If you are going to contest a 26-mile event, you must at least be used to 100 miles a week…As it is always the speed, never the distance, that kills, so is it the distance not the speed that has to be acquired. In the early days of training, you must endeavour only to manage as great a distance on each practice outing as you can cover without being abnormally tired..Your aim throughout should be to avoid all maximum effort while you work wit one purpose only and that is to achieve a definite and sustained rise in average speed at which you practice, for that is the secret of ultimate achievement….You must never, except for short temporary bursts, practice at racing speed.

Newton’s ideas in this law are very close to the hugely successful New Zealand distance running coach Arthur Lydiard. In the 1960s, Lydiard coached a string of Olympic champions based on a philosophy of running 100 mile weeks to gradually increase the average speed followed by a short sharpening phase involving hill sprints and then using speedwork in the racing period just for sharpening. Lydiard’s views, as with Maffetone, are still very popular amongst large numbers of the running community.
Another body of coaches subscribe to the idea of using variable training paces throughout the training year. Frank Horwill, a British coach was probably the first to formalise this idea and it was used very successfully by Seb Coe whose father Peter coached him based on Horwill’s ideas. Coe and Martin describe this in the excellent book ‘Training Distance Runners’.

Over recent years, a new idea about what limits running performance has been proposed. The Integrated Neuromuscular Recruitment Model suggests that rather than fatigue or fuel being the limiting factor in running performance, it is a central governor in the brain. Accordingly, speed training is essential to reset this governor. Matt Fitzgerald discusses this theory and suggests training programmes based upon this idea in his book ‘Brain Training For Runners’. I’ll discuss this idea more fully in a later post.

Where do I stand?

I believe that in today’s world there a few runners who are both bio mechanically efficient enough and have sufficient time to run 100 miles per week. Even fewer would have the patience to spend several years gradually increasing their capability to then enable them to run 100 mile weeks without getting injured. Many recreational runners can achieve excellent performances on minimal mileage provided every mile is effective.
I am also a great believer in training at race pace. Many runners fail to achieve their potential in races due to poor pace judgement – setting off too fast normally. Training at race pace both mimics the energy systems that will be used in racing and enhances the neural pathways for performing on race day.
I believe that there is a place for a gradually increase in mileage for the new runner to enable the muscles/ligaments and tendons to toughen up to enable tougher training ahead.
I do not follow the idea that the best way to progress is to spend many weeks doing high mileage to gradually increase average speed.

Train safe and Train Smart!