As winter approaches my amateur running club mates are starting to get the base miles in. Usually this means long slow distance runs of something around 9:00/mile pace. We are no elites but our abilities are ranging somewhere in the 16:00-17:00 minute ball park range for 5k with me being the fastest even though I started running only in my mid 20s.
So I am thinking what benefit would a 16:00-17:00 5k runner get from a 13 mile run at 9:00/mile pace? Currently I am doing my long runs of 13 miles at around 6:30/mile pace (year before it was more like 7:00/mile pace). And while slowly I still keep progressing with each year while I see that my club mates are stagnating more or less for the last couple of years.
I have influenced a lot from Daniels, Tinman, Salazar, Canova and I just don't understand what benefit slow jogging would bring on the table that I don't get from the fast run. Can anyone explain the logic behind this?