malmo wrote:
Flagpole wrote:Should be noted that of course that kind of mileage can't be had unless you did the work in the summer to be able to handle that kind of mileage. .
That is incorrect. I probably did 30-50 mile weeks in the Summer. Usually some Summer all-comers races, but I was very active and swam a lot. One week every Summer I would go for it to see how much I could run. That Summer my go-for-it week was 131 miles.
malmo,
You don't understand how little some runners run in the summer. 30-50? And you are presenting that as not much. Yes, someone who does up to 50 MPW in the summer might be able to handle a big jump up like you did (some assuredly would). There are high school kids who don't run a step until Aug. 1 when practice in mandatory. I see if every year with the kids on my kid's teams -- some kid run 23 minutes in his first meet and then gets down to 16:58 by the end of the season when perhaps he would have been at 15:40 if he had run any decent mileage at all in the summer.
When I was in high school I averaged less than 10 miles a week in the summer...just didn't know any better then as less is more and resting up was the order of the day (though some knew better, but in the mid 80s, the main thing was less is more -- horrible). Eventually got down to 15:48 in high school just mostly on talent as we did 15 MPW MAX. Crazy.
So, I stand by my statement. Can't take someone who runs nothing or next to nothing in the summer and have them run the big mileage you mentioned and expect it to go well.