here is EXACTLY how many miles per week need for EVERY 5k time possible

Total amateur non club member ( learn through own mistakes and stalking the elites on strava ) but becoming more serious with age ... :-)

5.05 km in 18:06 on 28 miles ( max ) per week aged 43.

84 minute half marathon .

Weekly schedule:-

Approx 5-7k swimming .

Approx 30 miles on watt bike .

Approx 60-90 mins doing a load of gym stuff .

Physical job probably adds another 2-3 hours of moderate intensity exercise .

Started doing varying degree hill runs as opposed to hill repeats and only do speed work ( track or yasso ) once a fortnight .

Only been doing 25-28 miles per week for last 6 months now - prior it was half that at best .

I think sub 18 is achievable on less than 20 p/w providing you train effectively and are doing plenty of other all round exercise .

The thought of running 50-60 mpw + makes me feel nauseous ...:-)

Was hovering around high 18s until I purchased Vaporfly 4% then I realised ( doh ) my old trainers were too heavy ... had effectively been running with bricks on feet.

I’m guessing the lighter you are the bigger the difference shoe weight makes ..

I am certainly not exceptional ,and just an ordinary average bloke keeping fit .

Rarely drink and eat well ,though do treat myself often ( 1-2 a week ) to Greggs cakes / pasties and fried gunk from McDonald’s ...

Going for 17:30 ( within 3-4 months ) and then 17:00 hopefully within a year ...

One of the best runners I have seen frequently runs very severe mountain gradients but overall mileage isn’t that high (30 max ) — similar age and can do just over 16 at 5k...

Mileage alone - no good ( unless maybe genuinly elite like Farah etc ) ...

That`s right Beagle! )) What I always preach...... " It`s not a question about how many miles you run . it`s about how you run your miles. Cheers!

xjx wrote:

Why would your time require different mileage?

boi

I ran 50 mpw for most of the last year and only managed to run 18:06 this season...

Yeah I run 50-60 during peak training and usually around 30mpw the rest of the year and I would be lucky to break 19. But I am 39 and mostly train for ultras so that might be part of it.

I'm in my 50s, and ran under 20 at the Turkey Trot off maybe 4 miles a week.

bad coach wrote:

I ran 50 mpw for most of the last year and only managed to run 18:06 this season...

Bad genes, mechanics and psychological constitution.

Ran 16:09 two years ago off of 14 mpw average for the preceding 4 months on a pretty flat but certified road course. I’m almost 15 years past prime fitness.

I don’t understand how some people can run all these miles but fail to convert on race day... Wait, yes I can, they run slow all the time.

a thread to end them all wrote:

Finally, a thread to answer them all.

Feel free to debate the numbers.

All numbers assuming average talent and a childhood not spent exclusively playing video games.

20:00 - 10 mpw

19:00 - 20 mpw

18:00 - 30 mpw

17:00 - 40 mpw

16:00 - 50 mpw

15:00 - 65 mpw

14:00 - 80 mpw

Great! I'm 55 and I'm going to bump my mpw up to 65. I should be hitting 15 flat anytime now!

a thread to end them all wrote:

Finally, a thread to answer them all.

Feel free to debate the numbers.

All numbers assuming average talent and a childhood not spent exclusively playing video games.

20:00 - 10 mpw

19:00 - 20 mpw

18:00 - 30 mpw

17:00 - 40 mpw

16:00 - 50 mpw

15:00 - 65 mpw

14:00 - 80 mpw

So as a female who runs 40 mpw, you’re telling me all I have to do is double my mileage and I can set a world record? Sign me TF up!

So I broke 16 as a 27 year old this year at a competitive Turkey Trot.

I trained for a fall marathon (debut) and ran 80+ miles when I’m not tapering and racing.

One week break and I had a 5 week training plan for that 5k. Averages in the low 50s.

Result: 15:52 on the road.

Another data point....

I’m 50 and ran 17:50 recently off of 35 mpw average. My highest week in 2019 was 42 miles. Road PR is 15:03 from 25 years ago when I was running about 80 mpw.

This is just another stupid thread trying to dismiss talent by disguising the intent. No talent equals 20 minutes on 80mpw. Great talent equals 15 minutes on 10mpw. Hundreds of thousands of people run 50 mpw but some run 25 mintues and some run 14 minutes. Most run 20 minutes.

I ran a 3:58 1,500 on 27mpw (mostly jogging) prob 15:15 shape at the time

In my 20's and early 30's I was in the high 14 min range off 60-70 mpw. 31 for 10k. 4:12 mile.

In my 40's I was around 17 min range with the same mileage.

At 58 I was still sub 20 min off 50-60 mpw.

After taking a year+ off from any real running at 63, and maintaining my weight, I can not get under 26 minutes with 30 mpw at 64 years old

Consider this.... wrote:

No, not right. I ran 19 minutes and change off of no training at all as an 11 year old. I had very little talent, as my PR only got down to 15:36 in college off of 70-80 mpw. Your one-dimensional concept is WAY too simplistic.

These types of comments are ridiculous - probably 5% or less of the population would ever be able to run 15:36. That's little talent?

[quote]GamerJamZ wrote:

Based on average talent

Males:

28:00+ = 0 mpw

26:00 = 5 mpw

24:00 = 10 mpw

22:00 = 15 mpw

21:00 = 20 mpw

20:00 = 30 mpw

18:30 = 40 mpw

18:00. = 45-50 mpw (lower than this is not usually obtainable for the general population. Consider yourself above average talent if you can run lower than this or handle more milage than this)

17:45 = 55 mpw

17:15 = 60 mpw

16:30 = 70 mpw

15:45 = 80 mpw

14:45 = 90 mpw

14:00 or lower = 100+ mpw

I feel like you nailed that. I ran a 19:47 at age 26 (30-35 mpw and no workouts).

Last year, at age 56, I trained pretty close to what I'd consider my maximum (50mpw with a hard workout every fifth day).

That got me a 22:23 (age-graded equivalent being just under 18:00).

A year later, after having to take off the summer due to injury, I can't even imagine getting into that kind of shape again.

BLtheKid wrote:

Consider this.... wrote:

No, not right. I ran 19 minutes and change off of no training at all as an 11 year old. I had very little talent, as my PR only got down to 15:36 in college off of 70-80 mpw. Your one-dimensional concept is WAY too simplistic.

These types of comments are ridiculous - probably 5% or less of the population would ever be able to run 15:36. That's little talent?

*0.5%

Is all of this averaged for the whole year? I was probably running like 10 mpw from January to May, slowly increased to 20, 30, by mid-August, and built up to a max of 50 by October. I ran 18:14 at the end of October.

Imagine running 70mpw and peaking at 18:20