Why So Much Mileage?

Some people enjoy running. I know sounds crazy right. Some like to play video games for hours on end, others like to read for hours on end and other enjoy trotting around for hours on end. You do you booboo.

Train for the mile

training for fun wrote:

Some people enjoy running. I know sounds crazy right. Some like to play video games for hours on end, others like to read for hours on end and other enjoy trotting around for hours on end. You do you booboo.

I suppose so, but I tend to think if you're running 60+ miles a week it is to train for racing of some sort and to get faster.

I'm sure there are people out there that enjoy just logging tons of leisurely miles though.

Not everyone can run 15 and 16 min 5k's off 40 mpw as you are suggesting. Some people need 80+ mpw for it. Their VO2MAX is very low, and they need the mileage to become incredibly efficient and boost their threshold (both, aerobic and lactate/anaerobic) as high as possible to run fast times.

Running 40 mpw, which is ~5 hours a week for most people, does nothing if that's all they do in a week. Super talents can run 14-15 min 5k's off that, but most require more.

The older I get, the more I am starting to understand that line of thinking in your second sentence.

I have a training buddy who would run 90 MPW and has 2 kids and a great career. Basically always gets up at 5 am for his morning run. I asked him how he handles the stress...if he gets tired and exhausted etc. To paraphrase, he said ‘when you get to this point in your life, you’ll do ANYTHING to get out of the house!’

LateRunnerPhil wrote:

Not everyone can run 15 and 16 min 5k's off 40 mpw as you are suggesting. Some people need 80+ mpw for it. Their VO2MAX is very low, and they need the mileage to become incredibly efficient and boost their threshold (both, aerobic and lactate/anaerobic) as high as possible to run fast times.

Running 40 mpw, which is ~5 hours a week for most people, does nothing if that's all they do in a week. Super talents can run 14-15 min 5k's off that, but most require more.

Totally understand running 80+ miles a week to try to run a 15 minute 5k. I don't understand the 80 mile weeks for people that run like 20 min 5ks if they are running that much to get faster. I think they would be better served picking up the intensity at lower mileage. If you're running 80 mile weeks and are running 20 min 5ks, I feel like you would be better served doing like 35 miles a week and two higher intensity workouts. It seems like poor training to do 60, 70, 80 miles a week when you can't break 6:30 for 3 miles. How fast would you be running for that many miles? Can't be very fast.

Juice Springsteen wrote:

The older I get, the more I am starting to understand that line of thinking in your second sentence.

I have a training buddy who would run 90 MPW and has 2 kids and a great career. Basically always gets up at 5 am for his morning run. I asked him how he handles the stress...if he gets tired and exhausted etc. To paraphrase, he said ‘when you get to this point in your life, you’ll do ANYTHING to get out of the house!’

This would explain it though.

Why tho wrote:

I don't understand the 80 mile weeks for people that run like 20 min 5ks if they are running that much to get faster. I think they would be better served picking up the intensity at lower mileage. If you're running 80 mile weeks and are running 20 min 5ks, I feel like you would be better served doing like 35 miles a week and two higher intensity workouts.

As you mentioned, a lot of those people are training for marathons and prioritizing mileage for marathon is a smart strategy. Actually, for 5k if we're talking long term development it's still a smart strategy. Doing 80 and two high intensity workouts is better than doing 35 and two high intensity workouts. There's no fixed table relation between your speed and mileage you need to run. Everyone is different. There's no rule that you can't run higher mileage if you're slow, as long as you can stay healthy and have enough time - the more the better.

If you're running 80 miles a week and 20 minute 5ks, isn't it probably all very low intensity though? More mileage isn't better if it completely throws off intensity.

High volume is empirically correlated with faster marathons or half marathons. If your system is well adapted to survive a brisk marathon, then you can add speed work to run faster shorter distances. High volume developes some of your fast twitch fibers due to shear fatigue of the slow twitch fibers, so the story goes.

But no one runs just slow long slogs. It goes against human-animal nature. You always do speed workouts if you can do them without interfering with your EZ reminder or recovery runs. Younger, speedier, runners have to do at least 80 miles per week just to assure that the 20% fun and exhilarating speed work doesn't interfere with their slow twitch fiber adaptation. You can easily add more speed to a runner with high endurance, but you can't easily add more endurance to a 5k runner.

