Why am I running the same times on 35 mpw as on 70 mpw?

Higher mileage just doesn't work sometimes. I'd say stick with what works. Only other thing I could think of is failing to fuel and sleep when running 70mpw

You were running kilometres. Now you're running miles. Almost as good.

Nvm i read the post wrong

Takes a lot more effort to get to a certain fitness than to stay there or get back.

You aren't strong enough to handle 70 mpw. You were overtraining

Yeah I was very tired after a few months. Still seems crazy how it didn't work for me though.

You arrived to a certain level running 70 mpw. Then, training at 35 mpw, you got back to that exact level (second more or second less, but llet's say exactly the same). Given that it is easier to get back to a given level of fitness than achieving it in the first place, to me this makes quite a lot of sense.

It would be strange if you were running 18 low or 17 (very) high fo 5K at 35 mpw and then, after doubling at 70 mpw, you were still running the same times.

I ran 14:45 in college on 80MPW. I ran 35 MPW for years after that and hit my PR of 13:52 at age 30.

I've always hoped someone would do a longitudinal study on the effects of higher mileage well after the training has been done. As in months or possibly even years after spending at least an entire season at a significantly increased training load. My theory has always been it can sometimes take a surprisingly long time for the results to show when it comes to racing. The problem comes when trying to understand the impact of the training versus the maturing of the athlete. Think about a college kid getting stronger from age 19 to 21 simply because of maturation and trying to parse that with training impacts.

Anyway, my point being I think we're quick to dismiss if we as individuals are "cutout" for higher mileage because we see better short term results from lesser training. When in reality that previous training was an integral prerequisite to those performances. Something to think about at least.

What? How is that crazy? You trained like a moran and you got moronic results. High mileage works if you can gobble it up and profit from it. That does not involve being "very tired" after a few months. If you do it properly you'll be less tired after a 90 mile week than you are now after a 35 mile week.

i ran all my best times (~4:25 mile) on 30 mpw and got slower when i did 40-60 mpw (4:30s mile)

feeling constant "heavy legs" is no good! some people respond way more to quality than quantity

As a 4-8 guy I was at my best at 5 to 8 miles a week

What exactly is the hypothesis you would like to see proven or falsified?

You will find that increasing mileage correlates with performance but with diminishing returns, and you will find that that correlation is sticky, so the fitness won’t go away right away if the runner cuts down mileage, but will eventually go away if the runner consistently stays at the lower mileage for a long time. Growth spurts are a confounding factor but don’t change this basic model.

Hi Cade Flatt!

I'm similar. I'm naturally pretty fast off the couch and with minimal training but I don't respond linearly to higher work loads

While increased volume can be one of the best way to see good results, it doesnt matter nearly as much as the types of workouts you do and how consistently you run a specific amount of mileage. You can run 70 mpw and still underperform because the workouts just dont translate to race times. When I was in college, I ran 65-70 during xc, and I frequently made the mistake of doing reps too fast (where id go out hot and tie up at the end of my reps, pretty much blowing up the whole workout), and of course they never translated because I couldnt run those paces in a race.

part of your results likely derive from the fact that running 70 mpw preceded running 30mpw

You’ve hit your peak. Your times will never get any better despite your efforts.