How much time does your long run take? (Read 1289 times)

I run by time and let distance be what it is. Since I expect to take ~2:45 hrs for my next half (a pb shot) I'll extend long run to 2:30-3:00 depending on wheather etc. I plan on running it like there was a water stop every 2 mi. Before my last half my long run was 3:10 covering a little over 12 mi.

There are some who say no long run should be longer than 2hrs. As a slow runner, I want to know what it is like to be on my feet as long as I expect to so I extend my long runs to that level. It worked for me for my first 10k and my last two halve so I'll continue to do that. Bottom line, after reviewing all the available information, we need to figure out what works for us as individuals and stick to it. Modifying/tailoring as we change/gain more experiance. imnsho There is no "one size fits all"

I think recovery time may vary a lot between people, and even over time. I was recovering pretty quickly from long runs in recent months, as compared to two years ago.

My question is along these lines, so I'll jump into this thread.  My long run (up to 14 miles before a foot injury) was weekly, and rarely painful until I got the foot.  I've heard (from my Father-In-Law who has run several marathons, BQ'd a couple of times and trains runners in Chicago) that you really need about 10 days to recover from a true long run, but most people do the "weekly long run" because their work schedules permit it.

I'm wondering if there might not be some truth to this: whether looking at training 10 days at a time might not be preferable to a week-by-week approach.

 

Surely it all depends on your physiology and the intensity of your long run. Most people are doing a long, "slow" run, which is obviously easier to bounce back from than a long, hard run. I've felt fine the day after a 30 mile run, when I was conditioned for it. Now, I feel fine the day after ~15 mile runs but would probably need a couple of days for much longer distances. I do agree that after a race or high intensity long effort, your endocrine system likely needs some time to recover, even if your legs do not. For me it seems to be on the order of 2 weeks. 

My normal long runs are 4-10 hours.  I usually do at least one a week, sometimes back-to-back long runs on Sat and Sun, if family life allows.  The pace is exceptionally slow for my long runs.

 

  - Chris

 If it takes you 10 days to recver it was a race, ot a workout...

 

I agree.  The long runs should be slow.  Go fast on speedwork days.  Long runs serve a different purpose.  I run 20-50 milers nearly every weekend and I'm recovered enough for speedwork by Tues or Wed, so 10 days of recovery seems really excessive... like the long runs are too hard. 

 

I agree.  The long runs should be slow.  Go fast on speedwork days.  Long runs serve a different purpose.  I run 20-50 milers nearly every weekend and I'm recovered enough for speedwork by Tues or Wed, so 10 days of recovery seems really excessive... like the long runs are too hard. 

 

Not exactly what I meant.  I meant that the difficulty of the long run has to be proportional to your fitness.  However if you're taking 10 days to recover you are negating whatever you accomplished in that long run by negatively impacting your ability to continue a decent level of training throughout the week.

I really do not like the misconceptions that long runs must be easy.  Unless you plan on running your marathon easy doing them all that way will leave you disappointed come race day.  I almost always put some form of quality in a long run, I just don't destroy myself.  You would be surprised what progressing over the last 4-6 miles of an 18-20 miler will do for your fitness (I tended to alternate these with moderately paced long runs every other week).

Long runs are a great place to get in some quality....if you are in shape for it.  If you need more than one easy day afterward before returning to a normal training schedule, your long run is either too hard or too long.  If you're still taking multiple days off after one as the marathon approaches it's a decent sign you're not really adequately prepared for the race.

Mostly my long run is not impacting my ability to complete my other runs, I'm almost always able to hit my intended paces, so I suspect I just need to HTFU and realise that the long run is doing what it is supposed to for me. It's when I get carried away on an easy run and do that too fast that I seem to really notice my energy levels decrease for my other runs.

As I'm not in marathon training, I'm going to stop at 2 hours for the time being and consolidate this for my long run, while slowly increasing my general daily run lengths. It sounds like 2 hours is an ok length to get the benefits I need, without worrying about distance which would keep me out there for much longer.

I know I should probably consider dropping the intervals, but I've got some more 5K and 7K's soon so I want to keep them just at the moment. They seemed to make a huge difference to my 5K times. However, I will drop these if my legs don't recover and I'm struggling. Plus, weird as it sounds, running fast (relatively) is fun.

Poisonivy - you say it took you years to drop below 1 hour for a 10K, but your times now are great. What did you do? I want to do that too