The Long Run - Mile 27

Training Yourself – Training Variables The Long Run

The long run is what most athletes think of as the key workout of the week. For many of us spending hours on the trails moving through nature at a low intensity also makes it the most enjoyable workout of the week.

But how long should we run for , what intensity should we run at and what kind of terrain should we run on?

Before we get into the details let’s step back and discuss the main reasons for doing a long run.

1. Develop our running endurance / fatigue resistance
2. Increase our cardiovascular fitness
3. Increase the strength endurance of our muscles tendons and ligaments
4. Develop our mental strength
5. Test different nutrition strategies
6. Train our stomach
7. Condition our legs for downhills
8. Develop our hiking speed and endurance
9. Get used to wearing a pack for long periods
10. Increase our running economy
11. Increase our fat metabolism
12. Test equipment
13. Develop our efficiency using poles
14. Increase our VO2 max
15. Increase our Aerobic Threshold

Not all of these will be the long-run goal of every runner – it will depend on the athlete, the race they are training for and the training phase they are in but as you can see the long run ticks a lot of boxes in terms of what’s needed to run an ultra.

Before we get too carried away though it’s important to understand the long run is only one part of the puzzle that is training for an ultra. What you do in the rest of the week is equally as important but for this video we are just discussing the long run.

Long run Intensity

For most athletes long runs should be done at conversation pace which is usually 75-80% of threshold. Running at this intensity maximises the aerobic fitness benefits whilst keeping fatigue levels down. It’s important to balance fatigue levels from a long run against keeping the legs fresh enough to get through the rest of the week’s training. If more than one easy day is needed to recover from the long run then it is likely the long run was too fast or too long.

You will see later on in the progressions section there is a time and a place for pushing harder in a long run but it’s for well trained athletes in a specific phase of training.

Distance of long run.

How long your long run should be for an ultra is a widely debated topic with answers ranging from 2 hours to 50 miles. Lets break it down to some fundamental principles which you can apply to each athlete.

The long run should rarely require more than a day’s recovery before you can resume normal training. If it’s too long then even if it’s at the right intensity you may need several days recovery before normal training can be resumed. This then negatively impacts the rest of the week’s training.

There is a case for extra long runs that do need longer recovery and we will discuss those later but the vast majority of long runs should need no more than one easy day to recover from.

There are some who argue that the majority of the benefits of a long run are obtained in the first 2 hours so going longer is not needed. However there is very little if any evidence to support this idea.

A common argument for this is that most of the fitness adaptions happen in the first 2 hours and running any longer does not lead to any significant fitness gains just increases fatigue.

BUT as we saw in the list of long run goals, fitness adaptions are only one aspect of why we do long runs.

We have to step back from the long run and look at the bigger picture to give greater insight into how long your long run should be.

Three important Factors to consider are
– overall weekly volume
– the time spent running vs hiking in the long run
– how much vertical you gain throughout the week and in the long run

Weekly Volume and its affect on the long run

The higher your weekly volume the less important the long run becomes. For example if you are doing 100 mile weeks then its likely you are doing doubles most days. The long run day could be 2 hours in the morning and an hour in the evening. An elite who is training for a flat ultra and running 100+ miles per week might cover 26-30km in the 2 hour morning run and then run another 14k that evening. Thats 40+km for the day and you could make a strong case for saying there is no need to run any longer.

Whereas a mid to back of the pack runner who runs 60-80km a week and is training for a mountain ultra might only cover 12km in a 2 hour run with half of that hiking due to the terrain. The argument that a 2 hour long run is all you need clearly doesnt hold any weight for this runner.

Let’s move away from a one size fits all recommendations for the long run and instead consider all the variables in order to determine the best strategy for the individual.

Should you prescribe long runs based on distance or time?

The short answer is both as neither are sufficient on their own.

For example, lets say you prescribe your athlete a 4 hour long run which they do on steep technical trail covering 24 km with 1500m of vert. Post-run analysis shows 12km of that was hiking. You have to ask yourself is 12km of running spread over 4 hours enough running to condition the legs for a 100-mile ultra in which you might expect them to run 80+km of it? Some of the descents in these big mountain ultras are 20+km long. If they arent used to running 20+km non stop they will struggle to run 20km downhill after 110km in their legs in a race.

