"You have to run a lot" — Jakob Ingebrigsten

There was a podcast where Sam Tanner after running 3:31 told Jakob he ran about 50-60 miles a week. Jakob told Tanner he must be one of the most talented guys on the circuit. Jakob also said he didn't take breaks between seasons, just ran a week of 10k runs.

I think Jakob may be a a bit biased towards assuming everyone is like him and needs high mileage to succeed. Jakob may also assume he isn't talented because he succeeds off such high mileage.

Tanner is super talented tho, he ran 3:38 in high school

Running high mileage is a talent itself, we know not everyone can do it even if they try to.

Very true. But what's equally true is that lots of people say that about themselves without ever trying seriously to run high miles.

Trying is one thing, doing it year in, year out is another. It is hard.

Since we are talking of two dimensions, distance and time, shouldn't it be called "area"?

I'm among the runners have tried both, and best times by far came when I was at around 50-60 mpw. We can sum it up in this sentence; To reach your ultimate possible race times is mainly not a question of how many miles you run, more a question of how you run your miles. 🇸🇪🧙‍♂️🎅

It's the workouts and consistency that got him where he is not running 190km / week which is just an arbitrary number.

Of course km. However it is much better to talk about net endurance training hours week. Running on a professional Level seems to need about 12h/week. More can the body Not handle because of the high impact. Some people here believe 6h a week are enough and they can compensate the rest with intensity. Ridiculous. Best triathletes train up to 30h a week. That seems to be the biological Limit. But you have to gradual increase the volume.

Such a gradual progression isn’t necessary and would reduce the possibility of receiving a scholarship. Even in early HS, distance running is not a leisure sport.

Nobody is talented in this sport if you go by interviews🤣 There are several guys (Lagat, Spivey) who ran around there and ran 3:31. Both were sort of endurance guys (i.e. they were not running 1:44s..).

Personally I never place too much faith in statements like this. We can end up comparing someone's base phase (180km/week) to someone else's racing phase (100km/week). And people definitely like to talk about the biggest week ever and not the average ones... See a 6-12 week schedule and you get a lot better feel for what people are doing ....

A 22 years old professional master of the art of running. Saying this as a 50plus years old professional in my business still learning everyday. So much respect to Jakob and team. So cool.

This is a big problem in sharing training knowledge. Few athletes are capable of seeing their own talent/admitting that what they achieve is anything but the hard work they put in. Honestly, at the level Jakob runs at, it's safe to assume everyone is working hard and training near their body's limit.

This is why I have a ton of respect for athletes like Nick Willis (ran 6 days a week) and Nick Symmonds who recognize the extent of their talent and don't let keeping up with the training of others pressure them into doing too much.

I remember reading an interview with Symmonds where he said he would get sick any time he trained under 160 165 lbs for too long and it suddenly clicked with me that the same exact thing happened to me but I would always call it bad luck. I was cutting too much weight and adding too much mileage for my "buffalo"-like frame. Jakob is among the best to ever do it and his training is awesome but there are different ways to skin a cat in this sport.

65 in high school (which is about 60 for girls) isn’t enough to perform at a high level to receive a scholarship? Why would a coach want a kid who is doing 80-90 mpw in high school with the possibility of flaming out or peaking early?

I mean, if I were the coach, I would want the 9:10-15 kid doing 55 mpw over the sub-9 kid doing 80. More potential. But that’s just me.

Lagat ran 3:26 on 6 days of running a week, 50-60 mpw.

You should tell Mark Wetmore. Following his strategy, he ended up with Ritz instead of any number of mediocre D1 guys who couldn't handle the increase in mileage in college.

Yeah, I get it. But the Ritz’s of the world are generally outliers. What I’m saying is a kid who can run sub-9 off of 65 mpw should be conveying both talent and durability. 65 is actually pretty high. If we were talking 45 mpw, then we would be in agreement.

Why would bet on potential versus proven ability? If Lex Young is running 120mpw does it matter?

Unless you believe that hard training early limits potential(there is basically no evidence for this) versus letting you hit your potential early, it is better to go early...

Plus Ritz was pretty injured his entire college and professional careers. Not sure that is a great example. Still ran fast but was continually compromised. Imagine if he backed off even a little.