I am a rising junior and am training for the 5k in xc. Freshman year I ran 40mpw and a 10:44 2 mile, and sophomore year I ran 60mpw and 10:09. Part of this improvement I think was from physical development though. I'm very much a slow twitch guy as my 4:51 mile pr was run a week after running 10:12. My question is will I see improvement going over 70mpw this summer? I want to know if it's worth my time. I'm growing pretty quickly too, which I've heard can affect running. Thanks
Question: Benefit going over 70mpw in high school?
Answer: winning and running fast
If you're a slow twitch guy, mileage is hugely important. You seem to benefit well from bumping mileage, so I say go for it.
Yes you’ll benefit from it, especially as a slower twitch guy. I benefitted as an intermediate twitch guy. Just make sure you build up responsibly over months, and you do quality workouts and not just mileage. Don’t run your mileage too fast and listen to your body.
winning and running fast wrote:
Question: Benefit going over 70mpw in high school?
Answer: winning and running fast
^^This^^
Gives you confidence knowing that you can handle 10 miles a day ... when most of your foes only really started training 2 weeks before the first practice.
runningman2020 wrote:
I am a rising junior and am training for the 5k in xc. Freshman year I ran 40mpw and a 10:44 2 mile, and sophomore year I ran 60mpw and 10:09. Part of this improvement I think was from physical development though. I'm very much a slow twitch guy as my 4:51 mile pr was run a week after running 10:12. My question is will I see improvement going over 70mpw this summer? I want to know if it's worth my time. I'm growing pretty quickly too, which I've heard can affect running. Thanks
Yes, you will gain big time. As someone else said, as a slow twitch guy, you will really benefit by running 70 miles a week. Make one of the those runs 15-16 miles.
1) How do you know you are a slow twitch guy, you tested this?
2) If you are slow but good in endurance and you want to improve in the mile/2mile endurance will be important but you will also need speed, a lot of speed to make it to a high level.
3) If I would be coaching you I would focus on core and powertraining in combination with pure sprinttraining (30m's max).
Next to this I would give you a balanced program with topweeks of 55miles where the main focus is building up both your aerobic and anaerobic system in terms of capacities not power.
Your problem is not your endurance if I can take a gamble. It probably is your anaerobic system and your speed. Those 2 will be limiting you to become a really good miler/2miler. So you also have to work on those and not make the mistake of only focussing on your strong points :).
Guess the training of the best US high school runners of all time. Hint: they weren't training like delicate pansies.
And how many of them made it to World class athletes without having severe injuries?
You know when you are training athletes you are responsible for their body and future?
OlympicRunningTeamCoach wrote:
And how many of them made it to World class athletes without having severe injuries?
You know when you are training athletes you are responsible for their body and future?
Jim Ryun silver at the Olympics and set a few world records, pretty good mileage in high school. Ritzenhein put in pretty good mileage in high school, has went to the Olympics 3x, has ran 7 minutes faster than your fastest runner in the marathon and has set one American record in 5000m. Rudy Chapa put in good mileage in high school, went on to run 7:37 for 3000m and 2:11 at the NYC Marathon.
Yes so that's 3 really good athletes out of thousands, in my opinion that's not a good score :).
Look at the school records for high schools in the US. Unsurprisingly, a lot of them are from the 70s.
OlympicRunningTeamCoach wrote:
Yes so that's 3 really good athletes out of thousands, in my opinion that's not a good score :).
Solinsky did over 100 mpw, even sub-elites like Magness. I'm sure there aren't just 5 but plenty more.
ST runners need to run as much as possible to reach their potential. High mileage for a ST runner is also completely different than for a FT - they can handle it much better, and even run faster recovery paces. Put a FT on too much mileage and he gets injured in no time.
Your suggestions of sprints would do the opposite - it could burn him down, or even injure him since he is heavily ST.
His 2-mile is much better than his mile time - very unusual for a HS athlete. Even a evenly distributed runner would still have a better mile time, as most HS kids are undertrained aerobically.
To make sure he is really ST, he could do a lactate test (and check for his max lactate after running an all-out 400-600m, the lower his peak lactate the more ST) OR just do a 40m dash with runners of his mile/2-mile ability and see how he compares to them. If they leave him in the dust, it's another sign he is heavily ST.
So where will you go senior year? 80? And if you run in college? 90+?
Change a different variable junior year, leaving your mileage the same. Save the mileage for senior year and for college. That could mean adding strength training, pure speed training, upping workout volume (tempos, VO2 max), whatever other piece you can change.
I agree with you that ST will recover faster from mileage than FT that's pure logic...
But a ST will benefit from sprints for sure. With sprints I am not talking about anaerobic work, I am talking about maximal speed (5" max). He will improve his running economy, his way of recruiting musscle fibers the same as you would do with correct strength training.
I don't agree that on his young age he has to go to 100 miles a week that is insane and will give him no chance to become a good track athlete in the near future.
And a lactate test is only partly true, the best and only correct way to determine how FT or ST he is, is to do a muscle scan.
But thank you for your reaction.
That's what I said above... I don't understand your remark because you are repeating my opinion about his training. I gave him the same advice :)
Josh McDonald and Jim Walsmey(inspired to do so by reading about Josh training) ran a lot of mileage in high school. And might as well include a lot of east African runners, who grow up running up 6-10+ miles a day running to school and back.
No they arent. Facts mean more than your opinion or failed recollecontion of the past. We have 30 HS kids running sub 9 each year while one per year did it in the 1970s during the high mileage period.
Math wizzer wrote:
No they arent. Facts mean more than your opinion or failed recollecontion of the past. We have 30 HS kids running sub 9 each year while one per year did it in the 1970s during the high mileage period.
The poster you responed to said, "Look at the school records for high schools in the US. Unsurprisingly, a lot of them are from the 70s.". Don't know if this is true or not, but have you went around the country compiling all the school records around the US?
Mileage makes champs wrote:
OlympicRunningTeamCoach wrote:
And how many of them made it to World class athletes without having severe injuries?
You know when you are training athletes you are responsible for their body and future?
Jim Ryun silver at the Olympics and set a few world records, pretty good mileage in high school. Ritzenhein put in pretty good mileage in high school, has went to the Olympics 3x, has ran 7 minutes faster than your fastest runner in the marathon and has set one American record in 5000m. Rudy Chapa put in good mileage in high school, went on to run 7:37 for 3000m and 2:11 at the NYC Marathon.
Now, here is the other side of the story:
Jim Ryun had a brilliant but short career.
Ritz was and is often injured, has not really lived up to his potential.
Rudy also had a brilliant but short career, chronic foot injuries ended it early for him.