If they run a 30km on very runnable terrain mid week then a hilly long weekend run that only has 12km of running might be ok. But if during the rest of the week their longest non stop run is only 15km and weekly volume is 70km then there is an argument for alternating between hilly long runs similar to the race and some less hilly long runs to get some more non-stop running ks in the legs.

Alternatively if the athletes long run covered 30km but only 600m of vert,
will they have enough downhill running in their legs to cope with the 10000m of vert in their mountain ultra?
Maybe yes if in the rest of the week they covered over 4000m of vert – or maybe no if they only covered 1000m of vert.

You can start to see that we cant look at the long run in isolation , we need to consider terrain , overall weekly volume and the time spent hiking vs running.

Where does one start in determining how long the long run should be?

Unfortunately, there are no research backed guidelines that can be applied. Its often said coaching is part science and part art and the long run, whilst having its foundations in science ( in terms of training goals and adaptions ) is firmly in the art category when it comes to prescription.

Having said that there are some principles we can use to help guide us.

We have already established that the duration or distance of the long run should be such that the individual does not need more than one easy day before they can resume normal training.

How much vert is optimal ?

As a starting point I recommend that the vert in the long run should be less than the vert per 10km found in the race in the early phase of training and as you get closer to the race increase the vert to ideally match the vert in the race.

For example if we use UTMB with it’s 600 vert per 10km you might start the athlete in January with long runs having approximately 300 vert per 10km and gradually increase that as August approaches so they are hitting 600 vert per 10km by late June , July.

Setting the vert as the first priority influences the other two variables of distance / time and hiking/running.

This is because the more vert one does in the long run the more time spent hiking. As hiking has a much lower training stress then running it means the long run can be significantly longer than if it was 100% running.

For example a 3 hour non stop run is quite demanding but a 6 hour run with 50% of the time hiking far less demanding. The balance of hiking time vs running time greatly influences the training load of the long run.

Ones long run for a very runnable ultra would be less duration wise than someone training for a very hilly ultra but the distance and training load might be very similar.

Combining the two principles of making sure the athlete only needs one easy day to recover and setting the vert per run according to what phase of training the athlete is in (ie the closer to the race the more the vert matches the demands on the race ) goes a long way to defining how long the long run can be.

When taking on a new athlete I would typically start their long run at the same as the longest long run they have done in the last 3-4 weeks assuming they felt they only needed one easy day after to resume normal training .

Once you have established that starting point for the long run (which for some athletes might be 90 minutes and for others 4 hours depending on their training background and how soon the race they are training for is the next two questions to consider are 1) whats the optimal distance/duration? and 2) what rate can I increase it?

Whats the optimal distance/duration for a long run ?

We will discuss the occasional very long run or as I like to call them Adventure days , and other long run variations shortly but for now we are discussing the regular week in week out long run.

As you can probably guess the answer is “ it depends” !

Depends on
– distance of the race one is training for
– training history of the athlete
– how much vert the athlete can train on
– how much vert is in the target race
– how much time the athlete has to train
– weekly training volume
– how much vert the athlete covers throughout the rest of the week
– what phase of training the athlete is in

Remember we can break the macro cycle of training into the preparatory phase , build, peak and then taper phase.

The goal of the preparatory phase, in terms of the long run, is to gradually increase distance and duration to reach the desired level for the upcoming build phase.

In the build phase, the long run typically remains relatively consistent in terms of distance/duration. The rest of the training is what builds in this phase. However, the vert may increase in this phase and there may be some increases of distance/duration depending on how long the long run was in the preparatory phase.

The peak phase is when we might include some other long run variations which will be discussed later in this video.

Lets work through some examples of the long run in the build phase to give you a better understanding. Keep in mind the goal during the preparatory phase is to increase the long run to the desired level for the build phase.

Example 1
Race: 100km
Vert: 250 vert per 10km
Terrain: Undulating trail

Athlete 1
Athlete: Experienced top 25% non elite
Weekly Training volume: 80-100km
Long run recommendations for build phase : 35-45km with 250 vert per 10km

Athlete 2
Athlete: Experienced mid pack running
Weekly Training volume: 80-100km
Long run recommendations for build phase : 30-40km with 250 vert per 10km

Athlete 3
Athlete: First time ultra runner
Weekly Training volume: 60-80km
Long run recommendations for build phase : 25-35km with 250 vert per 10km

