What is the longest run you did in preparation for a marathon?

I used Hanson's as well.

Did about17 miles and seemed to work well for me.

ThonTraining wrote:

Before my first marathon (2:47) the longest run I did was 17 miles. Hanson's Project does a 16 mile long run. Many people think the magic number is 20 miles. Let's hear what everyone else has done.

10 miles

2:58:47

It should depend somewhat on your total volume. This cycle I'm topping out at just over 100 mpw and have two 23 milers on the schedule (subject to change). So far my longest has been 21. If I were doing less volume I'd cut down the long run somewhat.

I've run 11 marathons, have a pr of 2:53. My past four training cycles, which resulted in 2:53, 2:59, 3:02 and 3:06, I ran a 27 miler. Felt like it really helped during the later miles of the thon, and mentally knowing I've gone the distance in practice. A lot of people think I'm crazy for going that far, but after a few cycles with the 27 miler thrown in, I tend to think you're crazy if you don't go that far.

Usually a few 20-milers and one 23-mile long run, no matter how low my average weekly mileage (most recently 20 mpw in 2016 and 40 mpw in 2017 -- marathons were 3:25 and 3:07).

During the 10 weeks prior to my PR marathon, I included two 26-milers at marathon pace. Average mileage was 42 mpw (2:40 marathon). Maybe because of my low mileage, or maybe despite it, my fitness seems to get a huge boost from even a single long run.

ThonTraining wrote:

Before my first marathon (2:47) the longest run I did was 17 miles. Hanson's Project does a 16 mile long run. Many people think the magic number is 20 miles. Let's hear what everyone else has done.

Haven't run one, but might hit 20 a couple times this spring in my first buildup.

Your post suggests you did other marathons after that. What did you do different for those long runs?

Go Long wrote:

I've run 11 marathons, have a pr of 2:53. My past four training cycles, which resulted in 2:53, 2:59, 3:02 and 3:06, I ran a 27 miler. Felt like it really helped during the later miles of the thon, and mentally knowing I've gone the distance in practice. A lot of people think I'm crazy for going that far, but after a few cycles with the 27 miler thrown in, I tend to think you're crazy if you don't go that far.

How many miles per week were you running at the time? Honestly just wondering. It would be tough to pull this off doing 70 mile weeks I'd think, recovery wise.

50k

Go Long wrote:

I've run 11 marathons, have a pr of 2:53. My past four training cycles, which resulted in 2:53, 2:59, 3:02 and 3:06, I ran a 27 miler.

It is crazy. There is no benefit, for any distance, to run more than 2:50-3:00 at a time. Even the ultra guys would split up a run longer than that with a meal and nap to make it a two-a-day.

My longest training run was 2:45 (26 miles) The elites that do 30 miles long runs are under 3:00 for the training run.

ThonTraining wrote:

Before my first marathon (2:47) the longest run I did was 17 miles. Hanson's Project does a 16 mile long run. Many people think the magic number is 20 miles. Let's hear what everyone else has done.

Hanson's is a great beginners program, and a 2:47 is a solid debut. There isn't a magic number, but you could likely drop some time with more training, and a 20 mile long run would be a great start for your next marathon.

Sara Palin wrote:

Go Long wrote:

I've run 11 marathons, have a pr of 2:53. My past four training cycles, which resulted in 2:53, 2:59, 3:02 and 3:06, I ran a 27 miler.

It is crazy. There is no benefit, for any distance, to run more than 2:50-3:00 at a time. Even the ultra guys would split up a run longer than that with a meal and nap to make it a two-a-day.

My longest training run was 2:45 (26 miles) The elites that do 30 miles long runs are under 3:00 for the training run.

This is good to take note off. It's probably better to run for time than distance in my opinion. Ideally the distance would increase over that time frame.

3:10, longest was a 3 hour long run, last 15 min at thon pace.

Go Long wrote:

I've run 11 marathons, have a pr of 2:53. My past four training cycles, which resulted in 2:53, 2:59, 3:02 and 3:06, I ran a 27 miler. Felt like it really helped during the later miles of the thon, and mentally knowing I've gone the distance in practice. A lot of people think I'm crazy for going that far, but after a few cycles with the 27 miler thrown in, I tend to think you're crazy if you don't go that far.

Your approach is similar to what we saw marathoners of the 1970s do for the most part and I totally tend to agree with that approach. Those on here saying the furthest they ran was 10, 16, 17 and such probably had previously ran much further in training at some point.

I do have a close friend that ran one in 3:09 and his wife claims he did that on zero training. Of course he was a 2 x All-American in the 800 meter run at the DIII level. He wound up being injured for a couple years!

One is not doing the 27 miler to peak for a marathon. You do it for the callousing which is lost on many modern runners. My longest run is 20 miles but I have never run a marathon and I almost certainly never will. Heck my event was the 1500/mile and I ran 12 and 15 miles on a regular basis at my peak. The thing that gets at me is people attempting to run a marathon within six months of doing nothing but couch-sitting. I don't doubt that you could do it, but why Petri, why?

I ran three marathons between 2:43 and 2:48 in the course of six months. My longest runs were 22-23 miles.

The only time I ever ran more than 26.2 was when I made a wrong turn during a marathon (not one of my faster ones) and ended up running about 26.7 miles.

Never ran more than a couple miles before my first 'thon. 2:35. I did play a lot of soccer tho.

I am planning on doing my first marathon about 3 months from now and my longest run so far has been 18.5 miles last Saturday. I just decided to run for two hours at a comfortable pace, and that's what it ended up being. Had enough left in me for some more miles, but 2 hours was enough at this stage.

No clue what my longest run in preparation will be, maybe just jog around on the trails for three hours and see what the GPS tells me. I really want to understand what it feels like to push into the mid-20s for a run before the actual race.

I did a100 miler 3 weeks before my last marathon. For some reason I didn’t get a PR during the marathon.

20 miles was longest training run....did it once.

3 hour marathon...hit the wall at 20 miles....started walking, running, walking, running, for the next 4.2 miles, then adrenaline kicked in, and ran the last two miles. There were km markers on the course, and I measured close to 5k of walking in that walk/run stretch.

Normally 16 is my longest

I’ve run mid 2:30