8 miles is not really a long run or is it?

For many years during marathon training I would do 6-8's some hard some easy and a long run on Sunday. Worked for me.

running an hour per day on hilly terraine, is definitely a great way to build a base.

if you scoot up the hills, you can run a decent 2 mile just off that.

probavly the best schedule you can make in one sentence.

measuring in miles starts to get a little wonky as you get slower. 1 hr used to get me over 8 miles, now it gets me 7. 3 hours gets me 20 on a good day. lol.

For years as a competitive track runner, I would do about 45 miles per week, and the "long run" was 10 miles at about 6 min per mile.

As a 65-year-old doing Easy Interval Method, I didn't do a long run as 6x1000m with 800m slow in between + warm-up/warm-down took 70 mins.

I did not read all the comments. So, I aplogize if this has been said several times already. I think it depends on your age, what events you do, and your condition. When I was younger, 8 miles was one of my doubles for daily runs. Now older, it is certainly a longer run.

I agree that the long run is the longest run of the week.

And I agree the long run should be >90 minutes.

But to me the shortest long run is 12 miles. Which actually was a lot less than 90 minutes when I was fit.

i used to absolutely loved the long run as a challenge, 21 miles, i had to run or race walk 3 miles, then run Waitākere 18 miler, once in a while 22 miler. never ran a marathon, there was no mystery there. we would well under 6 min pace after a relaxing 40 minutes, and 151 min for 18 miles was my time while my partner hit 148, that is not counting 3 miles to the start. annoying to have to pound the last 3 miles alone, and have to gut it out. in another life, i would start fresh and hydrate. those last 3 miles were, i think absolutely useless, as i was looking at 1500m.

at the end of the day, i see very little need for the long run, though once a month, why not? i did do a slower 26 miler at maybe 650 mile pace, and that was nice.

like coe said. long slow training makes long slow runners.

i see the long run as more for mental confidence, and pretty damaging if you want to run sub 55 second quarters for a distance.

the deal is you need aerobic ability for the mile and long running is too much catabolic of fast twitch.

there in lies the challenge of middle distance, its not called middle distance for nothing.

the best formula, i think isn't quite out there yet.

percy cerutti maybe had it right, though his schedules were too abstract?

with PEDs, you have no idea if the athlete has the optimal schedule or not, because you respond to testosterone, blood boosting, from both training and drugs.

anyway, guys like Ovett, should have run 340 mile on the best of training, there is no doubt.

i found this on the internet, and can say this is exactly how we ran it. i felt great usually except the last stage of 3 miles. we ran the hill very hard. and on the ridge, flying...

Stage 1 – Gradual easy acceleration to the right effort level: “If we look at the physiology of these runs in modern terms, there was a slow start with a gradual increase in tempo and effort.
Stage 2 – Long gradual climb: “…until the long hill climb. This would consist of about 20 minutes of running with a heart rate in the anaerobic threshold zone. Any faster and an athlete would “blow up” and not be able to complete the rest of the course in a fit state. Athletes learnt to ration their efforts and fuels very carefully in this weekly run.”
Stage 3 – Ridge running: “The recovery downhill and following efforts along the ridge road were really what we would call “lactate shuffle” running: hovering at the edge of the anaerobic threshold and learning to disperse lactates while starting to fatigue the carbohydrate stores in the muscles and liver.”
Stage 4 – Flat finish with small hill at the end: “The final miles of gradual descent and flat running were largely pure endurance/ fatty acid metabolism running, but a short sharp hill of about 700m at the 28km mark served to jolt the fatiguing athlete into short-term anaerobic metabolism again.”

myself,, looking at the 4 stages above, sophisticated fancy analysis, i'm not so sure about that.

i do like the warm up miles, and blasting a long hill and then basting 5 miles gentle down hill, again the so called last endurance miles, well, maybe a couple of them and call it a day.

By definition, a long run is 25-50% more than your regular run. So if your normal runs are 5-6 miles then yes 8 miles qualifies as a LR. Don't know why so many people put it as a number specific number.

I usually do 25-30 mpw spread over 3 runs. Something like 10 miles easy, 6 miles inc workout, 14 miles long. 16:22 this month.

I think ‘long run’ is a pretty relative term.

8 miles is quite the long run for someone running less than 30 mpw, or training for the 800m.

The standards for a “long run” being listed in this thread aren’t considered a long run to ultramarathoners.

10x1k at threshold is speed work for a marathoner while it’s endurance work for a mid d runner.

It’s all relative to the athlete

It certainly isn't, not in my world anyway. 100 + Marathons/Ultras. 8 miles isn't even a medium long run.