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Full Video Transcript

Introduction to the Holy Grail of Training

Today we’re going to talk about the holy grail of training, the long run. We’re going to bust some myths, talk about how often you should do a long run, how long it should be, what its purpose is, and really dialed in for training for everything from mid distance all the way up to the marathon or even further if you’d like. So that’s what we’re going to do. So let’s jump right into it.

So,

Historical Background of Long Runs

in a past video I did on the history of endurance training, you might remember that in the early 1900s that people did long walks, literally hours upon hours upon hours of walking. This is how they built the base. This is also the origin of the long run. So, early on, long walks served as that purpose.

People really didn’t do long runs as we think about them now until we get into the 1920s and 30s and especially 40s and then really 50s and 60s. Do we start seeing longer runs become a staple? and particularly a long run, a weekly long run being the staple that really occurred in the 1960s thanks to Arthur Lyard, kind of the godfather of modern endurance training, who had a weekly long run from basically beginning of the training until the end. Now, the key here is why Liard chose that and why we ended up with one weekly longer run.

Well, it’s pretty simple. He saw it during the base phase as a way to develop endurance, and we’ll talk about what that consists of. And then more importantly, during the sharpening or interval training phase as a way to maintain aerobic development. What he found is that that single weekly long run, if it was in there, then even if they started doing all the speed training in the world, they would still keep their endurance up.

It served as a maintenance function. And that’s really important because that’s how it has evolved in our modern world. Okay, you got the history. Let’s

The Science Behind Long Runs

go into some of the science just a little bit of what the long run does. So from a physiological standpoint and from a biomechanical standpoint, it serves a couple important purposes. First, it is a general aerobic adaptation. So it’s generally long and easy or we’ll talk about long and steady to a degree.

And what that means is almost entirely aerobic. That means we get adaptations like mitochondria development. We get capillarization in the muscles. We’ve got um fuel utilization adjustments, which is a big one we’ll come back to.

We’ve got things uh such as strengthening and adapting the mechanical structure from the tendons to the ligaments to the muscles to the load repeated load a over time for a really long time. Now the key is what separates it out from other simple easy runs is the distance obviously and what Lydar thought originally said hey I got this theory if we go longer it’s going to deplete some of the muscles and I’m going to get more from bang for my buck in terms of training aerobically that I don’t get with just running an hour every day and it turns out he was largely validated and in fact he was validated by some research by his own famed athlete Peter Snell, Olympic champ, world record holder who went on to become an exercise physiologist and then put some of these ideas to test. So one of the early things that Snell did as a exercise physiologist is he looked at uh muscle glycogen depletion as a way to look at what muscles get utilized or you know utilized for fuel during a long run compared to other distances. And what he found is that yeah, as you go longer, we start tapping into some of those fast twitch fibers for fuel.

Other research suggests that we utilize those fast twitch fibers as our slow twitch fibers are depleted more so a fuel and we need to bring them in to kind of keep the pace going to fuel not only fuel us but also fuel the the force output needed to keep going at that pace. So it provides a unique training stimulus. This one on the length side. We increase the stimulus by going longer which shifts the muscle fiber recruitment and the fuel utilization which causes us to get better aerobically.

Our fast twitch fibers develop more aerobically. Normally they’re just speed power etc. with a little bit of aerobic. We teach them how to work a little aerobically which makes it better for us in terms of uh endurance capacity in a number of realms.

And the other big one which I mentioned was the fuel efficiency or utilization. Think of it as long runs help us become a little bit more like your Prius. meaning we come become more fuel efficient especially in our carbohydrate to fat utilization usage essentially think of it like this the more fat we kind of use at a pace we spare that glycogen so that that tank lasts longer but the problem is fat doesn’t work very efficiently at higher speeds so we have to tap into that glycogen well long runs do a couple different things especially if we add some intensity But one is they kind of push up that that fat max which is the kind of max speed or intensity um where we still have a high level of uh fat utilization. And the other thing it does as long runs do is they can help expand that kind of glycogen pool that we can recruit from partially because it sends us a signal that hey if we go 22 miles for instance on a long run we’re going to be okay, right?