This seems like a straw man argument to I'm guessing justify that you aren't running more miles and are able to look at people that are running more miles than you but they aren't better than you cause your 5k time is faster than what you are perceiving theirs is? Otherwise, you specifically are observing "lots of people" running 80mpw and are trying to break 20min in a 5k as their goal and cannot?

You do you bro! The cool thing about running is there are "lots of people" who look at you and think you are slow and you suck if that's what your here for or in it for.

Nah I'm just curious from a training perspective if it makes sense. Everyone is different, but I feel like there are sort of sensible ranges of mileage at certain speeds to also have the right intensity and amount of high intensity.

That's cool. I don't know of lots of people that are of a reasonable age and weight that are averaging 80mpw and if it was their goal to do so, couldn't break 20 minutes in a 5k

Why tho wrote:

If you're running 80 miles a week and 20 minute 5ks, isn't it probably all very low intensity though? More mileage isn't better if it completely throws off intensity.

Why do you think that running 20 minutes 5ks tell anything about intensity? Intensity is relative.

This 20 minutes 5k could be some person's absolute ceiling that he could only achieve at 80 mpw.

If someone is running 80 mpw and cannot do intensity, then this someone is not yet adapted to this mileage, in time he will be able to add intensity to those 80 mpw. Obviously, there's a limit of what any person can do, but this limit is probably way higher than 80 mpw with 2 workouts.

Who are these people you are referring to? Are you following them on Strava?

I don't know of anybody putting in that kind of mileage who doesn't have at least respectable times at shorter distances (5k/10k/half, etc.), and everyone that I know who is putting in 60 mpw or higher is training for a marathon or a half

Why tho wrote:

Serious question:

It seems like there a lot of people out there training 60, 70, 80 mile weeks and can't even break 7 minute pace in the 5k.

It doesn’t seem like that at all in my experience. At least not on my Strava (which consists of a lot of my “hobby jogging” FaceBook friends). The vast majority of people running over 60 mpw at least break 17. The 17:00 - 19:00 crowd seems to run more like 30 - 50 mpw. Nobody on my Strava with 21:42+ 5k PRs (and there are lots of them) run more than 30 mpw consistently. Even the self-proclaimed “marathoners” who are that slow hit 40-50 at peak and seem to think it’s a lot.

Maybe my Strava groups is the outliers, but I don’t think so. I think the types you are describing are VERY few and far between.

quote]GBohannon wrote:

Why tho wrote:

Serious question:

It seems like there a lot of people out there training 60, 70, 80 mile weeks and can't even break 7 minute pace in the 5k.

It doesn’t seem like that at all in my experience. At least not on my Strava (which consists of a lot of my “hobby jogging” FaceBook friends). The vast majority of people running over 60 mpw at least break 17. The 17:00 - 19:00 crowd seems to run more like 30 - 50 mpw. Nobody on my Strava with 21:42+ 5k PRs (and there are lots of them) run more than 30 mpw consistently. Even the self-proclaimed “marathoners” who are that slow hit 40-50 at peak and seem to think it’s a lot.

Maybe my Strava groups is the outliers, but I don’t think so. I think the types you are describing are VERY few and far between.[/quote]

Yeah certainly not the usual case. My question was more geared at "is this probably an indicator of mistraining?"

I do think there are plenty of faster runners in the 60 mpw range that are not training for marathons though?, in response to the person above.

It is not an either/or issue. What will make you run your beat at 5 km or any other distance is mileage and faster runs. So yes, if you're running 70 mpw and can't run under 7:00 pace for 5 km you may well need to add some faster runs at the proper time but that does not mean dropping to 40, at least permanently.

Also, I'd really like to know what you mean by knowing "a lot" of people who run 60-80 mpw and can't run under 7:00 pace for 5 km. How many of these people do you know? How old are they? Are they men or women? I can't recall ever knowing a guy who ran that much and could not run much faster than that for 5 km unless they were somewhat old. Actually, in this day and age it's not all that common to find much of anyone who runs that much consistently. Where are you finding these people?

Exactly. This is a straw man to justify something about his training (low mileage) to the OP I believe .