Suggested maximum duration of long run.

RVDowning wrote:

For a slower and older runner, what would be the suggested maximum duration of one's weekly long run during marathon training.

2 hours.

20 - 25% of whatever your planned weekly mileage is

Zante wrote:

20 - 25% of whatever your planned weekly mileage is

Not "for a slower and older runner", no. He or she might be getting 35 - 40 miles in a week. An 8 mile long run isn't going to cut it. I've found as an older and slower runner that I can safely do a 50% long run, especially if I include a few walk breaks. Most of us older runners have been at it for quite some time and are not going to shock our systems going long once in a while.

Depends. My half-assed opinion is that it depends on whether you are building up endurance or whether you are already there. A slow older runner might top off at a 2 hour long run during the endurance build-up, and general maintenance. Basically, less than 5 miles daily (including workout sessions), with a peppy 7 mile medium distance run and a 10 to 12 mile long run.. The "percentage of weekly miles" thing really doesn't apply, if you limit your daily run distances by choice, and not by necessity. After that, after about 12 miles, there isn't a limit. But you said "weekly", so I suppose you won't be doing 15 to 25 milers each week. The training effect is fairly well established with a 2 hour run. If you run for 2 hours and feel like you could probably run for another hour, your endurance engine is established. Thereafter, you'll just be fine tuning your use of fat and glycogen with added distance. No need to get crazy about it til you get closer to marathon race time. That's when you'll be doing extra-long distances in order to test out your fueling strategies, and sandwiching tempos and progression fast finishes to get confident in your speed endurance.

If you're training for a marathon you will need to do some longer runs by distance even if you are old and slow and it takes a long time. Some people get away with a long runs of 16 miles for a marathon, but I wouldn't attempt one unless I've done some 20 milers.

You should be able to go pretty far, if you're running a marathon and you're older and slower, you're going to be well above 3 hours, probably above 4 hours. If you don't go above 2 hours you're probably not really going to be ready, but I wouldn't go above 3 hours during training.

For the record, I will be 75 in March. I qualified for and ran Boston in 2016. But I also had a couple of knee surgeries last year that cut down my running considerably and I lost most of my fitness. I think that right now I would find it hard to come in under 5 hours.

I would like to go back to Boston, and the standard for my age and gender is 4:35. So needless to say I have a lot of work to do. In the past I used to do a few 20 milers, but I always felt that they were taking more out of me than I was getting out of it. In a couple of weeks I hope to be back up to 50 miles per week.

My next marathon will be Chicago in October.

I’m 60 and a little faster than you and I don’t run longer than 3 hours which might only be 15 to 17 miles. There is nothing magical about 20 miles. Cap them at 3 hours and the distance is whatever it is. If you were running faster than or at race pace I’d say 2 hours

Referencing Daniels Running Formula, he talks about this topic but for general runners, so I wonder if his recommendation of 150 minutes for a max long run also applies here? In my personal training, I tend to follow that in my marathon cycle save for one run where I run close to my goal race time on feet (no more than 3 hours) and call that my peak training run prior to my draw down and taper phases. Interesting that the consensus is 2 hours for efforts closer to race pace as my training runs at that effort fell around that time. Interested in what others say.

Depends on purpose

If it's the aerobic improvement you're going for, +- 90 minutes hits a wall with diminishing returns.

At 75, it is a whole different ballgame, especially if your knees have been an issue. I really do not think any of the general long run rules apply at that age. It is really just a matter of balancing how much your body can handle before you are getting into a danger zone for injury and excessive recovery time. You really just have to carefully experiment and find what works for you.

Most of the advice I've seen says no one should run longer than 3 hours in training. The risk of injury as you tire and your muscles weaken increases massively. There's exceptions, ultra runners can handle longer, but most mortals should keep to sub-3 hours

RVDowning wrote:

For the record, I will be 75 in March. I qualified for and ran Boston in 2016. But I also had a couple of knee surgeries last year that cut down my running considerably and I lost most of my fitness. I think that right now I would find it hard to come in under 5 hours.

I would like to go back to Boston, and the standard for my age and gender is 4:35. So needless to say I have a lot of work to do. In the past I used to do a few 20 milers, but I always felt that they were taking more out of me than I was getting out of it. In a couple of weeks I hope to be back up to 50 miles per week.

My next marathon will be Chicago in October.

If your marathon pace is currently 11:30, then two hours of running at marathon pace is only a little over 10 miles, which is light, I think. Three hours at marathon pace puts you over 15 miles, which sounds more reasonable for marathon prep. But only you can discover what works in your situation...

Down weeks: 12-15miles

High mileage weeks: 15-20miles

your pace should determine the time spent running

I agree with Onwards 2 hours is not enough if it ends up being 10 miles for you to comfortably tackle the marathon but as we get older the old adage about 20 miles leads to 4 hour runs and that is just too long to be out running. I do 50 mile+ ultras and I'm not doing more than 15 in a single run and have no issues with marathons

kmaclam wrote:

Zante wrote:

20 - 25% of whatever your planned weekly mileage is

Not "for a slower and older runner", no. He or she might be getting 35 - 40 miles in a week. An 8 mile long run isn't going to cut it. I've found as an older and slower runner that I can safely do a 50% long run, especially if I include a few walk breaks. Most of us older runners have been at it for quite some time and are not going to shock our systems going long once in a while.

Furthermore, for someone running only 4 days/week (common for many runners) the long run must be more than 25% (unless every run is exactly 25%).