Let it Rupp wrote:
How about for an 800/1500 guy?
Brazier's longest run was a 8 mile run at very easy pace. Depends on how slow-twitch/fast-twitch you are, and there is a difference between 800 and 1500, but the long run won't be a key workout in either of them.
One great coach one said long runs are for "time on feet".
Think of it logically - if you run between 3:45-4:00/mile pace in your main event, why do you think it matters if you do a long run at 6:00/mile pace or at 7:00/mile pace? It's way too far away from competition pace anyway. It's much more important to make sure you can hit the next hard workout/track session/sprint session and are 100% recovered going into them than to be beat up from a hard long run and go into the workout fatigued and unable to hit paces that actually correspond to your competition paces.
But yea, in general LRC really overvalues these "hard long runs" for any distance from 800-10k, because they feel like they are doing more work when in fact they just overcook themselves and end up running slow workouts as a result.