Galen Rupp reveals that he's running 140+ MPW in new interview

Amerikano wrote:

You guys do know that Eluid Kipchoge runs around 150mpw right?

And has a faster 5k than Rupp...

I don't know how you'd expect him to compete if he doesn't do 130+ to be honest. Salazar knows he needs to hit high volume and fast long runs at the same time.

That's the trick though - being able to train significant mileage and still develop speed. That's what the elites do that most others can't. Having all the other physical characteristics helps a lot: being naturally small, lightweight, with super efficient cardio and VO2.

On top of that, you have to be motivated, or you will never be close to your potential.

I think this is where the divide between young collegiate runners and everyone else is apparent on Letsrun. 100 mpw not unusual for collegiate distance training, unlike making the NBA.

100+ weeks (or just high mileage in general, whatever that is relative to where you are now) makes you a better runner season over season. Aerobic base is actually important.

People who say we're not constructed to run that many mpw are wrong. Just don't do it if you can't -- no one cares dude.

That's why there are almost no good runners who train professionally in the sh*tty weather states. Use your brainI run in shorts every day of the year and have pr'd in every distance above 5k since leaving the Midwest when I was in my late 20's

Space Ghost wrote:

By the way, how's this for some high school level, and straight out inaccurate writing, "Here, workouts don’t get called off, and soccer games and track meets don’t get postponed. Because Oregonians don’t get forced indoors like those in the Midwest or Northeast. They plug ahead in wretched conditions, letting nothing stop them—no matter how gray the outlook, no matter how miserable they feel inside." I'd love to see some Oregonians come run for a winter in Minnesota or Michigan. Rain is hardly a problem when your low winter temps are in the 40's. Try some workouts, track meets, and soccer games in single digit temps with ice and snow.

Speaker of Hard Truths wrote:

GUPPYBUTT wrote:

Stupid AF man, we all know that anyone can run a lot, the reason people "give up" is because they get hurt, their brain doesn't just fail.

Not true. Most people are excuse makers and cannot run a lot. They may get "injured" but they will milk that injury as an excuse to never go above 70 mpw when mileage was not the cause of their injury.

Not true.

There are so many runners that out of that "most people" there's a hoard trying to run the miles and quality to get there.

Genetics is the #1 factor in running talent and success.

Why is it surprising for Rupp to go 140 mpw? Isn't that pretty commonplace among marathoners and ultramarathoners?

yeah, maybe a couple of 140 weeks

Chubb Popper wrote:

Why is it surprising for Rupp to go 140 mpw? Isn't that pretty commonplace among marathoners and ultramarathoners?

I'm not surprised at all. Lydiard had Barry Magee doing that 55 years ago. Frank Shorter and Bill Rodgers ran that much too. 100-flat is low volume for an elite male marathoner.

this.

GR will run 2:06 low-

DNF

shaliday wrote:

I think this is where the divide between young collegiate runners and everyone else is apparent on Letsrun. 100 mpw not unusual for collegiate distance training, unlike making the NBA.

100+ weeks (or just high mileage in general, whatever that is relative to where you are now) makes you a better runner season over season. Aerobic base is actually important.

People who say we're not constructed to run that many mpw are wrong. Just don't do it if you can't -- no one cares dude.

I have done 100 mile weeks. I do think running a 100 mile week is easily a more achievable goal for most people than making the NBA, especially if you don't factor in any sort of minimal pace for those 100 miles. However, I do not think every human being is capable of training themselves to the point where week in week out they can run 100 miles - especially at any sort of reasonable pace. Could say 50 percent of people train long enough to do 100 mile weeks at 12 minute/mile pace week in week out? Maybe.

But my point is, I agree with you - the act of running requires no talent; it is not very special and it is a sport that those who aren't athletically gifted drift toward,especially long distances - specifically because it requires so little by way of actual skill. Basically it's the final catch all for kids who suck at sports but want to participate in sport. However, at the extreme end of the sport, I do think it involves genetics and talent and not just anybody can, for example, train long enough to run a 2:04 marathon.

