I've been running so much mileage that i don't even feel 20 milers anymore. They don't make me that sore and they don't feel hard. As long as you're conditioned, will a 20 mile long run every week lead to longer recovery from workouts later in the week?
lydiard had all his runners (800-marathon) do a 22 miler once a week year round, way back when new zealand was great in distance running. one thing it did was make workouts like 6 x 1 mile, 20 x 400 etc. seem short so the runner could run the reps faster than a runner who only went 12-15 miles for a long run which makes the 6 x 1 mile, 20 x 400 workouts seem like an endurance effort the runner had to survive the final reps, where the first athlete did not go into it thinking it as long but only on going hard.
there is a LOT more good things that can come with a weekly long run, i just gave 1 example.
Well..they didn't ALL run 22 miles, ALL year round. All of them did it sometimes. Or a few times, at least.
I have definitely noticed that the perception of distance changes, i.e. 6x1 mile feels like less of a test of endurance. The last few reps become less "survival" and actually more tactical, i.e. how to pace to run fast when it gets hard. thanks for bringing up that example!
Lydiard had his athletes run around 100 miles per week and run the long runs including the 22 miler steady, not slow.
LSD means Long Steady Distance. He prescribed the occassional long slow runs for a very specific purpose, but generally speaking it was strong in pace.
Now I can't say (maybe HRE or Kim Stevenson or someone wants to answer) if the change of the perception of shorter runs and workouts were part of the reason for running long.
I do know that he had the athletes maximize their aerobic capacity through running 3 long runs per week during the marathon phase and that was the primary purpose:
Capillarization, grow the heart, mitochondria development...etc. Perhaps the next reason was the adaptation of using stored glycogen.
Muscular strength and coordination came later, that was not tackled during the aerobic phase so much. It was about becoming stacked with stamina.
So when you raced an event, you had the aerobic capacity to run strong and in middle distance events, you had something left to finish with a sprint, while athletes who were not as aerobically conditioned began to tie up.
These are not 'perception' oriented benefits, but real cardio-vascular strength benefits.
How would you define "steady"?