Quote Originally Posted by dylan View Post
mo farrar runs 120 miles per week,his coach says the sessions that have given him the edge are the 3 sessions a week of weight training.
personally i think everyone is different and there training needs to reflect this.
as i am quite large build i found i had to run more to get the results.
when i was in my prime i was on 80 to 90 miles a week,with 2 speed,1 sustained and 1 long.
when i tried 100 miles a week i found another gear and improved more,but i couldnt cut the grass or decorate.i was tired all the time,but got pbs,
one of my training partners ran 40 miles per week and was always faster than me,thanks to his genes.
i was once talking to steve binns(commonwealth silver) who said he couldnt do more than 60 mpw,and when he tried to step it up he had to have 2 baths to try and recover.
i dont know if you remember jimmy ashworth(think 2.10 marathon)jimmy used to be in correspondence with arthur lydiard,
jim would run 200 miles a week,the mileage suited him.
colin moore(sub 44 mins 10 miler)would do 50 miles a week all of quality and would beat jimmy by a good 3 minutes over 10 miles.
as said everyone is different.
Not sure its genes.. I always find the mention of genes a tad of a cop out.. sorry :-)

For me the first thing is we have to enjoy training...if we don't enjoy it we lose motivation, the mere motivation of running well soon disapears, I think that's why we see people come on the seen.. do OK.. start doing fairly well, hit their plateau, struggle to get off.. maybe get injured drop off.. work back to the same point then quit.. getting off that plateau seems to be the hardest thing.. I think we all hit a natural plateau soon enough and then we have to train smarter, for some its simple miles for others quality..

Some enjoy the pain of hard sessions, I enjoy high mileage and the feeling of tiredness that gives, but I also enjoy food and drink.. So I need high mileage to stay even reasonably not huge...

I'm still normally fastest fatty..

But I think those who do the 40-50 mile weeks, train harder, smarter, eat better, drink more, sleep less... I know there is always that n = 1 person...

I'm similar though, 80-90 miles seems to keep me in decent shape, 100 shatters me..

I'm really not convinced there is any fool proof method of training.. One mans poison another mans nectar and all that..

Also a number of top fell runners will do 30-50 miles a week, but a lot also bike lots, plus most of their sessions are quality, not reps, but no slouch sessions.. I've ran with a few of them and its basically my race pace...

For me to run well I need to do more hard sessions, drink less, eat less, sleep more.. but I like plodding in the hills... in that respect CL is dead right.