Where if we only go 16 miles then our brain kind of goes like we’ve never been even close to this depletion if we show up for a marathon. So we’re in uh in for a big struggle. All right. So we’ve talked the history, the physiology.

Let’s go on to the

Practical Applications of Long Runs

practical. How do we use the long runs? So most people use them in a similar way to linear with some modifications. Okay.

During the base or endurance phase of our training, we use them to build endurance. What does that mean? We progressively lengthen the long run and then add some quality or intensity to it. Sometimes this just means getting faster over the the thing.

Sometimes this means adding surges or pickups or progressions or a workout within the long run. We’ll come back to that in a second, but that is developing the endurance side. And then when we get into the main season, most people again use them like lyard for maintenance and they work well for maintenance. But the key here, there’s a couple key facts that we know now is now we’re not doing five days a week of interval training during the sharpening or peaking phase like Lydia did.

Generally, we’re doing two days a week, maybe three. Uh, so that seessaw balance, which I talked about in another video, isn’t swung so far. So, you don’t need quite as much maintenance and we don’t drop volume quite as much because we’re still doing easy runs in addition to it. So you can get away with a long run once every week, once every 10 days, once every even two weeks, maybe even once every three weeks depending on the impant and the athlete.

So we don’t need quite as much to maintain, especially if you’re not training for a marathon.

Customizing Long Runs for Different Events

Okay. How long should you go? This depends on the individual and the event, not surprisingly. Shorter events 800 mile long run serves as a more general aerobic development tool depending on the level.

That still means you might get up to a decent level, right? 800 runners might get up to 10, 11, 12 miles, maybe a little further depending. There’s a wide variation. There’s some reports of even some elite Kenyan 142800 runners running 20 miles.

So wide variation, but generally you’re getting up to between, I don’t know, 12 and 16, maybe 17 miles total. 5K somewhere generally on average, you know, 14 to 18. We’re talking highlevel college, elite marathon, generally at the elite side, you’re getting up to maybe 20, 22 miles in length. But for the novice or the intermediate athlete, it’s really going to depend on your goal.

There is no the long run should be this percent of your weekly mileage. Forget that stuff. Those are rule of thumbs, but they’re mostly junk. The long run should be thought of as independent workout.

What am I trying to adapt? How am I trying to adapt? you know, what stimulus do I need to apply? If I’m training for a marathon, even if I’m on a low volume program, I’m going to have to get the long run up.

Maybe not to the 20 or 22 of an elite, but somewhere pretty dang high, which is going to be a higher percentage of my volume. Alternatively, maybe I run a lot of volume as a mileer or 5k runner, but my long run comparatively isn’t that high of a percentage because I run 100 miles a week, but my long run is 15 16 miles. It’s not the 20 to 25% that is often recommended. That’s why I don’t like using percentages.

Look at it as a specific workout just like you would your 400 meter repeats and think how do I progress this stimulus so that I adapt in a positive way without you know increasing the injury risk. So what does that mean? When we look at long runs we want to think of it first as increasing the load by a distance and then depending if you need more adaptation from it. For instance, if it’s more specific to the race, like in a 10K or a half marathon or a marathon, then we add some specificity, meaning intensity.

Adding Intensity to Long Runs

We’re probably not going to add a lot of intensity to a long run for a mileer or 800 runner, unless we’ve tapped out all the other ways to develop aerobically. And then we might start with pickups or a nice progression, right? but it’s not one of the key levers that we pull. But if we do want to add some intensity to that, how do we do that?

Well, first long runs are generally when we’re increasing the volume of them, they should be easy. They should be your easy run pace. You should be able to have a full conversation with maybe just the hint of like, oh yeah, I’m running, but it should be kind of like I’m talking right now. Maybe a little harder breathing but not too much.

