But perfect for whom? Distance coach Joe Vigil, who trains American marathoners Deena Kastor and Meb Keflezighi, believes all runners should increase their training at about the same pace. A high school boy should run about 30 miles a week as an underclassman, Vigil said, and progress to 50 miles a week by his senior year. Then he should run 70 miles as a freshman in college, 80 as a sophomore, 90 as a junior and 100 as a senior. Women should progress at the same rate, Vigil said, but at 80 percent of a boy's mileage.
Anecdotal evidence, though, suggests distance training is hardly so precise. In the 1960s, Gerry Lindgren became the best high school distance runner because he gutted out, by his estimation, nearly 200 miles each week -- more than a marathon of distance a day. He worked out three times every 24 hours, setting his alarm each night at 2 a.m. so he could jog 10 miles as an intermission during sleep.
As a result of his maniacal workouts, Lindgren, who now coaches at the University of Hawaii, set a high school 5,000-meter record that stood for 40 years.
"People worry about getting hurt, about injury, but that doesn't make sense to me," Lindgren said. "Logic and knowledge are just the enemies of running well. You have to put in miles to have strong legs. You have to have strong legs to win races. High mileage is the only way."
Said Georgetown Coach Ron Helmer: "Some athletes excel with high quantity, others work better with shorter, quality track work. The problem is, we've gotten so polarized in our thinking about those two things that every coach has to advocate one or the other. You're either a quality guy or a quantity guy. Truth is, neither one is perfect. One method can lead to a lot of different outcomes."
Gelagle is staking his running future on the outcome of his high-mileage plan. He could rely on improved endurance to win a state title and a Division I college scholarship; he could suffer an overuse injury -- a stress fracture, a sore muscle -- that would derail his senior season and his college recruitment.
Since the season started, Gelagle has tempered his mileage, if only slightly. Between team practices and individual workouts, he now runs about 80 to 85 miles a week.
"That almost feels easy now," Gelagle said. "My legs have never felt stronger than this. I feel like I could run forever and never get tired, as long as I didn't get hurt."
