Kelly Hodgkinson…a low mileage runner who cross trains

I think the name “total fitness” is spot on. If you can maintain a high level of fitness without the injury risk go for it.

I used to coach DI, I’d have kids bring me articles like this all the time about wanting to do less. Here is what I saw was make or break on low mileage.

1. Did they actually cross train hard or were they on social media screwing around with 95 heart rate. Rarely would they push themselves

2. Actual fitness, you can’t out train a horrible diet especially without burning calories. Keely may not run a lot but I am sure she does a ton of work core wise, drills, and in the weight room. BUT if you coach in the ncaa you can’t have that conversation.

I had my suspicions this forum was full of slow people who barely run.

I do most of my runs at easy pace.

Doesn't Valby do the same? Works out well for her

So when does Valby run 800? Tell us about the distance runners excelling on 35mpw.

I had Chinese food in the UK once. I wouldn't crave it either.

And you're still slow.

Point is if Valby can excel in 5k and 10k on 25-35 a week, than Hodginkson can certainly excel at the 8 on 35

if a large portion of an athlete's training is crosstraining, mpw is no longer the important metric to quantify training.

there is a huge difference between 30mpw + 1hr elliptical vs 30mpw + 5hr elliptical

valby would not succeed on 30mpw + 1hour of elliptical, but 800m runners might.

I think what is unquantifiable or hard to figure out is what is the ceiling of these low-mileage, high X-train runners in the 1500 and above? Clearly you can get really good as we've seen from Elliot Giles (3:30 1500m), Parker Valby (14:50/30:50), Georgia Bell (4:00.4, Euro Silver) and so on. But can you get to the highest of heights when you have athletes like Jakob, Kerr, Nuguse, Welteji, Kipyegon, Muir, Tsegay, Hassan and so on running at least 65mpw in base periods and sometimes more like 80-110.

In the 800m, I don't see that mileage as a limiting factor for many runners. I bet Keely does more aerobic work than Mu or Moraa. Sure there are examples of 800m runners who do a good bit of mileage like Jemma Reekie, Emmanuel Wanyonyi, Bryce Hoppel and so on. But there are plenty who don't.

what i got out of it is she does the opposite of what a lot of people think. her offseason is a bunch of elliptical work with a little bit of track, hills, tempo. no long slow distance, which is the mantra for many an offseason XC person -- base mileage. she's like, nah, stay off your feet, avoid stress reactions. she says she brings in the longer stuff for recovery when she IS racing. i personally buy it's more important to be staying in shape than to be pressing hard with no breaks. i think a lot of stuff happens when someone being ambitious gives no postseason break and even tries to crank it up a bit.

She is a 400m / 800m runner. She doesn't run the 1500m. So, I don't think this is low mileage for her events she runs per se.

i am amused by the pro-mileage folks trying to knock her by comparing her to the training partner cycling a ton. "see, you need to do distance." right, we want to be the training partner and not the medalist. and you're missing the point of them wanting to stay off their feet. it's not that they are lazy. it's they do non-ground-pound endurance work, for the benefit of their legs. trying to spin that back into pro-mileage misses the point.

as someone who while generally a sprinter/hurdler but did some XC but didn't compete on a track above a mile, i find the broad brush training a bit goofy. no heed to who is breakable or not. and while i understand some programs vary, we toss in 8/mile folks with 5/10k?

i don't think they need the same work. i think they do the same work because (a) some schools use TF as XC prep work, and XC runs further, so they are really training for the fall under the guise of race prep for the spring and (b) it's easier to administer some big tent than a separate mid-distance group or even multiple groups or individualized training. and you set the big tent by the people who are running 8ks or 10ks and need the miles to prepare for that. i don't buy a half mile specialist needs that.

last, people are dissing her mile ability, but her WA stuff says she ran 4:30 1500 at age 15. presumably she'd be pretty quick but she's a medal threat staying put, and unlike mu who got cute and is now a "game time call," she stayed disciplined and home and is ready to go. i would assume most of these elite runners could step up or down a race and be serviceable. mclaughlin can run 110s in the 12s, in addition to the better known sprint exploits. is keely boring or are the american experimentalists undisciplined? i would say in my new sport i'd rest a week or two and then play around in other events for a few weeks before returning a month or two later. to me the ideal time to tinker would be the post-summer meets, after olympics or worlds, you're still fit, you're not pulling a muscle from lack of fitness trying new stuff, and DL Final or not, the Serious Event is over, it's playtime. and if god forbid you do tweak something, you have a whole offseason to rest it off, and your big picture goals are done.

Don't waste your time. He knows nothing about training.

Keeley has complained about overtraining in the past. Last year she said that she felt horrible all the time but was trying to trust the process. Then she got injured and reconfigured her training last winter. Different bodies are different. There are presumably a lot of ways that you can prepare a body to run for two minutes.

Mu was running 1500s last year, with significant success. When she was a kid she was a prodigy with no real specialty. She ran everything. Now she's one of those incredibly gifted athletes who's ambivalent about their sport. Moraa is a sprinter who stepped up. I think Keeley has perfected a trick to beating Moraa, and Mu can do it too: Running under 1:56.

Peter Snell used to do up to 100 MPW, with long runs up to 21 miles.