Originally Posted by
Travs
There's some examples of elite athletes doing low but intense mileage, and filling the rest of their training out with cross-training, with great success....
Elliot Giles (one of the top 800mtr and 1500mtr UK runners over the past decade) is well known for it, and drops down to only about 30 miles per week in the winter, and does a whole stack of cycling/cross training.
There's another high-profile UK middle distance runner who does similar, although i forget his name.
For mere mortals like us, however, i remain a little unconvinced. From personal experience, my biggest jump in performance was around 2018, when i went from doing 20-30 miles a week with lots of cross-training, to aiming for a solid 40 miles/10,000ft per week running.