Back when I was a student, I spent quite a lot of time running. Most evenings I would either go out on a group run or jog down to the track for an intervals session, with weekends consisting of Parkruns, hill sessions and long runs. In 2014, I ran around 35 miles a week, not always including mileage during intervals sessions, and increasing to nearly 50 miles a week during marathon training (for an account of this, see 'My First Marathon'). While this isn't particularly high by a lot of distance athletes' standards, it is still a fair amount and usually involved running five or six days per week, often leaving little time for proper recovery. I was running decent times in races, 20:40 for a 5k Parkrun and 42:35 for a 10k, but was often tired and injured in one way or another. At the time, I wasn't too worried about this and believed (relatively) high mileage was necessary for good performances over long distances.

Now, however, having done comparatively little running during my travels of 2015, often not even managing in a month what I was previously doing in a week, I am not so certain that my old high mileage schedule was beneficial. Living in Wellington, I generally do a couple of runs a week and a few gym sessions, mixing a bit of cardio with strength training. Over the last couple of months, I have started to do a timed 5k most weeks to measure my progress and I have found that I am still capable of running very similar 5k times compared to 2014. This has lead me to question whether my previous mileage was necessary or whether I was over-training. This may well be the case as far as a 5k run is concerned, however it is unlikely to be true for longer distances, for example I think I would struggle with endurance from a lack of long training runs, although I have found I can still managed 10 miles without too much difficulty.

With my focus now on lower mileage, more strength work and high-intensity tabata-style workouts (a very painful four minutes of 8x20secs of burpees, 10secs rest), I seem to be achieving comparable 5k times as with my old high mileage regime. This could be due to a number of factors: I am giving my body more recovery time in between workouts, which links to less fatigue and a lower risk of injury, meaning my legs are fresher on race day. It may be that my previous level of fitness is 'spilling over' to still benefit me now, in the sense that I am starting with a higher base fitness than someone who does similar training now but hasn't run such high mileage in the past. It suggests that strength training and high-intensity exercise is an effective way to maintain fitness and that running lots of miles isn't necessary all the time.