How much of your 10k potential can you hit running 40mpw?

I second the question as my 10k PR was indeed run on 40mpw. If I find that conversion factor, I'll use that to come up with a new 10k PR.

(joking of course, but my PR is from 40mpw)

Given that 100 mpw is the bare minimum, I'd say you'd be lucky to reach 40% of your potential.

97%

At peak genetic profile and age...

40mpw gets you 88%

You could easily get a 12% lift going from 40mpw to 70mpw

97%. You are not close with your estimate. A person with 30 minute potential can run 31 minutes on 40 MPW. Your estimate would have them run 33:30.

That seems like a lot of hard running on 40 miles a week but intriguing question. And no long run. A secondary question: what would be the optimal 10k program on 40ish miles a week?

How do you explain the huge improvement in high schoolers at the shorter 5K distance who previously ran 40-50 miles per week, then increased to 70-80+ miles per week for Junior and Senior years, compared to Juniors and Seniors who do not increase their mileage?

I'm living this right now. 35-40 mile weeks.

I'm not aerobically trained properly on that mileage, so my longer distances suffer compared to my 5K/10K time. (but you don't care about those)

I'm doing 1 Interval day, 1 20-30 min tempo day, 1 hill day (alternate weeks of hill sprints and longer hills at steady pace) and 1 fast-ish long run (2nd half run at HM pace or faster if I feel good so kind of a tempo?).

Then rest of days are easy 4-5 milers, cross train, or rest. So in total 4 hard days and 3 easy/ potential rest days

Not sure where the limit would be for this, but I think I'd eventually plateau around the level of a below average college athlete doing higher mileage.

I think, if done right, with quality sessions and some other forms of conditioning as a second workout, you could come close to your potential.

I'm trying this myself- I'm 63 and can't handle too many miles anymore, so I'm going to try staying at 35-40 with a second session of plyo's, HIIT, core, etc.

This seems to genuinely be the magic barrier, but its also a lot of work for what some would say is not worth the reward. No clue here on the percent or what have you but I know making the jump from 40-50ish miles per week to 60-70ish alone was a massive "level up" as an athlete when i have done it (college and a few times post-collegiate). had a second kid and that went bye bye real quick.

Speaking of mileage- it seems that more runners "back in the day" (1970's/80's) did more mileaage.

100-120 and more was common.

There were stories of David Bedford doing up to 200 on 3 runs a day.

Now, I see more 80-100 mile weeks.

But, what are the very best doing?

You have no data to back up your strawman.

You have no data to back up your strawman.

7%-93%

Considering the vast majority of citizens of the world are incapable of running more than 30 miles per week without suffering some sort of overuse ailment, most people will maximize their 10K potential, 40 miles per week or fewer miles. If you're asking will a T&F coach ever coach a 10000m gold medalist with a training schedule of 40 miles per week or fewer miles? Never again. I'm sure the guys, 1912 to 1936 Olympics logged only (20 to 35) miles per week. Can you blame them? They basically ran in leather slippers.

M- 8 miles w / 6 x 1200 @ 10k to 5k effort w/ 400m easy recovery

Tu- 4 miles easy

W- 6 miles w/ 4 @ tempo at just sub-marathon effort to just over 10k effort

Th- 6 miles w/ short hills or 8 x 200m @ mile to 800m effort w/ 200m recovery

F- 4 miles easy

Sa- 12 miles w/ second half harder if feeling good

Su- rest

I don’t have any science to back this up, but I firmly believe this would get many (and possibly most) runners within 45-90s of their potential in a 10k, assuming they repeated it 44-50 weeks a year for a decade-plus in their teens to 30s and stayed healthy.

No great development in shoe tech but Emil Zatopek just gutted out the mileage. E Zatopek is credited with being the first man to combine logging 100 miles per week plus workouts. Doing workouts is old, 19th Century for sure, most likely 18th Century. No real change in demographics, running surface or shoe tech from 1880 to 1950. It looks like more than doubling mileage improved 10000m performance about (90 to 105) second.

No problem to reach 100% capacity @ 10 k with 40 mpw if yo just have a Magic program. 🧙‍♂️🇸🇪👋

You can do 40 mpw with

M 4-6 depending on Saturday workout volume

T 2 wu 10 * 1k/ 5*2k threshold 2 cd

W 4

Th 2 wu 24*400 threshold 2 cd

F 4

Sa 2 wu 10k-800m pace track stuff or hills 2 cd

Su off

40 mpw Ingy plan