In fact, basketball and football require no talent, are not very special and are sports that those who aren't athletically gifted drift toward, especially centers, linemen and quarterbacks, because they require so little by way of actual skill. Basically they're the final catch all for little kids who suck at running, but want to participate in a sport. Case in point, how many of those football and basketball players, might as well include baseball too, can run 100 mile weeks, and break 2:30 for marathons? Much less 2:04 hahaha. None of those other sports have anyone who can do this.

Here's the truth though wrote:

In fact, basketball and football require no talent, are not very special and are sports that those who aren't athletically gifted drift toward, especially centers, linemen and quarterbacks, because they require so little by way of actual skill. Basically they're the final catch all for little kids who suck at running, but want to participate in a sport. Case in point, how many of those football and basketball players, might as well include baseball too, can run 100 mile weeks, and break 2:30 for marathons? Much less 2:04 hahaha. None of those other sports have anyone who can do this.

Dude, just stop while you're ahead. You sound like the very "athlete" the previous poster was describing - the salty non-talented guy who took up running because he sucked at other sports. I'm not going to argue with you but alot of these linemen who "aren't athletically gifted" run 4.6 40s and have 40"+ verticals at 270 pounds. And to answer your question regarding football, basketball, and baseball players - alot of them could crush 100 miles weeks and break 2:30 in a marathon if they actually trained for it. Athleticism will always transfer to other sports - running included. Now running sub-2:10 is whole different story.....

Competitor Group gets it wrong again for the 547th time.

It is in the Midwest and Northeast that things DON'T get called off and where people don't let anything stop them. Many times in my life I have started a 2-hour run in 15 degree temps while it is snowing. Many times I have started a 100 mile ride where it was raining at the start and it was 48 degrees ... and it only got worse.

I am not going to impugn Oregonians, because I am not a douche like those at Competitor Group, but Galen Rupp is NOT someone who "plug(s) ahead in wretched conditions, letting nothing stop them—no matter how gray the outlook, no matter how miserable they feel inside."

He is a fantastically talented athlete and close to becoming the most-decorated distance runner the US ever produced ... if he isn't already there. But he races about 10 times a year and allows almost every conceivable hardship to stop him ... on a regular and consistent basis.

Sure, he placed 3rd in his second ever marathon and it was the Olympics, but that was only because he waited until he was 30 to try the marathon when he had whittled his 10k PR down from 28:15 in 2005, to 27:33 in 2007, to 27:10 in 2010, to 26:48 in 2011, to 26:44 in 2014.

He has had a superlative career, but not for the reasons that they seem to be impressed by. Salazar won his first marathon and it was more competitive than last year's US Trials. Plus he won it in 2:09. There are many other examples of marathoning at a higher level than this. Lopes and Treacy and Spedding in 1984 come to mind. Second marathon ever for Lopes (Or that stood for 24 years) and first ever for Treacy. Spedding was running his third ever marathon that August 12th. His first was in 1984 in January in Houston. He won in 2:11:54. His second was in London in April, 1984. He won that in 2:09:57. He was third in that hot weather Olympics (which, like Rio, was not as hot as everyone expected) in 2:09:58.

So, what Rupp has done (over the last 13 years) is amazing, but this article amounts to hero worship ... like most pieces from Competitor Group.

Indeed.

Where I grew up in the Midwest, we had 100+ degree summer days at 75 percent and higher humidity. Spring track meets saw sustained winds of 40 mph and greater. Maybe twice in four years we had winds less than 10 mph.

I ran track meets in five inches of snow.

Feet of snowfall every few weeks in the winter, and windchills 25 below zero and colder, for three, four months at a time.

I ran all the time, including in the high school hallways when it was too cold even for me.

Pacific Northwest? Whatever. Blustery and 50 is not brutal. Get real.

