In distance running, there’s a million ways to skin a cat.  Training programs can vary widely and still be equally effective.  But one component that most every coach agrees is essential is the long run.  Ever since Arthur Lydiard made it the cornerstone of his athletes’ training in the 1960’s, it’s been a weekly staple of training programs.

There are a number of physiological benefits that come from the long run:

• Muscle strength and endurance
• Increased bone density
• Increased mitochondria production
• Increase in number and size of capillaries 

But like anything else in distance running, there’s going to be some guidelines that will help you maximize your long run....

The first question to look at is how often should you do your long runs?  This is going to depend a lot on what race you’re training for. 
 
If you’re training for a marathon, your long run will approach or exceed 20 miles and you’re probably doing one every other week or every third week.  If you’re training for a 5k/10k, most people will go anywhere from 12 to 17 miles.  Depending on how quickly you recover from hard efforts, it’s definitely possible to schedule those every week.

Some runners and coaches like to schedule a long run every 10 days.  I’ve found, though, that this requires a lot of flexibility in your daily schedule.  I like scheduling them on the weekend when I’ve got more free time.

The next question is how far to run.  The general rule of thumb used by coaches is 20 percent of your weekly mileage.  However, world-famous coach Jack Daniels recommends up to 25 percent. 

Which of these approaches to use will probably depend partly on how much mileage you’re doing.  At a coaching clinic last winter, Oklahoma State coach Dave Smith stressed the importance of keeping the long run appropriately “long,” even for athletes who are running lower mileage.

With that in mind, I like to use the 25 percent figure for my athletes at lower mileage levels (up to about 55-60 miles a week).  That way they still get the great benefits of the long run, and it “backloads” the week so that they are able to run fewer miles, or even take days off, during the rest of the week.

For more experienced runners, or higher mileage runners, I generally use the 20 percent figure – or realistically something between 20 and 25 percent.  That still gives them a long enough run to get good benefits, but doesn’t tire them out so much that they can’t recover for the next speed workout. 

Beyond these guidelines, there are other things that can help you maximize your long run that I’ll cover in a future post.  But use these rules of thumb to tweak your training program and I think you’ll find that you feel stronger and recover better!