A conversation I had with my teammate, he said a few things that actually shocked me with how dumb it was.

If I hit 20, that's a big week. I'm usually in the mid to upper teens.

Your friend is an idiot. I was a (fairly) elite HS runner and ran in the 60-70 range as a senior.

Ha ha, April fools!!!

There was a female athlete on my university team who thought that the wind was caused by trees moving their branches around. This was at a supposedly good school as well. Clearly entry standards for post-secondary education have declined in a big way.

Post-secondary education for all!

DAMN YOU OBAAAAMA!!!

That's just silly. Everyone knows the wind starts with a butterfly somewhere flapping its wings.

This is true. Trees cannot move fast enough on their own to create wind. Winds are initiated by movements such as butterfly wings. Trees and other plants enhance these winds as they move through them, but they do not create them.

My senior year of high school I ran about 60-70mpw during base training and 40-50 during the season. A few of my teammates did about the same, but most weren't doing that much. I would guess that the whole team averaged 50mpw during base training and 35mpw during the season.

cbenson4 wrote:

My senior year of high school I ran about 60-70mpw during base training and 40-50 during the season. A few of my teammates did about the same, but most weren't doing that much. I would guess that the whole team averaged 50mpw during base training and 35mpw during the season.

I remember in HS every distance guy on the team hated this kid who would not run any mileage. He would run 6 - 8 400's on Monday, 2 800's and 2 600's on Tuesday, 6 200's on Wednesday, "rest" on Thursdays and run dual meets on Fridays. The coach let him get away with short workouts because the kid had a job he had to get to, and because he somehow managed to run 1:57 in the 800 and 4:27 in the 1600. We couldn't figure out how he could do this while the rest of us were putting in 40 miles per week, after 50 - 70 during XC season. We had one guy who could beat the no-mileage kid, but he wasn't that much faster and he put in 60 miles a week most of the time. The no-mileage kid didn't run cross country either. And he didn't have any interest in trying to reach his potential. I'm sure some of you guys out there have had a teammate like this. He's like the guy the OP is whining about, no interest in putting in a lot of time running.

Couldn't figure it out? Really?

Just posted on Buzzfeed: Volume is not the one and only answer to fast times. One needs enough volume for a given event/distance. What's enough? Varies.

To the OP, your teammate knows how to keep the sport fun for him/her. Take a tip and figure it out for you.

That's correct. Volume isn't everything, especially not for the 800/1600. Roger Bannister's weeks of training consisted largely of fast track workouts, low volume. Bernard Lagat doesn't do more than 70 mpw last I heard. Everyone's different.

I love running and enjoy running the amount of mileage I do. At what point did I insinuate otherwise?

I am an 800m runner and I only run 800m.

Obviously, youre a troll, but I legitimately had a teammate who would go to the gym everyday and run 800m to train for the 800. He ran 2:3x in a TT and quit track before the indoor season even started.

The 80 mpw is low for a legitimate D1 varsity distance athlete. My son is a walk on for a decent D1 program. He's running > 80 mpw and he's a freshman transitioning from low mileage in HS to college.

The varsity athletes are 90 - 105 mpw. And, the intensity is very high. Ex. 3 mile warm up at 6:30 pace, 5 miles at 4:50 - 5:15 pace, 3 miles cool down at 6:30 pace. Lift.

Double 2X week. 15+ miles long run on Sundays. Etc.

So, your friend is off by a factor of about 2. I guess that means that running D1 really, really sucks?

Op

The conversation you have, if true, shows me the attitude of someone who will always be a 2:12 800m guy, and nothing more.

To be good, or yes, great, you must workout like crazy. Do stuff others can't even try to do.

Be a mad man.

The 800m is the beast of outdoor track and field. It is the hardest event in all of Track and Field.

Don't bother with him. He is a loser.

Train. Train when no else is, and you will succeed.

The 800m is an iffy distance. You have a mix of 400m type athletes and 1500m type athletes, but either way you need more than 10 mpw to be good at it. I'd say at least 25-30 for a high school kid with some natural speed.

There is more to mileage than the number though. You must consider years of running experience, talent (speed or strength) and ability to recover, to name a few. In high school, the average was 30-40, with the better runners running 50-60. In college we had people running anywhere from 50 - 90+ mpw.

His 2:12 tells you all you need to know about the quality of that training strategy.

In his defense, a true 800 runner does not need to run mileage to be successful. Now whether he is a true 800 runner or not is a different story...

I coach a HS kid who ran 1.50.xx last year as a Junior off of at best 10-15 miles a week - his long run was 20 minutes a couple of times per week. Didn't do warmups or cooldowns (unless you call a lap as a w/c), and only trained 4 times per week (played basketball and worked a lot). He wasn't even very fast - could barely break 49 for 400m, and hadn't run a 1600 nor did XC in HS.

He isn't doing that anymore, however, but it shows what a talented kid can do. Btw, he was coaching himself at that time, now he understands what he was doing wrong? really!!