the Long Run

What is the correlation between female feedback and selling the long run to freshmen? Perhaps your freshWOmen are reluctant to do long runs and need to hear of other girls doing them?

From Run With the Best, by Irv Ray and Tony Benson:

Chapter 12 The Long Run

- 18-24% of the weekly mileage

- Maintain 70% effort (aerobic condition pace is ideal, no faster)

- increases skeletal and muscle strength

- stimulates capillarization of muscle fibers

- increases the number of mitochondria in the cells

- increases enzyme activity within the mitochondria

- increases myoglobin levels

- improves the muscle's ability to store glycogen

- trains fast-twitch fibers to have a greater aerobic capacity than normal

- long easy running strengthens all ligaments, tendons, muscles and bones of the body

the long run is the single most important run in building for cross in my opinion. the summer i progress up to 80's and hold that for at least a month going into camp. when im hitting 80's i usually go out for 100 mins in hard hilly trails at phillys wissahickon trails. camp we bumb up to 95 miles a week with 110 min long run at a hard pace. after camp i would say we average 80-85 miles a week easily with 110 min long runs early on. a month or so into the season i would say we drop to 15 milers but nothing less than that till championship season. -dI runner

The correlations are not that cut and dried. There are other runners on the team doing them. In fact, there is a direct correlation between our #1 runner (far and away) and the total mileage and the length of their long runs etc etc. In our circumstance, I haven't been here that long and I think that if they hear it from some of their peers at other schools, it will reinforce what I've been saying. So, yes, if they hear of it, it won't just be coming from the coach. I don't like the "well do it because I say so" routine, I like to provide evidence that what I'm having them do will make them faster before the fact. They are a great group of kids and will only get faster when they accumulate mileage.

Thanks for the excerpt from Run With the Best. I have it and can make copies of that page. It's an excellent synopsis. I appreciate the help. It's great to be reminded from time to time isn't it?

Our Women build up to an 80-90 minute run by July and we continue to do them nearly every week throughout the Cross Country season. The younger women and middle distance types usually do 80 minutes while the older women and longer distance types do 90 minutes. Some are in the middle. The total distance is between 10-13 miles depending on the athlete's ability. I don't think that there's any substitute for the strength that you gain from these runs! These runs are sometimes tough for those real low mileage types that come into the program but I still believe in them even if you have to cut back on some other days to keep their mileage down until they are able to do more.

80-90 minutes isn't very long - why so short? Lydiard

recommends 2 to 21/2 hours. At least during the

preseason I would think you would want them running a lot

longer than 80-90 minutes. If running 80-90 minutes is

at all hard, they are simply running to fast and need to

slow down. Running for 2+ hours should not be at all

difficult for anyone in reasonable shape - you don't have

to be doing 100 miles a week, they can easily do this on

50-60 miles a week (or even less).

I have a college athelete (DIII soccer player, not a

runner) who used to hate running long - only wanted to do

speedwork. He never did more than 25-30 miles a week

of pure running. I finally got him to run long once a week

this summer, and once he got over the hump (i.e. realizing that he should just slow down, relax and enjoy it

rather than trying to run it faster to keep it from getting

bored), he was able to build from running 1 hour to near 2

hours within a month. The improvement in his endurance

and speed has been nothing short of amazing.

Excellent point about pace. As a middle distance athlete, I found it hard to slow down and get the proper distance in. I was always worried about losing speed until I came across the research that indicated that the longer runs actually enhance your speed or your ability to carry that speed longer. I tell my athletes who are concerned about the injury factor that it is my belief that it's not mileage that gets you hurt. It's abrupt major jumps in mileage and too much intensity/racing that can get you injured. I appreciate the input everyone is contributing. You just can't get too far from what Coach Lydiard first said about 40+ years ago and be successful in this sport!!

In college, a typical long run for us was 10-12. We did go up to 18. Certainly adequately long for the 400/800 guy that I was. Big jumps? Big deal. My longest run in HS was 7 miles, and I got to the 18 my freshman season of college cross.