Running 100mpw at 9min pace. What result would you get?

Did this exact thing in my mid 20s

Went from running 18 mid 5ks. Down to consistently under 16:20. Had a lot of fun and learned a lot about myself.

I didn't do a great job of preventing overuse injuries in places of imbalance in my body and have paid the price a bit, but I'm not too bad off.

adfsasdf wrote:

Debating if you should be running 8mins or 9 mins seems like waste.

Exactly.

Plus, hills and surfaces are rarely mentioned in all the discussion of easy run pace on LRC. The pace of my easy runs can vary by as much as 2mins per mile depending on which route I take due to differences in elevation gain and footing. Even the same route can differ quite a bit depending on conditions (hot weather vs mild, dry vs muddy trail, windy vs still). Yet most of the comparisons I see on LRC only list the pace, as if everyone does all their runs on the track in the same weather.

HRE wrote:

Sounds just like Francis Burdett except for the marathons

Actually, now that I think about it, it doesn't sound just like Burdett. He doesn't do any faster stuff at all.

This further supports my position, but I intentionally didn't use this result because it was a hot year and because there's so many foreigners on the list (not going full Trump, just sticking to my position about how few guys like this there are in the country).

I think Long slower distance works for a lot of people and it still amazes me that Mr Whitlock went sub 3 hours in his 70s by jogging around a cemetery for 3 hours a day. My approach from April to July is going to basically be 90-100 miles a week slow... but not that slow!

I'm 63 and just retired so taking the opportunity to experiment with this-up to 82 miles last week the majority at 9 min or slower but make a point to add frequent hills and about 10 mpw of tempo (one longer and one shorter workout)- last week 10 x 880 yd at 3:10- yesterday 7 miles at 6:54 pace. All quality runs are on a soft surface. Cardio and recovery are fine (60s rest on the 880s) but leg speed is the limiting factor (part of that problem may be related to my 8-10 miles the day before). I ran 2 marathons at age 58-59 right around 3 hr on 45-50 mpw with lots of tempo/intervals (up to 20 plus mpw at sub 7 min pace) so curious how this goes. I've got all the time in the world to train and usually swim or easy bike in the afternoons. FYI I've got about 900 60s-70s songs on my ipod to pass the time during long runs. The strava mileage challenge also adds to the fun.

easy weeks wrote:

Just another fat guy wrote:

Ed Whitlock?

Yeah, I live near Ed and have talked to him a number of times at races over the past 16 years or so. I'm sure he has slowed down now, but 10-15 years ago when he was in his 70s he was running high volume slow mileage, and that's all he did other than race. It's been well-documented.

One thing you're not mentioning is Ed raced frequently, almost every week, I believe. That was his speedwork. Running high volume at a slow pace wouldn't work if you only ran a 3-4 races a year.

'Some faster work sprinkled in '

Could be anything

Shoebacca wrote:

Smoove wrote:

By way of example, 2 guys over 50 went sub 2:40 at Chicago this year, and both were 50 (one at 2:35 and the other 2:39), and only one was American. Probably fastest legit course in the country and one American over 50 broke 2:40 and that guy was 50 and ran 2:39.

The guy the OP met was either an anomaly or perhaps referencing older times.

I know plenty of guys in their 50s who run smaller marathons all over the country and place top 3 regularly. Just because they don't all run the Chicago Marathon doesn't mean they aren't out there.

When you say you know plenty of guys, you basically mean one, right?

I am 50 now. When I was 30 I ran my marathon pr of 2:41. Other PR's are 1:14 1/2 marathon, 1:09 20K, 34:24 10K, 16:15 5K road, 16:17 5k indoors, all of these pr's were achieved between the ages of 27-30. If I ran 100 mpw @ 9 min pace now with one good quality session a week could I eventually get under or close to 3 hours for the marathon and somewhere in the low to mid 1:20's for the half marathon and say around 18 min for 5k?

RunCzar wrote:

There is a guy in my town who is in his 50s and has run sub 2:40, although the article doesn't state what pace he does his miles at. I've heard he runs 3 times a day on a treadmill most days. Yikes!

http://www.runnersworld.com/general-interest/runner-aims-for-marathon-age-group-sweep

"For Zalokar, that has meant high mileage—he averaged 150 miles per week over a seven- to eight-week stretch leading up to London, with a high of 162 miles—and just as important, keeping his weight down"

Track Fan 1979 wrote:

I am 50 now. When I was 30 I ran my marathon pr of 2:41. Other PR's are 1:14 1/2 marathon, 1:09 20K, 34:24 10K, 16:15 5K road, 16:17 5k indoors, all of these pr's were achieved between the ages of 27-30. If I ran 100 mpw @ 9 min pace now with one good quality session a week could I eventually get under or close to 3 hours for the marathon and somewhere in the low to mid 1:20's for the half marathon and say around 18 min for 5k?

Definitely.

HRE wrote:

Bob Deines is who you're thinking of, not Bill Scobey, not by a long shot.

Thanks, HRE. I knew someone would know who I was trying to refer to. Bob Deines! Blast from the past!

Scobey, frequently called Bill "Mad Dog" Scobey, was legendary for doing massive amounts of killer intervals. Deines still runs a bit. Don't know about Scobey.

I don't know who the original poster was talking of but that's who I was speaking of. I hope he doesn't mind.

Burdett's been profiled in a couple places so he can't be too secretive. I did not know he ran marathons at all. He has posted here in the semi-distant past.

From National Masters News:

"He

notes that his mileage in high school

generally started at about 25 miles

per week and then went down to

about 15 as they ran more intervals

of hill work and speed work. While

attending college at CW Post on

Long Island, his mileage increased

significantly and injuries kept him

from progressing. When the coach

capped his mileage at almost half of

what the other runners were doing,

he was injured less and he stayed

competitive. He recalled running a

road 10 miler at the end of his high

school track season. He had taken

three full weeks off from running

at the conclusion of the season and

jumped into a 10 mile road race andran 55:17. His fully recovered and

rested legs let him carry himself to

an outstanding time.

When the college coach capped

his mileage and his training pace

was still fairly fast, he only realized

partial success. Injuries still plagued

him off and on. As a masters runner

he decided to focus on keeping

himself recovered and healthy. Not

only would his mileage be meager

(by many other distance runners��

standards), it would also be slow

and easy. Burdett points out an

objective that he has in his training:

��I run easy today so that I can run

easy tomorrow.�� The significance of

this statement is not fully realized

until one understands that for years

as a master��s level runner he has

trained on mileage of 30 to 35 miles

per week at a pace of 9:00 to 9:30

minutes per mile. Only recently

has he increased his weekly mileage

significantly while maintaining the

same pace per mile."

Papa Lindo

RE: will I get faster just doing high mileage and no speed work 7/31/201

Read more:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=4163039&thread=4160433#4163039#ixzz4bLuafHu9

Not sure why people have such a hard time believing this type of running works for people.

I used this type of training myself (with the exception that my running was probably in the mid 8's). Almost only this type of running over the years. My marathon pr is in the mid 2.30's and it helped me set PR's at all distances. I came from a triple jump background and no long distance running to speak of. I was also already thin so it wasn't related to a benefit from weight loss.

In my opinion lots of easy/slow running and some kind of speed work "sprinkled" in during a 100 mile week can work wonders. Especially for the population that seems to think they need to hammer everything during the week.

My speed work in a given week was a rotation of threshold running and intervals every week and a long run with a progressively fast finish. Everything else was slow.

I'm in my mid 30's now and still use this training structure to set a half marathon pr last year at 1.11. I gave up the marathon's back when I set my last PR several years ago mostly because I didn't enjoy them and the half (for some reason) ended up as my best event.

It might not work for everyone but I think it works for more people than the LR message boards seems to think.

I originally trained with far less mileage at a faster pace and struggled to break 4 in my first two marathons. It took me several years to finally get down close to 3 hours. But once I increased the mileage and slowed down the times starting to drop in large chunks.

Perhaps I'm a unique case but I don't think I am that special. I helped my wife and a good friend with the same type of training with a similar pattern in results.

The hardest part is putting the ego aside and letting people speed past you on a daily basis. But when it comes to racing it was a completely different story.

Your training is you describe it sounds very conventional for those aiming for high performance - two workouts per week, a long run, and high volume.