Saturday is better than Sunday for long runs... here's why

icccceirvneine wrote:

elvid33 wrote:

Depends how you schedule the rest of your week. Tuesday and Friday are somewhat common WO days, so if Friday is a WO day for you, then you're not going to be doing a long run on Saturday. Long runs are overrated anyway though.

Why not? NAU does this. Tuesday/Friday workouts. Saturday long run. Sometimes around 12 hours between Friday evening workout and Saturday long run. Seems to work just fine for them.

In most NCAA programs, the long run isn't a workout. If you're an adult marathoner, the long run is your hardest run of the week, at least in the specific phase, and you're not doing it after a Friday workout. Of course, very few athletes are capable of doing two mid-week workouts and a hard long run without frying themselves. Saturday for a hard LR and Tuesday for a second workout is typically a good schedule.

runners world hobby jogger wrote:

Friday after work you're ready to chill, maybe grab some dinner or something and unwind. You wake up Saturday full of energy and ready to start the weekend. That's the best time to get in the long run. Once that's knocked out you can enjoy your weekend.

Sunday long runs are a ritual that don't make sense to me.

Or...do it on the day that best fits your needs.

One upside to Saturday is that if the weather is crap that gives you a fall back day.

Also, some people work "odd" schedules so Saturday is a full work day for them.

Why do a long run during competition season? I mean, a 90 minute run in the offseason makes sense, but it would drain a lot of energy needed for a race. An hour is long enough during the season.

Over my head? wrote:

Why do a long run during competition season? I mean, a 90 minute run in the offseason makes sense, but it would drain a lot of energy needed for a race. An hour is long enough during the season.

When Lydiard had his guys in their faster phases of training and when they were racing there was an overall mileage drop from the base and hill phases. The one thing he had them do throughout the year, no matter the phase of training, was the weekend long run. The idea was to minimize the loss of aerobic fitness that he believed would come with the lower volume.

I do my tempo run or interval workout on Saturday followed by long run on Sunday. This has always worked well for me because the Saturday workout kind of serves as a reminder not to hammer the long run. Also, if the long run is causing the rest of your weekend to suffer (ie the non-running portion) then you're doing it wrong.

800 dude wrote:

icccceirvneine wrote:

Why not? NAU does this. Tuesday/Friday workouts. Saturday long run. Sometimes around 12 hours between Friday evening workout and Saturday long run. Seems to work just fine for them.

In most NCAA programs, the long run isn't a workout. If you're an adult marathoner, the long run is your hardest run of the week, at least in the specific phase, and you're not doing it after a Friday workout. Of course, very few athletes are capable of doing two mid-week workouts and a hard long run without frying themselves. Saturday for a hard LR and Tuesday for a second workout is typically a good schedule.

this is why you should alternate weeks of:

friday - workout, saturday - easy long run

with

friday - easy run with some speed work, saturday, - long run with workout baked into it.

Sunday morning long run. Watching football all afternoon. But I’m no longer racing competitively.

Truth Speaker wrote:

In high school and college you race on Saturday.

Which is why the great programs do massive cooldowns after the race to hit their long run mileage.

For me its Sunday. There is far less car traffic and I can run much more safely on roads i could barely walk across during the other six days.

WiTuLo wrote:

I always felt best bang for my buck when in marathon training owas a short race (like 5k or 3 mile XC race) on Saturday and then a nice mellow long run on Sunday morning in California weather. Heaven.

Agreed. I had a coach who loved a 5K as a speed session on a Saturday followed by a LR on Sunday. A good Sunday morning long run also helped me sleep through the sermon at church.

Enemy of the Podcast wrote:

Agreed, it's like a college thing that held over for a lot of people who don't really put some thought and intention into it. If it's a big long run workout then you won't want to do much of anything on Saturday to conserve energy. Knock it out early on a Saturday and you have the rest of the day to recover, as normal, and then can go to church with family and friends, do yardwork or hang out by the pool, lake, or beach and throw down the cold ones with aplomb all day Sunday with that long run long done. Or you can take Sunday as a true recovery day without the demands of the workday less than 24 hours later.

Dude, Sunday long run is church

HRE wrote:

Over my head? wrote:

Why do a long run during competition season? I mean, a 90 minute run in the offseason makes sense, but it would drain a lot of energy needed for a race. An hour is long enough during the season.

When Lydiard had his guys in their faster phases of training and when they were racing there was an overall mileage drop from the base and hill phases. The one thing he had them do throughout the year, no matter the phase of training, was the weekend long run. The idea was to minimize the loss of aerobic fitness that he believed would come with the lower volume.

I know the theory. I just don't buy it.

I always hated Sunday long runs in college if we raced on Saturday (which was most weeks) because I'd always be way too sore and tired from the long run to get anything out of the long run. I finally stopped doing them on Sundays of race week and just did a medium length run that day instead because I found I kept getting minor nagging injuries when I tried to push it and do a full long run the day after a race (I struggled with shin splints to some extent for most of my running career). If I did a shorter run and focused on recovery I did not have those issues and was ready to go on Monday. During the summer when out of race season the Sunday long runs were okay in terms of spacing out the various run types over the week, but I still hated doing them that day because I did not want to wake up super early to do a run that long before church on one of my few days to kinda sleep in and then after church I was usually hungry and wanted lunch which then meant I had to wait until like 2-3 pm to run so food could digest which was the hottest time of day (not great in the summer) and then basically wasted my whole Sunday because then it's like 4-5 pm by the time I'd be done with everything related to the run, post run stuff, shower etc. Then dinner time and day is practically over. I agree, Sunday long runs suck.

I feel you man. Saturday long run is especially nice during the hot summer months. Meet up with your group or run solo Saturday AM and crank it, then you've got the whole weekend to chill and grab some brewskis with the boys. It's fool proof.

As far as recovery concerns, if you workout Tuesday & Thursday, you've still got a whole day in between workouts & long runs.

Free_the_thigh wrote:

Enemy of the Podcast wrote:

Agreed, it's like a college thing that held over for a lot of people who don't really put some thought and intention into it. If it's a big long run workout then you won't want to do much of anything on Saturday to conserve energy. Knock it out early on a Saturday and you have the rest of the day to recover, as normal, and then can go to church with family and friends, do yardwork or hang out by the pool, lake, or beach and throw down the cold ones with aplomb all day Sunday with that long run long done. Or you can take Sunday as a true recovery day without the demands of the workday less than 24 hours later.

Dude, Sunday long run is church

Maybe if you're a bachelor without a family.

I don't think that the men's and women's teams at BYU do a Sunday long run, short run, or any run and they seem to do ok.

I agree with you brother 💯

Saturday is better for long run 🏃‍♂️

I like my Sunday off and usually go to church ⛪️ 😌 🙏 and use it for relaxation and reflecting of the big running week

Start Monday Fresh and really good day on Tuesday for a hard session

Are you an AI poster? 🤔