Can we do 2 hour runs more than once per week?

But Deek (Rob de Castella) was a world class marathon runner.

Forest Gump again wrote:

You need to get faster before you run more mileage. And just running more miles won't get you faster.

A very common mistake.

I started out as a hobby jogger(still am by letsrun standards). 45 minutes for 10k my first month of training. Which was just going out jogging 7-9 miles a day. Often walking a lot of it.

Than I slowly progressed to 10 miles a day and my 10k dropped to 39 minutes.

Now I do about 12 miles a day( give or take a few miles depending if I double or just do one easy jog of six miles), usually a two hour long run on Sunday. Mostly just focusing on mileage my 10k time has lowered by almost ten minutes over the course of a few years.

Malmø (George Malley) always state that long runs are important, but the other stuff is even more important, so to get faster you must run faster.

Get spring in your steps instead of slugging away. When you have got faster, then think about longer durations.

I was where you are now 3 years ago. Now my easy runs are at 6 minutes/km (9:40/mile).

you are fake news wrote:

Forest Gump again wrote:

You need to get faster before you run more mileage. And just running more miles won't get you faster.

A very common mistake.

I started out as a hobby jogger(still am by letsrun standards). 45 minutes for 10k my first month of training. Which was just going out jogging 7-9 miles a day. Often walking a lot of it.

Than I slowly progressed to 10 miles a day and my 10k dropped to 39 minutes.

Now I do about 12 miles a day( give or take a few miles depending if I double or just do one easy jog of six miles), usually a two hour long run on Sunday. Mostly just focusing on mileage my 10k time has lowered by almost ten minutes over the course of a few years.

Forest Gump is wrong, but you're not quite right. It depends.

The OP is clearly running a bunch already if he's thinking about doing multiple 2 hour runs per week--but he's running at HALF the speed of a typical LetsRunner!

OP, keep running the amount that you are, but introduce three things:

1) If you're not already doing strides, do them 1x/week. 4 x 100m at about 5 min/km pace, with a minute or so rest. This shouldn't be a workout.

2) Choose one "normal" run a week, and try making it slightly faster each week. If you're going 8 min/km right now, try dropping say 5 sec/km each week. After a few weeks, you may only be able to drop a couple seconds/km each week, but the goal is that in a few months you'll be running 7 min/km for this run.

3) After a month or two, if 1) and 2) aren't tiring you out, take one of your runs and turn it into a "cruise interval" workout. Do a warmup, then do 5 x 1 km with 1 min rest "fast, but easy". Don't overdo it: maybe do 7 min/km the first time, and if that's not too bad, get faster the next week. Would be great to see you at 6 min/km on this workout; that would show you've increased your fitness.

Remember to go slow, and come back on here in a few months!

Ok so the concensus so far is yes it is ok to do multiple long runs per week, but the better advice would be to increase speed instead. Ok point taken, I think I shall proceed with adding a speed day.

Hopefully I will be able to complete a full marathon by next year when I turn 42. 42km at the age of 42. Haha.

Oliver is my son wrote:

Ok so the concensus so far is yes it is ok to do multiple long runs per week, but the better advice would be to increase speed instead. Ok point taken, I think I shall proceed with adding a speed day.

Hopefully I will be able to complete a full marathon by next year when I turn 42. 42km at the age of 42. Haha.

It seems you can handle the amount of time on the road (that is always the difficult part), and beware of injurys when you start the speedwork, nonetheless it is important.

You may also do intervals a bit igloi-type, as in you find your goal pace for next years marathon, and then you run 150 meter in that tempo, then slow down or walk, then 150 meter in the desired tempo, this way you teach your muscles the pace, with all the kilometers you put in already and with the extra kilometers you add in the spring I think you will be fine also aerobically.

I will do a sprint triathlon and a 10 k when I am 60 in two years time,

42 years

after my last competition :-)

Oliver is my son wrote:

Medical: spontaneous pneumothorax and prone to having bulae in my lungs. I think the size of my lungs are smaller than others as a result.

I'm currently training 5 days a week. Almost entirely on slow jogs. When time and health permit I average 45-50 km /week

What does your doctor think about increasing the length of your runs?

Am I the only one thinking I have never come across a 41 year old who types lol or haha in every thing they write? I'm saying troll and I'd guess you are late teens or early 20's!

If you aren't trolling then I hope you don't usually communicate in this way!

Of course you can run more than once 2 hour run (+) in the week , but it makes no sense if you aim to reach your very best results in running. Only if you want just to reduce weight and feel good at often run long and collect" junk mileage".

Yes, you can do them everyday. Last summer I did over 200 miles in a week, with most runs at 3 hours.

Oliver is my son wrote:

[quote]Dur wrote:

oh im under the impression that in order to improve in running i gotta run more. haha.

a 30k run for me would take 4 hours. i also read that one shouldnt train for more than 3 hours a day because the gain is too minimal.

Have i been reading too much? i do like running(jogging actually)

I'd advise you not to do 2 hour runs if you're running that slowly. Improve your speed first. Cut your runs back to 30 minutes x 6 days a week + 45 minutes one day. Think about how fast you are running within that 30 minutes, first 5 minutes warming up and building your speed to a strong aerobic pace, last 5 minutes slowing down. Run to feel each day, some days will be faster, some slower. Take walking breaks if you need to. You will improve if you consistently do this over a number of months. When you can comfortably run 5k in that 30 minutes then think about building those minutes up. First to 45 minutes a day, then 60 minutes a day.

Oliver is my son wrote:

Hey why are ppl saying this isn't a serious post lol. I've a friend same age as me who is slower ok!

I'm just a really unfit noob who caught the running bug, and I've my mind set on completing a full marathon next year hopefully.

Appreciate any advice to help me reach that goal and many more to come haha.

Unset your mind to the idea of completing a marathon next year. Have a goal of becoming a better and faster runner. After 5 years of running, then think about building up to the marathon, but not if you don't want to run a slow one.

Another giver of +1 wrote:

Unset your mind to the idea of completing a marathon next year. Have a goal of becoming a better and faster runner. After 5 years of running, then think about building up to the marathon, but not if you don't want to run a slow one.

Exactly right. Be a better runner first before your first Marathon. These days too many beginner runners aim too early towards Marathon. Not a good idea, if you want to stay away from injuries.

Thanks everyone for the constructive feedback. Really appreciate reading them. Definitely going to consider adding faster workouts before worrying about adding mileage.

Regarding marathon next year, well I dunno, I'm not getting any younger and if I'm gonna do it it better be soon. