Is 100mpw in singles a bit too much?

No, its not too much, but unless you are training for a marathon, that running is best split up into doubles as you can do a 9-10 mile run faster than a 15 mile run. Do you not have time to double?

Also, no one but elite runners are doing 100 miles in 10 hours. That is 6 min pace average. Even with some faster running, easy pace is under 620 to do it in 10 hours. If you can run below 2:15 for the marathon or 104 for the half, you might be able to run easy at 6 min pace. I doubt Lydiard's runners were doing 100 miles in 10 hours, someone is probably pulling numbers out of their ass. 100 miles in 13 hours still probably means you are doing your easy runs too fast. You should focus on the mileage and not the time on your feet in your case. And you should probably be doing doubles unless there is some reason not to.

I am very interested in what you are saying. I have tried a higher amount of volume in the past for a few weeks and I felt the same way regarding 200m, 300m reps.

My thinking right now is that if I build my aerobic engine up first and then reduce the volume wayyy down come track season I should be flying.

I want to know what you think I should do to achieve those breakthroughs aside from this method.

If you taper way down when track season begins you'll run fast at meets no one cares about then when it counts you'll race like garbage. Also tapering way down may not work well for you anyway unless you've got a lot of fast twitch fibers.

Anton Krupicka is retired. wrote:

Track Fan 1979 wrote:

Ask Adam Goucher how that worked out for him. Underachieved as he was injured for most of his career.

Who is Adam Goucher?

former ncaa champion, 354 mile, 1310 5k

Lydiard's runners WERE elite runners. If you're even a 2:25 marathon runner you're half a minute slower than your marathon pace at six minutes a mile for runs that are much shorter than marathons most of the time. There was really no "easy" running in the Lydiard base phase. It was all pretty moderate. If you've got three runs in the mid to upper fives, a couple more in the low sixes and a long run in the mid sixes you'll be at about 100 miles in 10 hours or so.

100mpw man wrote:

I am very interested in what you are saying. I have tried a higher amount of volume in the past for a few weeks and I felt the same way regarding 200m, 300m reps.

My thinking right now is that if I build my aerobic engine up first and then reduce the volume wayyy down come track season I should be flying.

I want to know what you think I should do to achieve those breakthroughs aside from this method.

The short answer, and maybe not the one you're looking for, is that I probably wouldn't train this way for a track race. Hell, I don't think I'd train that way for a marathon if it weren't for the time constraints that I had. The only reason I put the faster stuff in the schedule the way that I did is because I wanted to do something each week to remind myself how to go a little faster. But at the same time, I wasn't doing anything fast. I knew I wasn't going to be able to run anywhere near 5 flat miles for the marathon, so I was content to do a little piece of a run each week that was a bit faster than 5 minute pace. I felt like if I was doing that in practice it would not be neurologically taxing to run 6 minute miles for the actual race. And that part worked. But running 6 minute miles is not going to help you for any race on the track. The fact was that the day I was doing faster stuff hardly makes sense in a training plan where you don't have to structure it that way. First, what is the best way to execute that day? I tried it multiple ways. Go on a 9 mile run, then put it at the end, with a short cool down. That always felt terrible. Go on

a regular warm-up and then run an 8 mile cooldown. That 8 miles and often the next day felt terrible. Like you are saying, it was far enough out from the race that I didn't worry about it, but in hindsight, I don't know how much benefit I got from it.

I think that you should be asking yourself what you want to get out of doing 100 mpw in singles, and try to answer more specifically than, "I want to get really fast," because everyone who is training wants to get really fast. I think if you are confined to single runs, you will get more out of your workouts if you structure your schedule in a way to be able to execute the workouts well, rather than feel like poop and fall back on "at least I ran a lot, that must count for something."

Probably should have started with this, but what does your coach think about your plan? I suggest sitting down with him or her to try to figure out a way to structure your buildup so that your hard work will produce the results you are looking for in the Spring. Remember that the training log is not the trophy. Good training leads to the trophy. Good luck.