In my last installment, I discussed preparing to race again. This week, I want to offer a meditation on the long run and then describe some variations of the long run you can use in your training.

Most training blocks have some combination of hills, speedwork, tempo runs, and long runs. I’m not sure if everyone has a favorite of these, but I like the long run. In terms of a definition, a long run is any run of anything over 90-105 minutes. During marathon training, this run might extend up to or even over 3 hours. For ultra training, it might last far longer. I enjoy long runs because they are simultaneously efforts to expand your endurance and journeys inward. On a long run, you spend a lot of time with yourself if you allow yourself to be fully present. That’s often a good thing, especially in a world where we might too often be tied to text messages, social media, and a range of other stimuli.

I have shared long runs with training group partners and gotten into conversations or a shared rhythm with other runners to the point that the miles just start to go by quickly. This experience is rewarding. I also enjoy some of my long runs alone. As a rule, I run without headphones or music, and I find that the long run is a good time for a self-inventory of how I am feeling–physically, mentally, and emotionally. I know others listen to music or podcasts. If it’s a quiet morning on the roads or a chilly day on a trail, I enjoy when the primary sounds I hear are my breathing and footsteps.

As part of your training, the long run provides you with numerous physiological adaptations valuable to your training. Even done at conversation pace–that submaximal pace at which you can speak in full sentences, the long run helps improve mitochondrial density, which will help the muscles receive and use oxygen and conserve glycogen. By running long, you are teaching the body to adapt to your depletion of glycogen. Moreover, the consistent running improves your running economy (this is why your conversation pace gets faster over time, as you’re transferring and using oxygen more efficiently). It also helps you adapt to the impact of running, as your musculoskeletal system strengthens.

In addition to the ways the long run changes your body, don’t overlook what it can do to your mind. Long runs help you emotionally prepare for the distance of your race. There’s a confidence that comes when you finish a long run and realize your goal race distance is reachable. Personally, this is why I extend my long runs past the distance of a half-marathon if that’s the distance of my goal race in a specific training cycle. Even though I know I’ll be racing faster than I have done most of my long training runs, I love the confidence of going into a 13.1 mile race knowing I have recently covered 16 miles. When the race feels tough, I know I have more than the distance covered and continue to push into discomfort.

Except with ultra training, most runners will have one long run per week; however, there might be some benefits to a mid-week long run of approximately 90-100 minutes in addition to the weekend long run, if the other efforts are balanced throughout the week to avoid more than three hard workouts. After three higher intensity efforts (a long run, a tempo run, a track workout, a hill workout, or a fartlek), you should complete your other runs at conversation pace and for shorter duration once three or four hard workouts are achieved. This will allow you to continue to get the specific physiological adaptations from running without adding too much stress to your body. Below I will provide some workout variations for the long run.

But in writing about the long run, I also want to think about the psychological space it provides. Some runners refer to running as their therapy, and others might label a Sunday run “the church of the Sunday Long Run.” First, I want to start with one important note: while running can feel therapeutic, it is on its own not therapy. Although some may experience an improvement in their depression or anxiety from running or exercise due to endorphins, dopamine, or the self-actualization of moving, athletes who expect they struggle with anxiety and depression on a higher level than merely feeling anxious or blue should seek medical advice. I recommend Paul Flannery’s “Running is (not) my therapy” issue of Running Probably.

Even though running isn’t a substitute for therapy, numerous studies show that exercise and movement produce a range of positive effects, increases in energy, more positive feelings, mental clarity, and more. I can go into some of this research in a later newsletter. Right now I want to focus on the long run and mindfulness.

In my experience, the long run creates a space of mindfulness, which David Roche and Megan Roche, MD, define in The Happy Runner as follows: “Mindfulness is the method to achieve presence.” In Running with Mindfulness, William Pullen adds, “The key concept of mindfulness is to focus on the immediate present rather than the past or future, and to do so in a non-judgmental state. It asks you to attend to what is happening around you and in you right at this moment. This includes all the thoughts, emotions and sensations that you are presently experiencing.” In the way Jon Kabat-Zinn describes mindfulness, we benefit from that realization that our thoughts are thoughts and that we can let them go. In a shorter workout such as track intervals or a tempo run, I find it easy to process the immediate feedback on pace or time and to get in my head: “I’m not hitting my targets, and this means I am not going to be ready for this race in four weeks.”

The long run offers that opportunity to focus on the immediate present: how does my breathing feel? How is my body functioning? Sometimes I will do an occasional check-in, head to toe: I should lift my chin and relax my shoulders. My arms feel tense. Is my pelvis in a neutral position? How does my footstrike sound? But I also experience reminders of my anxieties, fears, worries, and other emotions, and the long run is a space where these arise and then I can let go of them. I think I experienced mindfulness in running well over a decade before I knew what mindful meditation was.

