve Ovett or Steve Scott, or other Steves. And Johnson may have gotten injured because of that mileage bump. But I bet that he is going to see major dividends from that endurance work this year as he shifts back to speed work and probably the right level of high quality mileage with Cruz, who knows how to train this kind of 400/800 athlete. I would not be surprised to see him go low 1:43 this year, if not high 1:42.

Who the hell would have an 800m guy running 80 - 90 miles a week??

Arthur Lydiard, perhaps. I'm surprised no one has mentioned Peter Snell yet, though he was an 800/1500 guy vs 400/800.

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HoneyBadgerDGAF wrote:


Since when does a 1:52 qualify you as a superstar? There are D3 guys running that fast

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You would probably find that most US distance runners (especially non- professionals) run more volume than is actually needed for prime performance. What does Brandon race? 800-1500 meters. 90 mpw is unnecessary.
What do YOU race? 5K? 10K? Even 1/2M?
Grinding out 100-120mpw... not needed.

Okay. If you are not trolling i will answer your question.

No, mileage is not overrated as evidenced by his 1:43 on high mileage.

Way over training is overrated. This is like saying:
"Is mileage overrated? Ryan Hall runs 2:05 on 120 mpw, DNS on 250 mpw"

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smcrunner88 wrote:
above 60 there's definitely going to be decreasing benefits to having that large of an aerobic base.

no coach in their right mind would have an 800m runner in the 80-90 range unless he planned on him running the 1500 as well.

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That's cool to see him trying things. I remember him talking about wanting to break 4:00 in the mile. You never know how your body will respond until you try.

Yes

So you believe that everyone needs the highest mileage they can do and yet you don't have a clue how to implement that?
How the heck did Cornell ever buy your BS?

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smcrunner88 wrote:

Considering the 800 is almost 50/50 aerobic/anaerobic I'd say above 60 there's definitely going to be decreasing benefits to having that large of an aerobic base.

I think Brandon made a smart move of switching up coaches, no coach in their right mind would have an 800m runner in the 80-90 range unless he planned on him running the 1500 as well.

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