Hi folks, it’s Kelvin here. We Run coach for Leeds and surrounding areas, as well as online coaching.
Why this question matters
In this video, I’m going to share some thoughts on a question that I’m getting asked a lot at the moment, and that is: how long should my long run be?
A lot of runners are training for spring events that are a bit longer, half marathons and marathons, and they’re starting to stretch out their long runs.
One thing to be really clear about here is running is more about global volume over days, weeks, months and years than it is about the single long run.
The ideal long run percentage
The guide we have on the long run is somewhere between twenty-five and thirty-five percent of weekly volume, and we don’t really want to go above that thirty-five percent.
So if I use myself as an example, I’m training for a hundred K race that’s got six thousand metres of elevation, so a mountain race. At the moment, my weekly volume is up to around forty-five miles, so I’m keeping my long run around thirteen to fourteen miles.
Why your long run might be shorter than expected
Some people might be thinking, “Hang on a minute, that’s not a very long long run for somebody doing a hundred K or maybe even for someone doing a marathon.”
But it is a longer run in relation to my weekly volume.
As my weekly volume increases, that might top out at about sixty, maybe sixty-five miles a week, and then my longer efforts might be more in the sort of sixteen to twenty-mile bracket.
Even then, people might think that’s quite short for someone doing a hundred K or someone training for a marathon on forty miles a week, where that ends up in the twelve to thirteen-mile bracket.
So how can we deal with this?
Smart ways to extend your training
There are a couple of things that we can do, and the main thing is to bear in mind that we really shouldn’t be going over thirty-five percent of our weekly volume on a regular basis.
That puts us at risk of injury and also risks the recovery affecting the rest of our training.
1. Use “over distance” runs occasionally
What we can do is go over distance periodically.
Maybe once every three or four weeks, a runner doing forty miles a week might include a single sixteen to eighteen mile longer run.
That gives confidence that they can go that far, and also provides an opportunity to be out for a longer period of time so that we can practise hydration and nutrition strategies.
2. Use back-to-back runs (doubles)
The other thing that we can do is doubles.
An example might be that we do thirteen miles on a Saturday and maybe eight miles on a Sunday.
That’s a way of getting the volume in, but with some recovery. We’ve got around twenty-four hours between runs to top muscle glycogen back up, eat some protein and get a night’s sleep.
Avoid the “long run trap”
I see many times where people are following a progression like twelve, fourteen, sixteen, fourteen, sixteen, eighteen mile long runs on a training plan.
They’re trying to put all their eggs into the long run basket, and that’s not how physiology works.
What we want to be doing is adding global volume.
Build volume the right way
Focus on increasing the frequency of your runs.
For a marathon runner, instead of four runs a week, we might increase to five runs a week. That way, we dilute the volume rather than overloading a single session.
Then we’ve got five runs to gradually add maybe half a mile each week over time, so we’re not overemphasising the long run.
This approach decreases the risk of injury and provides a better overall training stimulus.
Final thoughts
I hope that’s made some sense. If you’ve got any questions, please pop them in the comments below.
For now, happy running.
