Did I overdo it with this long run?

FastNash wrote:

Dude I have the same problem. On most of my long or easy runs I'll find myself surging up to 5:50. It's typically better for you to keep out of injury to run between 6:15-6:45 on easy runs no matter how good your fitness is. I learned it the hard way and got ITBS from it and it sucked.

Humblebragger meets the one-upper.

Unless you know his fitness relative to yours (e.g. PRs) you can't say what is too fast for a long run.

12 miles isn't a long run

Top 30 in my state, and my teammates are both in the top 50. 12 miles is indeed a long run, as we are 60 mpw runners(one is 65 mpw). In reality, more than 12 miles for a 5k is absolutely useless and the quality is deteriorated.

If your tempo pace is only 5:55 for that distance then yes 6:30s and 6:15 is too fast. Try plugging in some of your recent times into McMillan running calculator and that will give you a good idea of paces you should be running.

Jergins wrote:

Top 30 in my state, and my teammates are both in the top 50. 12 miles is indeed a long run, as we are 60 mpw runners(one is 65 mpw). In reality, more than 12 miles for a 5k is absolutely useless and the quality is deteriorated.

"more than 12 miles for a 5k is absolutely useless" is a pretty bold statement to make unless you have some factual evidence to prove that. Also that kind of mindset is exactly why you will only stay top 30 in the state.

UYFB wrote:

NikeSucks wrote:

Considering you tempo only 20 sec faster per mile yes, and 12 miles is not a long run.

For 60/week, 12 is a long run.

No, 12 miles is a normal training run for 60 mile week. 15 or more would be a long run.

If your tempos are at 5:55 and your easy days are at 6:30 you are not training correctly. I would recommend a wider time gap between those two. If 6:30 is legitimately a recovery pace then your tempos should be at least 20-30 seconds faster than 5:55.

Also, to answer your question, if 6:30 is an easy run effort then a long run of 12 miles should not be a problem at 6:15 pace. In reality you should be able to comfortably do a 12 mile long run at 5:50-5:55 if 6:30 is easy.

At this point you are either way under-trained or are running your easy days too hard and your harder days are suffering.

This is for the purpose of the point of course, but I think top 30 as a junior isn't to be scoffed at. If you think more than 12 miles for 60 miles a week isn't frivolous, I'm not sure what factual evidence you're looking at. If you're looking at a 14 mile long run when your other runs are much shorter, it'll be hard to hold a fast pace for that long, and the pace will inevitably slow. Half the argument against mileage as high as 60 a week in highschool is that miles become low quality, and a 14 mile long run proves it when it's too difficult to hold a long run pace for that long--the pace shouldn't feel like hell, but all the same it shouldn't be slow, and so 12 is a happy medium for 60 a week.

Source: I run 60 miles a week and have run more than 12 mile long runs on many occasions, to a consistent result of a crappy pace for the last several miles. I know no other highschoolers in my state, where the top runners know eachother, that do more than 13 miles for a long run.

Longer than 12 is a fine way to burn out.

Thank you for all the replies. I've been plugging away