Long Runs with Jordan Shyu

A long run is usually used by runners to build weekly mileage or start to become accustomed to the distances they will be racing. With my runners, I like to limit long runs to 30% of their weekly mileage if they are running less than 60km/week. That is if you are running 60km/week, your long run should be around 18km. If you are running more than 60km/week I like to limit the long run to either 25% of the weekly mileage or 2.5 hours. It has been proven that spending time training above 2.5 hours has diminishing returns and an increased risk of injury.

Essentially, your fitness benefits and training stress decreases and the risk of injury increases. The pace of long runs should usually be completed at an easy pace. As an athlete becomes a much stronger runner, the long run can develop in complexity and can turn into a workout that is specific for the event that the athlete is training for. For an advanced runner, the long run turns into a vital component of their training to build aerobic endurance and race specific energy systems.

For beginner runners, a better way to improve your fitness and ability to perform on race day is to focus on the rest of your week as well. As I have mentioned previously, running is all about consistency and this includes consistency during the week. An easy way to increase your weekly mileage is to run more frequently. You will see great benefits in increasing from 3-4 runs/week to 4-5 runs/week. The benefits to this are two-fold. One – you are exposing your body to running stress more frequently, leading to better adaptations. Two – you do not place as much stress on the body per run, therefore reducing the risk of injury.

Comparing two different training approaches; It is more beneficial to complete 50km/week over 4 runs including a 15km long run with three 10-12km runs during the week. This is compared to completing 50km/week over 3 runs where the athlete runs 28km long run and 10-12km for the other 2 runs.

Another way to increase the weekly mileage is to add a second longer run to your routine. This second run is generally not as long as your long run, however is longer than the normal easier runs that you go on. The intention of this is to again spread a greater amount of running load over the week. It is more beneficial in a 80km training week; to have an 20km long run, with a mid-week longer run of 15km rather than attempting to run 26km in a long run.