Is a 10mile run long enough for good 5km training?

That should read a 10mile long run.

Where in Seattle are you?

Not if you're in Seattle.

Yes, as long as you're not jogging it. Make it hard, at least for the last few miles.

1st 5 miles two minutes slower than 5k race pace, sixth mile should have 4-6 x 30 seconds strides last four cut down the pace until the last mile is race pace.

Example

7th. 1:30 above 5k pace

8th. 1:00 above

9th. :30 above

Last mile @ 5k race pace

Alberto Salazar

10 weeks, average daily mileage is 14.2 miles. Average long run is 13.0 miles. Longest run is 15 miles.

Todd Williams

10 weeks, average daily mileage is 14.2 miles. Average long run is 10.2 miles. Longest run is 12 miles.

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From that thread a summary from Alberto Salazars training log in 1977

70 days, 130 sessions

60 doubles

10 singles

21.5% = percentage of individual runs 10 miles or longer (28 out of 130 efforts averaging 11.85 miles, range 10-15 miles)

14.2 miles = avg daily mileage

15 miles = mode (28x), 14(11x), 16(7x), 13(5x), 12(5x), 18(4x)

69 = number of AM runs (including Sunday long run)

7.1 miles = avg AM run

6.2 miles = avg AM run (not including long run)

61 = number of PM runs

8.3 miles = avg PM run

9 long runs (13,11,13,14,14,13,15,12,12)

13.0 miles = avg long run

15 miles = longest run. One occurrence.

Long runs = 91% of the avg daily mileage

Long runs = 13.1% of the avg weekly mileage

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FROM THE TODD WILLIAMS TRAINING THREAD

Weekly mileage for the 10 weeks leading up to 1995 Gate River Run: 110-102-91-86-93-105-105-95-103-106* race week

Long runs for the 10 weeks leading up to 1995 Gate River Run: 12-8-10-10-8-11-12-10-11-10

Specific workouts: Each week I would do a track workout, hill workout and a faster road run, with some samples of those below. For each workout I ran a 3-4 mile warm-up at a sub 6:00 pace, followed by 6-150m strides and a 2 mile warm-down.

Key workouts:

1. 4xmile@4:15 with 3 minutes recovery jogs between each mile

2. Hills – 10x380 meter hill with jog back down for recovery between each

3. 8 x 1000m @2:45 with 200m jog recovery between each 1000m

4. 1600m – 1200m--800m-400m@:60-:61 pace with 400m jog recovery between each

5. 5 miles HARD road run (4:45 pace) then back to the track for 4 x 800m @2:02 – 2:04 with 400m jog recovery

6. 20 x 200m @ :30 with 200m jog recovery

7. 6 mile HARD road run then back to the track for a 4:08 mile

I ran twice a day every day, with my pace on each run never slower than 6 minutes per mile. At the completion of each afternoon run I would do 8 x 150m strides at mile race pace.

10 long runs (12-8-10-10-8-11-12-10-11-10)

10.2 miles = avg long run

12 miles = longest run. One occurrence.

Long runs = 80% of the avg daily mileage

Long runs = 13.4% of the avg weekly mileage

If you're too lazy to look through those threads malmo linked, Salazar's training is during XC season (10k training) and Willaims' training is before his 15k AR. So, if these guys are excelling at distances 2-3x longer than 5k and doing 12-15 miles max for their long runs, the answer to the question in the title is YES.

I agree. Ten miles for a long run sounds about right. Perhaps an occasional 12 would be okay, too.

might be in seattle wrote:

Is it?

Is it good enough? For 20, 19, 18, 17, 16 minutes - probably. For 15 or 14 minutes, you will likely want to go a little further sometimes, even though you wouldn't necessarily need to with a solid plan of doubles. For 13:xx or faster, if you had 10 miles as your longest run, it would probably be more like a "standard" run (and just one of two runs in the day).

As malmo has alluded to (in this thread and in others), a super long run is not all that important, as long as you are able to put in the workouts, and get a decent total volume.

But if you are asking if a 10 mile long run is enough and are counting on it being 20-25% of your weekly training mileage; no, I would say it is not enough to reach your peak potential. However, a solid 40 mpw plan is almost certainly enough to finish in the top 1% of most road 5ks around.