Example 2
Race: 100km
Vert: 500 vert per 10km
Terrain: Hilly Mountain trail

Athlete 1
Athlete: Experienced top 25% non elite
Weekly Training volume: 100-120km
Long run recommendations for build phase : 30-40km with 400-500 vert per 10km

Athlete 2
Athlete: Experienced mid pack running
Weekly Training volume: 80-100km
Long run recommendations for build phase : 25-35km with 400-500 vert per 10km

Athlete 3
Athlete: First time ultra runner
Weekly Training volume: 60-80km
Long run recommendations for build phase : 20-30km with 300-400 vert per 10km

Example 3
Race: 100miles
Vert: 600 vert per 10km
Terrain: Hilly Mountain trail

Athlete 1
Athlete: Experienced top 25% non elite
Weekly Training volume: 100-120km
Long run recommendations for build phase : 30-40km with 500-700 vert per 10km

Athlete 2
Athlete: Experienced mid pack running
Weekly Training volume: 80-100km
Long run recommendations for build phase : 25-35km with 500-700 vert per 10km

Athlete 3
Athlete: First time miler mid back pack runner
Weekly Training volume: 60-80km
Long run recommendations for build phase : 20-30km with 400-600 vert per 10km

Example 4
Race: 50km
Vert: 600 vert per 10km
Terrain: Hilly Mountain trail

Athlete 1
Athlete: Experienced top 25% non elite
Weekly Training volume: 100-120km
Long run recommendations for build phase : 30-40km with 500-700 vert per 10km

Athlete 2
Athlete: Experienced mid pack running
Weekly Training volume: 80-100km
Long run recommendations for build phase : 25-35km with 500-700 vert per 10km

Athlete 3
Athlete: First time miler mid back pack runner
Weekly Training volume: 60-80km
Long run recommendations for build phase : 20-30km with 400-600 vert per 10km

Note that I have mentioned distance and accompanying vert not time. In my coaching practice I usually prescribe duration ( but with the knowledge of how far they will likely get in that duration). The reason for prescribing duration is it gets athletes away from trying to run faster over a set distance thinking it shows an improvement when a) there is always week to week fluctuations in speed based on fatigue levels, nutrition , sleep , stress etc. and b) the intensity should be kept to around 80% of threshold or conversation pace.

It also allows for weather, some days will be hotter so pace will be slower but training stress would be the same. Given that most athletes have a limited amount of time to train prescribing long runs in terms of times allows them to plan their schedule with more certainty.

You will also notice from these examples there is not a lot of difference in the long run duration whether you are training for a 50km race or a 100 mile race.

The reason for this is the length of the long run is capped at what the athlete can recover from not what the race distance is.

Is training the same whether one is training for a 50km or a 100 miles?

In a lot of ways yes. For most athletes, the Monday to Friday training is very similar other than ideally a touch more volume for the longer races. The week in out week out long run is around the same given its likely close to the maximum an athlete can consistently do week in week out without affecting the rest of the week. The difference starts to become obvious in the peak phase of training where we start to include some of the long run variations.

How much can we increase the long run each week?

During the preparatory phase we want to increase the long run to the highest level that can be maintained week in week out in the Build phase. We talked in the volume section on increases in weekly volume and long run so go back and watch that video if you haven’t already

To summarise though
Long runs on trails and hills
– 15-20 minute increases up to around 3 hours and then 20-30 minutes increases are usually tolerated well

Long runs on road or flat trails
2-3km a week with perhaps a consolidation week every 3rd week where it stays the same

These are rough guidelines, some athletes can tolerate more some less. For less experienced athletes and athletes with a history of niggles a more conservative approach to increasing long run is advised. Athletes with a long training history and athletes that never seem to get injured will tolerate more rapid increases.

Keep in mind the concept of muscle memory. An athlete that has previously run 30km or 4 hour long runs can build back up to the same distance/duration much quicker than an athlete that has never run that far.

For example lets say your athlete has a 100km race, the 4 weeks of recovery after the race the longest run is 90-120 minutes . Once fully recovered its likely they can tolerate an increase to 3 hours one week and 4 hours the next week ( if they have been doing regular 4 hour long runs before the race) .Whereas an athlete that had never run longer than 2 hours would take a lot longer to build up to a 4 hour long run.

