The way I do long runs... what do you think?

Keep your long runs at a comfortable pace. You don't have to push the pace. Stay on your feet for 90-120 minutes. How long is your LR? Build volume during the off-season with easy runs.

Long run should be one of your main work outs, push the pace, just like you are.

My last long run was 6 miles, building it up to 8 miles. That was a 30 mile week, the 8 miler would ideal be in a 40 mile week.

I used to be around your pace for training stuff, I kept pushing pace on long runs. I would go 7:00-7:30 as long as I could, usually the first hour and then run 7:45-8:00 for the rest of the 90 mins.

I kept doing that along side 1 interval workout around 6:00 pace a week and 1 threshold run around 6:30-6:40 a week.

Weeks of doing that resulted in me going from a 24:00 6k (6:300ish pace) to a 22:00 6k (5:55 pace).

Now, building off of that a year later I now run around 21 6k and 16-17 min 5k. btw, I am a female.

keep doing it. sounds like if it works for you. you could slow twitch like me and respond well to high mileage with lots of tempo/threshold. Read Jack Daniels. I think you would like some of his philosophy. Don't fall for that LSD crap through, not the same thing. You need some intensity, can't be all long and slow! Good luck.

for what it's worth wrote:

Long run should be one of your main work outs, push the pace, just like you are.

I agree with this guy and the gal with the longer post above. According to Italian school, and there is a lot from Canova still stored on old threads that I've found, you're doing it right. Faster than easy, of course, but slower than tempo. Not all that much slower, though. Daniels refers to 'Marathon Pace', McMillan to 'Steady State'. Look at those figures and realize it's significantly faster than easy.

The easy days (I've usually got 5 a week but I am much older and need a lot of recovery) should be pretty stress-free. Make the hard days hard, though, and a long run IS a hard workout and should be.

Try to ramp up the distance of those long ones while staying at a decent pace. If you have success with those types of workouts as well as tempos, you may be like me, which is more slow-twitch than is ideal for mid-distance which you've raced at. Therefore you may very well have greater success at longer events. 5 and 10k are very easy races to find. Easier, in fact, than the shorter races you mentioned. Lack of opportunity to get into a good race definetly won't slow you down if driving a bit is in the realm of possibility. I used to go with some of my buddies who had cars and my dad (may he rest in peace) would often drive and cheer just like other kids who played baseball would sometimes have a parent go.

Good Luck!

Build up to 15mi or so. Your body should tell you what to do and if you are not obsessed with pace, you will naturally negative split and finish strong. You want to feel good after a long run and some strides. Leave the faster stuff for your tempo workout.

I think it's a mistake to have the first half of a long run be faster than the second half. It's much better either to maintain a relaxed pace the whole way, or, alternately, to go relaxed for the first half to 2/3 and then pick it up a bit.

Here's a good general rule: when extending the length of your long run in a given training cycle, add one mile every second week. Run the first run at a given distance easy; the next week, run the first half easy and the second half with more push. In the third week, you add one mile but run easy. And so forth.

And when you're three weeks or so away from your peak race, drop the distance a mile or two but run it as a fast-finish or super fast-finish LR. This means running easy for most of the run but--for example--running the last two miles at 10-mile (solid tempo) and then 5K pace respectively. (In a super fast finish, you'd run the last 440 of that 5K pace mile pretty much as hard as you possibly can, like the sprint at the end of a 5K race.) Really put the hammer down.

Finishing hard in a long run like this mimics the feeling you'll have at the very end of a race without incurring the deep fatigue that an actual race would create. You'll recover quickly, but you'll also know that you've put in a hell of a workout and are ready for your goal race.

I think the approach could vary depending on what you're training for and what phase of the season you're in. But in general, I like making long runs progressions. Start at an easy pace and increase to (hypothetical) MP. I wouldn't want to get anywhere near tempo pace on the run.

You are not doing LRs. Pace doesn't matter, the principle is wrong.

Comfortable pace though you may benefit from pushing it a bit in the last mile or so to get used to running harder when tired.

This is very good and sound advice.

+1