During long sections of the run, I will forget I am running. This happens both when sharing a run with a running partner, as the miles melt away during conversation, or when I’m on my own and can work through some problem or thought I’ve been having in my mind. One reason I like running on greenways, trails, paved paths, and other areas away from traffic is because sometimes I will finish a run and not remember crossing any of the busy intersections. I am still here, so I assume I follow traffic signals, look both ways, and process it in the moment, but I get into such a state of flow that those crossings are just a temporary experience, just like the other thoughts that might emerge during the run.

Over the last week, I have run mostly pain free for the first time since my end of April surgery, so I look forward to getting in a long run soon now that I can run for an hour again.

For those who want some practical experience for your training, I am offering the following suggestions that you can build into your weekly training as your long run.

Variations on the Long Run

Below, I describe some different approaches to the long run you can use in your training. Because of the physiological benefits of long runs, they can be useful even if you are training for a shorter race such as a 5K or 10K. If you are training for a half marathon, you might benefit from runs longer than the race distance. For marathons and especially for ultra distances, you likely will not have a long run that exceeds your race distance.

Conversation Pace Effort

If you are a novice runner and preparing for your first half or full marathon, then the only version of the long run you might need is the conversation pace run. The idea of the long run is duration–time on feet–to achieve physiological adaptation, so 90 minutes or more at conversation pace–a pace at which you can speak in full sentences–is a good run. This pace might be 1-2 minutes slower per mile than your eventual goal race pace. However, over months, as you build efficiency, your easy pace will become gradually faster, and you will be able to add time (10-15 minutes per week to your long run, with a dropdown week every 3-4 weeks for recovery).

Even for experienced runners, these conversation pace runs work wonders early in a training block. If you run with a group, you will be able to enjoy the company and keep a conversation going, all while your body is physiologically adapting to the long run and gaining the efficiency and strength for later training efforts.

Conversation Pace with Surges

Once you get more comfortable with the conversation pace long run of 90 minutes to 2 hours, you might use try to add some surges or bursts in the last 30 minutes. A good approach is to add ten 20 to 30-second surges spread out over the last 30 minutes of the run. Although you are doing most of the run at a submaximal level, these surges temporarily boost your heart rate. Between the strides, you can go back to your conversation pace, but these brief burst of speed during which you accelerate to the fastest speed you can hold without straining (something less than a full sprint) increase your power and ability to pump blood.

Progressively Run

Progression runs can be structured in different ways (and be built into workouts shorter than a long run), but the idea is that you get faster during your run. One possibility is to break a run into thirds. For instance, a 90-minute run could be 30 minutes at a 9:00/mile pace, followed by 30 minutes at an 8:40/mile pace, and ending with 30 minutes at an 8:20/mile pace (adjust as necessary from an easier pace for you to something that is more demanding). Another variation is to make each mile faster at a certain point, maybe around 10 seconds/mile faster. You could start with 30 minutes easy, and then gradually cut each mile pace by about 10 second after that until you eventually return to your easy pace to cooldown.

Workouts Built into Long Runs

You can build workouts into your long runs, making them essentially like long fartleks (speed play), but remember the key is that 90 minutes or more of consistent movement to get the physiological benefits. A workout might be something along the lines of 3 miles easy, 4 miles at goal marathon pace, 3 miles easy, 4 miles at goal marathon pace, and then 3 miles easy.

Half Marathon or Marathon Pace Runs

Let’s say you want to run a 3:30 marathon, so roughly 8:00 minutes per mile. For the marathon pace long run, you will start easier for a set duration or distance and then run at your goal race pace for a set duration or distance. Finally, you might come back to your originally slower warmup pace. A possibility would be 30 minutes easy, 60 minutes at goal marathon pace, and finally 30 minutes easy again for a 2-hour long run. These runs help your body learn the effort and the feel of the pace you will need to maintain during the race.

Stacked Long Runs

If you are training for an ultra distance or perhaps a marathon, you might benefit form back-to-back long runs. This is to build your efficiency, and ideally you are managing the effort to lessen the impact. The two long runs alone will throw your body into recovery, so I would recommend this to more experienced runners who have managed significant long runs. But a stacked approach might be along the lines of 3 hours on a Saturday followed by 2 hours on a Sunday. If not both, at least one of these should be done at conversation pace. Too much stress without enough rest can lead to injury or burnout.

Admittedly, I have written a lengthy newsletter issue here that is still only a primer on the topic, but please email me if you have questions or want a coaching consultation. If you don’t want to work with me as a coach, I can also try to point you to some places where you might find a coach that fits your needs in your home area or online.

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Newsletter 11: “The Long Run”