This is another example of why the 10% rule should be forgotten ( see the volume video for more discussion on the 10% rule). The experienced athlete can likely go from 2 hours to 4 hours in 2-4 weeks ( assuming they are returning to training after a race and have a big base of 4-hour runs ). That’s an increase of 25-50% whereas an inexperienced runner never having run longer than 2 hours before may take 8-12 weeks to go from 2 hours to 4 hours ( which is more like a 7% increase )

Also consider the amount of hiking in the long run as the more hiking one does the quicker the duration of the long run can be increased due to the reduced stress that hiking places on the body.

Long Run Variations

There are a number of ways we can increase the training load of the long run.
The main ones are

1. Back to Back
2. Fast finish
3. Extra long long run
4. Tempo efforts
5. Downhill focus
6. Two long runs per week

These are more advanced training sessions and the athlete needs to be well conditioned before attempting them. As a general rule do not attempt unless the usual weekly long run is feeling comfortable and has been for at least 6-8 weeks.

Back to Back

There are a number of ways to do this.

1. High Intensity + Long run

The first is to do a higher intensity session the day before the long run.
If the long run is Saturday morning then doing a speed or hard hill session either Friday morning or even Friday evening will mean legs are more fatigued at the start of the long run.

2. Back to Back Long runs
Doing a long run on Saturday followed by another long run ( although shorter ) on Sunday .

3. High Intensity + Back to Back
Combing the two above so hard session Friday then long run Saturday and a semi long run Sunday

4. Split Long run
Instead of say a 4 hour long run , you split it into 2:30-3 in the morning and another 1:30-2:30 in the evening

5. Race Distance over 3-4 days
If your athlete has the time and the conditioning in their legs then getting them to cover the entire race distance over 3-4 days is excellent training especially if they can do it on the actual route of the race. It does come with an extended recovery period so I wouldn’t recommend it more than once and around 4-6 weeks prior to the race to make sure all fatigue is gone before race start.

Fast finish long run

Increasing the pace over the last 20-30 minutes of a long run has a number of benefits.

For the athlete to manage this they have to
A) dial in their pacing so they don’t go too hard at the start
B) ensure they take in enough calories
C) have the mental energy required to push harder at the end of a long run

All three of these have obvious benefits when it comes to racing ultras .

The intensity of the fast finish doesnt have to be that fast , we are talking tempo at most ( ie around 90% of threshold up from 80% which is the intensity the long run should be at )

Extra Long long run

For athletes training for 100km or longer there is likely some advantage to doing 1-4 extra long long runs. These will likely require a few more easy days to recover from so will effect the first half of the following week but the benefits form doing them make up for that training loss.

When giving your athlete the extra long long run we need to be clear what the goals of the run.

In long training runs of 3-4 hours we rarely have any stomach issues , chafing issues and usually dont have any major mental lows to deal with. All of these are far more likely in an ultra. The goal of the extra long training run is to give the athlete some exposure to how they may feel in their race and develop strategies for dealing with any issues.

There is also likely some conditioning benefit for muscles and tendons when going extra long that arent gained from shorter long runs.

For a 100km race I may typically prescribe one to four 5-6 hour long runs and for 100 mile races one to two 6-8 hour days and another one to two 5-6 hour days. The athlete must be feeling comfortable in their usual long run before I would even consider recommending longer long run.

I like to refer to these extra long runs as adventure days to encourage the athlete thats its about time on feet , testing nutrition & gear, dealing with he mental lows that will arise rather than covering a certain distance. For most athletes allowing them to spend longer at rest stops to fuel , rehydrate or even stop to take photos of scenic viewpoints is helpful to reduce the overall training load. Yes we want to increase the training load but not so much they need a week off to recover.
For more advanced athletes I might recommend they aim to keep non-moving time to a minimum and instead hike when they need to eat, hydrate etc.

Tempo Efforts in long run

Once an athlete has run a few fast finish long runs one possible progression is adding in tempo efforts into the long run.
I recommend efforts of 15-30 minutes and 30-80 minutes in total of work at an intensity of 85-95% of threshold. The more advanced the athlete the longer and higher intensity the tempo efforts can be.

You can add the efforts anywhere throughout the run depending on what training stress you are trying to place on the athlete.

Efforts earlier in the run means that more of the run is performed on tired legs which leads to greater overall training load.
Efforts later in the run mean it is harder to lift intensity.

There are three main benefits of tempos in long runs
1) They require good pacing.
Push the tempos too hard early in the run and the rest of the run will be a real struggle. Run the long run too fast and you wont be able to pick up the intensity later tempos.

