High School Long Run question?

are you a newfie by chance?

4:14- 1600m9:03- 3200mI'm not terrible if that's what you're implying.

sfsdfdf wrote:

are you a newfie by chance?

I was doing 90 min long runs in HS, that was approx. 20% of my weekly mileage. My suggestion would be to go the 20%-25% route because then it will fluxuate as you fluxuate and build up your mileage. Especially with those times, you probably can handle longer than 90min long runs. But you know yourself better than anyone who will post here.

u should be running post-season still with times like that

boykid11 wrote:

4:14- 1600m

9:03- 3200m

I'm not terrible if that's what you're implying.

sfsdfdf wrote:

are you a newfie by chance?

hyurba flashdng dong wrote:

u should be running post-season still with times like that

boykid11 wrote:

4:14- 1600m

9:03- 3200m

I'm not terrible if that's what you're implying.

My last race was Saturday.

boykid11 wrote:

I've read from sources that your long run should be 20% of your weekly mileage. From other sources, I've read that 25% is ideal. Still, Greg McMillan suggests to high school athletes to build up to a 90 minute long run no matter what you do on your other days. Can anyone make some sense out of this. Also, do I run it weekly. Every other week? Only during my base? Throughout the entire season? Do I ever drop the long run? And how about coaches preference. During xc, my coach had our team run 45-60 minutes on Sundays while I ran 90 minutes behind his back.

So what are your guys' thoughts?

Check out some training logs from elite runners. Steve Scott (miler):

Alberto Salazar (training for 10k XC):

George Malley (10k XC):

George Malley (steeple/5k):

I haven't included Bill Rodger's log, Greg Meyers, Malley's 1985 log since that is all marathon training, and that's different. But the logs of Scott, Salazar, and collegiate Malley should offer some insight.

Scott's long runs - looks like a lot of 10 mile runs, occasionally some 15 mile runs. Obviously he's not sticking to any rule like 20% or 25% like you are asking about.

Salazar - over 10 weeks, averaged 99 miles per week, with long runs of 13,11,13,14,14,13,15,12,12. Obviously not going by some 20 or 25% rule.

Malley 10k XC - again, no strict rules. Looks like 10, 15, 16, 14, 10, whatever.

Malley steeple/5k - more of the same. 15, 11, 14, 17, 11, 10, 12, 17, whatever.

So the answer is, to quote George Malley directly - "Long runs are the least important aspect of training. So unimportant, that you could get away with not doing them at all if you wanted." and "for most people the long run has become so sacrosanct that they get it in at the expense of every thing else, when they'd be much better off concentrating on the other six days of the week and making that 7th day more proportional to their overall mileage."