The Long Run

58 miles for the past week with 6 days of running and 1 rest day for the best and most consistent training week I’ve put together since last July! The positive thing is that the body feels good and with a rest day today to absorb the previous weeks training I feel ready to attack another week! Got my longest tempo in quite a while completed on Wednesday with a solid 6 mile Tempo in Phoenix Park in 33.24 averaging 5.33 per mile for the overall run. Like always I found it hard to get going over the first few miles but eventually got into a decent groove hitting the following splits:

· 5.37

· 5.35

· 5.39

· 5.32

· 5.34

· 5.25

Something which I’ve not touched too much on in these Blogs is Heart Rate! I don’t worry too much about heart rate on these kinds of runs. After years of running I think I’m pretty good at knowing what feels like tempo effort or what feels above or below Threshold pace but still was happy to see that my average Heart Rate for this effort was 161bpm which would indicate that I wasn’t emptying myself with this effort! For Heart Rate Zone training to be effective you do really need to be getting HR Testing done on a regular enough basis!

To be honest I think Heart rate information is important but I think some runners getting overly obsessed with this and all other different types of data. Mark Wetmore the famous Colorado Buffaloes collegiate coach talks about teaching his runners to listen to their SENSORY DATA i.e. listen to your legs, pace, lungs etc. and how as runners one of the keys to success is learning how to listen to your body. (if you haven’t read “Running with the Buffaloes” documenting Wetmore’s mens team’s journey to the NCAA Cross Country I’d really advise you to. Its probably the best running book that I’ve read)

Rest of the week consisted of some easy runs and light strides before a 14 mile run on Sunday! Probably the most enjoyable run I’ve done in a long time! I haven’t been able to run too long over the last few months as I’ve got over various niggles and didn’t want to inflame these niggles/issues by running too far too soon so I’ve built up quite slowly to this point! I enjoy running and in the long run you get to do lots of it.

I wanted to talk a bit more about the long run and talk about the importance of it. I actually think it’s the most important training session of a distance runners week! By running for longer it allows you to increase your aerobic ability and build a massive aerobic base! Not only are their great physiological benefits from running long but I’ve found great mental benefits also, it teaches you to concentrate and focus for longer, I find it gives me a mental toughness. You do need to build up to a point where you can handle a long aerobic run. Once I got the all clear from my foot injuries I was dealing with a few months ago I think my first long run was 8 miles and I slowly built that up to 14 miles and I will increase this gradually week on week! I cannot stress the importance of starting off at a smaller distance and gradually increase the duration of your long run.

Everyone approaches long runs in different ways. I generally start them off slow picking it up to a decent steady pace in the middle before easing back the last few miles! I generally treat the long run like an extra session and for this reason I like putting in a steady hard effort in the middle of this. However if for whatever reason I’ve done an intense session the day before I’ll generally run it quite slow, I try to avoid completing a session and long run back to back however I know many do an intense session on Saturday before attempting a long run on Sunday and this works for them so whatever works best for you! I generally think of the Long run as a long effort rather than an intense effort. I suppose the only exception to this is when I’m completing Long runs in a specific Marathon block where I treat these very much as more specific sessions where I would have set goals and target paces for these!

Plan on putting together a very similar weeks training this week with consistency being key for me at the moment!

Have a great week folks 😊

Noel