Is high mileage always a good thing?

I was chatting to a good running friend Andy Byrom after the Yorkshire Vets Grand Prix race yesterday when the subject of mileage came up. Andy is relatively new to running having I believe just over a year of serious running behind him and has progressed massively. Apart from the short stuff I have been regularly a long way behind him however I confessed recently he was my target when it came to anything over 5k and recently I have managed to beat him twice.

The conversation started as Andy had posted that he had done 100 miles in September and nearly 1000 for the year. I commented that I had managed around 300 miles year to date, clearly a lot lower. However yesterday at a ridiculously hilly, muddy, technical Vets race I managed to turn a normal substantial deficit into 1 min 14 second win and this a week after out-sprinting him in a 10k.

So the question is does high mileage always help? Obviously this depends on the person and their own body but in my case low mileage seems to suit! I have never been a great trainer, never managing to get the time to go to club nights and generally running alone with my Garmin when I do manage to get out in the week! I have taken to racing more and longer on a Sunday to build my fitness and mainly recovering during the week with the odd short loosener thrown in when I can!

However long term who will benefit most? I have no answers but what seems to suit me is building up by racing and good long recoveries! I’m sure it will be a lot of fun finding out as I now have a target on my back for Andy to aim at!! Hopefully this will help us both progress, though I am not sure what his brother thinks as I took him down as well yesterday, which was not something I expected to do any time soon!!

Incidentally I just did a head to head performance analysis (thank you http://www.runbritainrankings.com!!) with the lady I finished yesterday’s race with and it explained why I didn’t even recognise her: never even been close before with a 10k pb a full 5 minutes better than mine!

Event	Race	Venue	Date	Sharon Williams		Jason Newell
10MMT	Guy Fawkes 10	Ripley	6 Nov 11	78:08	196 (21)	87:03	380 ( )
6MNAD	Yorkshire Veterans' Grand Prix	Kirkstall	22 May 12	42:45	87 (7)	50:53	189
4.6MMT	Yorkshire Veterans' Grand Prix	Pudsey	12 Jun 12	38:34	63 (4)	43:04	105

I am hoping this is progress, not just me being on a high after the Leeds Rhinos win in the Grand Final the night before!! Who knows, but I am sure it will be a lot of fun finding out!!!

Appreciate any thoughts on the question of mileage- what works for you??