For marathon training, convince me you need longer than 15 miles or two hours run.
I'm sub 3 marathoner on 60 miles and never ran longer than 15 miles.
I do 2 15 miles, one tempo mid week and one easy on the weekend.
I don't understand why you need 20 miles, let alone the 24 miles long run.
You would be a 2:40 marathoner or faster if you ran over 15 miles at a time.
15 miles is good if you're "only" running 60 miles a week. (no judgement but conventionally low for a marathoner)
The marathoners I know run 80-90 mpw, so their LR is longer in consequence (20-22 mi).
Likewise, the NN guys run a 25 mi LR, and they're running 125 mpw. Adjust the LR to your weekly mileage.
The LR is a specific workout for the marathon, which is an extremely long event. Works the same energy systems in similair ways, helps you mentally, practices running efficiently while tired.
When you get to 20 miles in a Marathon, you're halfway there.
Isn't there something about running for two hours that achieves some type of adaptation related to fast twitch muscle fibers? There is something about it in the Jakob Ingebrigtsen long run thread. Mentioned Peter Snell.
Less than a marathon: 90 minutes max
Marathon: 2hrs+
yujmyumtm wrote:
Isn't there something about running for two hours that achieves some type of adaptation related to fast twitch muscle fibers? There is something about it in the Jakob Ingebrigtsen long run thread. Mentioned Peter Snell.
Sure, when you run long enough to start depleting muscle fibres, other fibres are activated to continue the effort. In this exhaustive way there is an adaptation in the fast twitch fibres to extend their aerobic endurance so to speak. But the same can happen quicker if you run faster or if you already are quite depleted or fatigued and run anyway. There are often different ways to the same.
For Marathon it is obvious that the legs need to endure all the pounding, to be very efficient at the marathon pace with a high fat metabolism and being fatigue resistant. Also the mental aspects are important. The majority of Marathon training is not necessarily done in long runs, but there is a lot of running at an easy pace.
15 miles wrote:
For marathon training, convince me you need longer than 15 miles or two hours run.
I'm sub 3 marathoner on 60 miles and never ran longer than 15 miles.
I do 2 15 miles, one tempo mid week and one easy on the weekend.
I don't understand why you need 20 miles, let alone the 24 miles long run.
Unless you are injury prone and have found that you are running the absolute most you can without injury, you are selling yourself short.
Do you NEED to run several 20-22 mile training runs to run a marathon? No. Do you need to if you want to run as fast as you possibly can? Yes.
Club run of 22mis on Sundays. Hills.
Sounds like you’re content with low mileage and mediocrity. Nothing anyone says is likely to convince you to run more or work harder. Classic “I get injured if I do more than…” mentality. Just run more, man.