So full conversation easy. That’s it. As you’re increasing volume, keep it easy. At some point, if you want to add intensity to it, then we start looking at making a portion of that what I’d call steady.

Meaning maybe the last, you know, mile or two, you pick it up. You still can talk. you still have a conversation, but you’re working just a little bit. Okay.

Other ways to introduce intensity is do what I call pickups or surges. Why would we do these? If you do them in the last couple miles, there’s a couple reasons. First, they force kind of recruitment of a little bit more fast twitch muscle fibers because you’re picking up the the pace, meaning force requirement goes up.

You recruit a couple fast twitch fibers. It’s not really that hard of a workout because it’s in the middle of the long run. So, you’re just kind of recruiting them and then getting to train them a little aerobically. This would be something like um you know in the last couple miles doing 8 by 30 seconds hard with 1 minute easy in between and that 30 second hard could be at 10k pace, right?

Maybe a little faster but something manageable for 30 seconds. We could expand that to minute on, minute off, etc. But you get the gist. What we’re doing is we’re adding surges or pickups there.

If we want to focus aerobically, especially specifically for half marathon or marathon, then what we need to do often is include some quality in there that gets us closer to high-end aerobic paces where we can really push that aerobic adaptation. So, this is where we take some of those steady pickups at the end and turn them into progression runs where maybe we do 16 miles with the last five miles progressing from the easy pace all the way down to where the last mile is near half marathon pace. Why would we do that? Again, it forces this kind of aerobic adaptation where in this case, the first 11 miles of that run serves as to a depletion effect to deplete some of your muscles, tire them out a little bit so that you’re getting used to running at a highenderobic pace in a slightly depleted state.

Eventually, what you might want to do is pro shift those from progressions to full-blown warm-up or workouts. What does that mean? Especially for marathoners, this is often key is we take the long run and we replace it with a marathon paced or marathon kind of simulation workout. So, what do we do on this?

Let’s say you’re running 18 miles total, something like that. You extend your warm-up. You go four to five miles during the warm-up. And then you’re going to say, “I’m going to do 3×3 miles at marathon pace.” Maybe starting a little slower and then progressing into it.

3×3 mile with at marathon pace with a mile jog in between. So now we’ve got 11 miles plus 4. We’re at 15 miles. And then we do a three mile cool down afterwards, right?

to get our 18 or whatever have you. And here the goal is this is now a full-blown workout. Okay. Often when we’re just doing building or maintaining long runs, we treat it as kind of a pseudo workout, meaning we know it depletes us a little bit, but we might have one easy day before and one easy day after instead of two easy days.

When we start adding full-blown workouts into it, we need to treat it like a full-blown workout, often a depleting one. So, you might need two or even three days easy to recover after that where you’re just doing mileage or something a little bit lighter. Generally longer workout long runs are reserved for when we’re training for a half or a marathon or occasionally used during the base phase of higher level runners training for even a mile but generally 5k and 10k when we’re trying to get a nice boost of that aerobic system. Okay, where we’ve done a lot of the normal mileage and threshold runs and Norwegian double threshold and we need to introduce some new stimulus.

So, we use the depletion of the long run plus a workout to get us a little bit more stimulus and bang for our buck in there.

Final Thoughts and Recommendations

All right, I’ve covered a lot when it comes to long runs in a very short period of time, but the idea I want you to walk away with is this. There’s nothing crazy or special or magical about them. They are a different stimulus that largely comes from the duration of the thing. Okay, that duration allows us to deplete more slow twitch fibers and get a little bit more fatigue so that then we can then get a little bit different of a bang for our buck or stimulus that we don’t get when we don’t have something that is this length and duration.

Okay, that’s the key understanding of it. The shorter your distance you’re training for, the more these are for general aerobic development and then maintenance. The longer your distance, the more they become specific and then moving towards quality. And that’s what it is.