Space Ghost wrote:

It's no coincidence that the two Americans with the best combination of 5k/10k times, Rupp and Solinsky, also trained the hardest. Sure it doesn't last forever, as Solinsky demonstrated, but it's the only way to approach what the Africans are doing. I think about this every time I hear about a talented American runner capping out at 90 mpw to stay healthy and run 13:10/27:30.

Neither Rupp nor Solinsky were or are known as "hard trainers". Rupp was held back to less than 100 mpw until recently. I am surprised that Competitor got this fundamental thing that wrong. Of course, sometimes the writer is a guy who thinks that a 3:30 marathon is "super-fasty". I have not checked the background of this writer.

If you look back over the list of 10k AR holders starting with ...

Tom Laris -- pre-1972 -- don't know much about his training

Greg Fredericks -- 28:08 in 1972 -- Penn State -- 100+ mpw lots of intervals

Frank Shorter -- 27:58 + 27:51 in 1972 - 140 mpw - three interval workouts a week - got down to 27:45

Steve Pre -- 27:43 in 1974 -- wouldn't say it was high-mileage but they did 3 or 4 interval workouts per week in season

Craig Virgin -- 27:39 in 1979; 27:29 in 1980 -- I would say average/low mileage of 90-100 and a normal amount of intervals, but maybe he could fill us in?

Salazar -- 27:25 in 1982 -- he was had already won three of the four marathons he won by this time and I would say his training was one level above Laris, Fredericks, Pre and Virgin. But that is just based on my opinion having seen nearly all of their training.

Mark Nenow -- 27:20 in 1986 -- did nearly all distance running, but it was 120-140 mpw and about 10 months per year.

Keflezighi -- 27:13 -- lighter mileage than most back then or at least those who went before him

Solinsky -- 26:59 in 2010 -- this is what we are debating -- anyone have any details about his training at this time? I know that at Wisconsin it was several years before he and Teg even ran twice a day. That is not hard training.

Rupp -- 26:48 in 2011; 26:48 in 2014 -- besides his 5 x 1600m (with one at 4:01) after an indoor record 5k I have not ever seen something from him that I thought was above the level of Virgin or Shorter or Salazar especially? Of course, Salazar himself has said MANY TIMES that he has held Rupp back to make sure he doesn't get damaged like he did. And Salazar has trained him for like 15 years or so, right?

This list is just the AR holders at 10k and this just scratches the surface. I could add 50-65 other runners all from America who have run under 28:00 who have trained just as hard and just as long as Rupp or Solinsky.

I find that the point if your wordy post was to say Rupp is not a hard trainer...But he does (reportedly) run workouts 4-5 times a week with 140 weeks. Just because you have not seen info on his running other than his post race workout doesn't mean the rest of us can't dig deeper than the front page Flotrack articles. Rupp does the most extreme training of any relevant US distance runner. If this thread leads to us arguing this point, I could easily find the info necessary to prove this.

asdfasdf wrote:

Tegenkamp and Solinsky got that high in mileage around the time they broke 13 right. Salazar has held back Rupp's mileage for many years and gradually brought him up. He's now in the latter half of his career and there's no need to hold back.

Solinsky got as high as 140 (interviews state a bit lower, in the 100-120 range but those are badger miles). Solinsky also ran his easy days at a decent clip. Teg, on the other hand, never got this high in mileage. Even when he trained for the marathon. He was often injured and kept his volume much lower.

While 140 sounds like a lot, it's been a gradual progression through Rupp's career to get to this point. Slowly building, year after year after year. Salazar gets a lot of crap, and there's a chance he's breaking the rules, but there is something to be said about his progression with Galen.

Bekele only runs 80 miles per week and is just as fit as Kipchoge, stop excusing your obsession with junk millage.

Bernard Lagat apparently only runs 65-70 miles a week. Just because Bekele only runs 80mpw doesn't mean all elites need to run less. Everyone's different and responds differently to different training. Bekele and his coach perhaps found that after doing a few months of 100 mile weeks that he didn't respond well or maybe got some niggling injuries because of them. Most elites need to run those "excessive" miles in order to be efficient enough at running to run those paces for such distance.