Do people that run 140 miles a week follow the 20% long run rule?

20% of your singles mileage.

100 in singles, 40 more in doubles? 20 mile long run.

75 in singles, 25 more in doubles? 15 mile long run.

What if it's more like 80 in singles + 60 in doubles?

This person should do a 16 mile long run?

It depends what you're training for. Simplistic rules like 20% don't really apply anymore.

Running the 5k? You probably don't need a long run more than 15 or 16 miles. 10k? Maybe you can push that up to 18, though personally that's the absolute max I would do. You're training to race for 30 minutes, no need to go over 2 hours in a training run. You're not really trying to teach your body to burn fat and run slow.

Running a half-marathon? You can probably go about 20 or so, maybe a little more, but again, it's a one-hour race, where you probably won't run out of fuel so why push it too far in practice?

Marathons, on the other hand ... I've got nothing against a 30-mile long run. Maybe not every week, but alternating 20, 30, or something.

I've always heard the 20% rule (or 25%, or 30%) was a max limit. So, yes, I think they stick to that rule.

I've read of the occasional elite doing an occasional run over the marathon distance, but those examples seem to be the exception, and definitely not the norm. Depending on how fast the are, most I've seen cap their long runs between 2-2.5 hours in duration. Longer than that rarely pop up, and definitely not on a weekly basis.

Most elite training logs I've seen seem to max the long run at 22-24 miles. Many of them seemed to rotate a long steady run (22-24 miles) with a shorter, faster effort (MP, or progression, etc..) of 16-18 miles.

Thanks for the input. I mostly agree. And I'm more interested in 5k-10k training than marathon training.

ian edwards wrote:

Thanks for the input. I mostly agree. And I'm more interested in 5k-10k training than marathon training.

Forgot you were interested in the the 5k-10k. The 5k one I have in front of me (only 100mpw), has a longer long run in the base phase of 15-20. That is done at "easy" pace, and there are 3 other days of moderate & moderate/hard runs of 10-15 miles or fartlek throughout the week.

Then, as they introduce more speed/anaerobic they cut the long run to 15 miles and at the most intense part of the cycle have 4 moderate/hard days (3 interval'ish days, some short, some long, and 1 10-mile moderate/hard run). The long run remains at "easy" pace throughout.

Once the key races begin, the long run drops as low as 10 miles.

10k progression is more like 120 mpw, and long run is 18-22 in base, and never drops lower than 18 miles until tapering for goal race. Long run done at easy pace, and moderate or moderate/hard efforts used for the shorter, medium-length runs of 10-15 miles.

I run 130-140 miles. I keep my long runs 22-24 with 2 or 3 workouts per week.

Thanks observer.

And Nappy, what do you consider a workout?

[quote]another grasshopper wrote:

Running a half-marathon? ,it's a one-hour race, where you probably won't run out of fuel so why push it too far in practice?

quote]

You lost me here. Are you having a personal conversation with Ryan at this point in your post?

ive always done... wrote:

20% of your singles mileage.

100 in singles, 40 more in doubles? 20 mile long run.

75 in singles, 25 more in doubles? 15 mile long run.

While I've never done that much, I have run somewhat long blocks of 110-120 a week and this what I always did. I found this worked well since it let me get high mileage but didn't crush me every sunday because I was doing about 17 instead of 22-23 in high heat/humidity.

I didn't. My standard long run was 17-20 miles whether I was doing 150 or 70-90.

Why even worry about a "long run"?