A couple other rules thumb that I have for my athletes is you build the distance first until you get comfortable with it and then you add intensity to it. So even for marathoners and say, “Okay, we’re going to build our long run every week and you know, we’re going to go 16 this week, then 17, then 18.” I wouldn’t say, “Hey, the first time we get to 18, I’m throwing a workout in there, right?” I got to be comfortable with the distance before we add quality to it. So if I’ve consistently been doing 16 or more, then I might say, “Okay, we’re going to do a workout with 16 miles in total.” Okay, make sense? And then the other caveat here which is a big one so I hope everyone listens is that I’m generally talking in terms of you know high school college elite or advanced runners when I use miles.

I like to think of it for novice runners in terms of time. And this is important because with elite runners, when I say go run 20 miles or maybe even 22 miles for a marathon prep, that gives us a little over two hours, right? Depending on the pace, you know, two a little over two to two and a half hours max. If I told a novice to do that or even an intermediate athlete, that might be three hours plus of work.

I don’t want that. That’s too much time on your feet for most people. Even if you’re gonna spend a lot of time on your feet, use the time on the feet to get close enough where you can smell the distance of the long run or smell the end. Not in terms of distance, but time.

So, if you’re shooting for a three-hour marathon, you know, you probably need to spend 2 hours, 15, 2 hours, maybe even 30 out there. Okay. Again, if we get to four, five, six hours, probably doesn’t apply as much. Um, because that’s a long way.

You pro, honestly, if you’re running a six-h hour marathon, this might be controversial. If you want to do it, great. Get it done. But I’d suggest running the shorter stuff first and getting a little speed before tackling a marathon so that maybe you can finish it in in four and a half, five hours and it’ll be a more manageable and funner event.

All right, so there you go. Long run. Um, make sure you progress it, build volume, then add quality, generally focus on time instead of mileage. Um, if we convert that, you know, 5k, 10k athletes probably go in an hour and a half to hour 45.

Elite level marathoner probably, you know, consistently 2 hours or around there plus or minus a little bit. 800 or lower distance or mileer maybe hour and 10 to hour and 40 depending on you know level etc etc etc but you get the idea all right so there you go um if you haven’t yet check out the rest of my channel I appreciate everybody listening subscribing following along I’m going to cover a lot of different things we’ve got some in the works on biomechanics

Conclusion and Upcoming Content

workout development Norwegian threshold training, some comparison of the uh you know some health influencers and podcast protocols they’ve sent me on you know their training for endurance or health and longevity. We’re going to break it all all apart. So, from noviceses to elites, we’re just going to cover it because I’ve got gosh 20 years of coaching at high school, college, Olympic level, exercise physiology, masters, did some PhD work besides before deciding that sucked and didn’t want to do it. Um, but and I ran pretty fast myself.

So, this is my niche. I can do it off the top of my head. That’s also why we don’t have the fancy graphics and setup. We might get a little slightly fancier, but I just want it on the quality of the information.

And if you’re here for the quality of information and don’t need me to change the angle and video and, you know, everything f every 5 seconds to keep you entertained, well, you’re in the right place. And if you like the work, I just ask if you support it. So, this is my new book coming out soon. If you pre-order a copy on YouTube through the link in the bio or up here, wherever it is, uh you also get my 100page coaching guide which outlines my philosophy of everything from nutrition to psychology to warm-ups, cooldowns, workout design, long runs, thresholds, everything in between.

So you get that free right now so that you can read something 100 pages quality material until this comes out and comes out your door. This is a great book on the psychology of performance and looking at motivation, youth athletics, it expands outside of sport, looking at the achievement culture we we live in and why it often makes us miserable and how we can achieve at the highest level without being miserable. Covers it all. So, thanks for listening.

Hope you enjoyed this. And until next time, keep running, keep training, keep asking questions in the comments below.