2) Helps dial in nutrition.
Without good nutrition any long run with tempo efforts is going to be a real struggle.

3) Teaches running on tired legs.
Whether it’s trying to run longer on tired legs from early tempos or trying to pick up the pace on tired legs later in the long run both require dealing with additional mental and physical fatigue.

Some example sessions would be
– 4 hour run with 2 x 20 minutes tempo efforts at 90% of Threshold – one in the first hour one in the second
– 4 hour run with 2 x 20 minutes tempo efforts at 90% of Threshold one in 3rd hour one in 4th hour
– 4 hour run with 20 minutes warm up then 3 x 20 minutes tempo at 85% of Threshold tempo with 3 minutes recovery , easy intensity run to finish off the run.

The tempo efforts can even be hiking efforts up a steep hill if the athlete is training for a mountain race with a ton of vert.

Downhill Focus

A downhill focus long run is one in which as the name implies you focus on the downhills , running them with purpose and focusing on good form. It doesnt necessarily mean pushing the downhills harder though. Often athletes use the downhill in long training runs as a bit of recovery , a chance to switch off and enjoy some low effort miles in the legs. In a down hill focus long run you instead think about high cadence light landings and descending quickly but easily. Let gravity help rather than putting on the brakes to slow speed down.

You might do this in the last hour , half the run or the whole run depending on the athlete experience and tolerance of running downhills.

Two long runs per week

For some athletes who have the time to train longer during the week and the physical and mental capacity to handle a second long run there are benefits.
BUT I would strongly suggest that the mid week second long run is of shorter duration than the main long run, For example the weekend long run might be 4 hours and the mid week long run 2- 2:30 hours. We need to ensure the athlete is not too fatigued and can still manage the higher intensity sessions in the week.

Nutrition
We will talk in detail on nutrition during the long run in the nutrition section of the course but in summary long runs should be used for testing nutrition options , training the stomach and practicing race day nutrition.

Gear
The duration of the long run means we need regular access to water and nutrition hence wearing a pack or waist belt is essential. It’s also good to get used to wearing what you will wear in the race. As the race approaches your pack should be same as what you plan to use in the race. This allows you to get used to running with that much weight on your back and also gives you time to become familiar with where everything belongs in your pack. We will talk in detail on this in the gear section of the course.

Poles
We will discuss in detail the use of poles in the hiking section but if you plan to use poles in your race then you should use poles in your long run especially in the peak phase of training. If not that proficient with poles I suggest using them in the build phase as well.

Putting it all together

Ok so thats a lot we have been over , let me summarise all we have been over to hopefully clarify things a bit for you

Long run Distance
– maximum distance/duration one can handle with no more than one recovery day

Long run Intensity
– 75-80% of threshold , conversation pace

Long run vert
– increasing to approximately same as race vert per 10km
– for slow athletes it may be beneficial to schedule some long runs with less vert to get more running kms into the legs

Long run Periodisation

Preparatory Phase
– gradually increasing the long run to the longest sustainable week in week out distance / duration

Build Phase
– despite the name the long run remains relatively constant as far as distance / duration in this phase but vert per 10km may be increased throughout this phase if the race demands it.
Build refers more to building intensity and volume

Peak Phase
– this js where we start implementing the long run variations of fast finish , back to back , adventure days etc. BUT only for athletes that are tolerating the long run well and a ready for a progression.

Taper
– the last long run is typically 3-4 weeks out from the race , dropping down to 2-3 hours 2 weeks out and 60-90 minutes one week out .
– The last adventure day or back to back should be 4-5 weeks out from the race

Beloq I have included some practical examples of a 21-week training macrocycle which hopefully illustrate how it all comes together. ( Note 21 weeks is arbitrary and selected purely just to illustrate how it all comes together and does not suggest that 21 weeks is optimal – in reality, the longer the better )

I have broken that 21 weeks down into the following phases
6 week preparatory phase
6 week build phase
6 week peak phase
3 week Taper

I have also assumed they are starting from a long run of 2 hours

The plans are for illustration purpose only. They aim to highlight the different phases and types of long run and how they change for different level athletes and races.

They are not meant to be a template you can copy and paste for your own athletes.

Example 1

100 mile mountain race , 600 vert per 10km , mid pack athlete , volume 80-100k week