long run question

Does your style lean toward the fast-twitch end of the spectrum? At least for a distance runner?

You aren't supposed to feel good on long runs. It is about pushing yourself.

But also think about how you are fueling yourself. make sure you are fueled up for a long run.

Not supposed to feel good on a long run? Are you insane?

Long runs are supposed to get you time on your feet & help with your base, not kill you. I'd argue that many distance runners love and look forward to their long runs each week.

As to the OP, maybe you could try 'shorter' long runs until your legs feel better at that distance and work your way up to longer runs when your legs adjust.

Judging by your 5k to HM times, my guess is you are a faster type runner, and most likely undertrained aerobically. The fact that you can do 12 progressively faster miles, but 15 quite easy, and the former is the less difficult, also suggests you could work on your aerobic fitness.

What pace are you running your easy/normal days? You might need to slow those down.

And as the other poster said, fuel could be part of it. If you are more aerobically fit, you are also more able to burn fat as fuels. If you aren't practiced at that, it feels hard, and it sucks. There are a lot of ways to get good at that. I prefer slower runs in a fasted state. Think under 70 percent max HR. If you aren't used to doing that, it will most likely feel super slow in the beginning. But after a few weeks, you will be cruising at that effort, and your steady long runs won't feel bad at all.

Faster long runs, on the other hand, those are kinda meant to hurt.

If you are curious about aerobic fitness and pace discrepancies, I think the HADD document (google it) does a great job explaining it. I'm not saying follow that method completely, but the first 10 pages are very interesting, and once I started spending more time going just a little easier, things improved across a range of times and distances.

Maybe you do too much of your running at the "grey area", somewhere in between, and going slower on the easy runs would be helpful? If you do plenty enough of easy runs, you will get used to it, and your legs are more fresh on the workouts.

Former D2 now 51 wrote:

Does your style lean toward the fast-twitch end of the spectrum? At least for a distance runner?

I would say it does. But I am not sure if that is because that is how I have trained for so long or not. Back in HS my 400 was 61.

thanks for the feedback. I will check that out. My pace on easy days is anywhere from 8s to 9s. People that I can routinely beat handily in shorter races beat me in longer races but I'd like to think I can change that at least a little bit.

Those easy paces certainly don't sound too fast. But you never know, so look into it some more, as I do think you have a lot of potential for growth in the longer distances. If you want there to be, that is. No reason to get great at race distances you don't like, but if you want to extend your range, I think you have a good chance to do it.

Also, I'm jealous of your 5k time:)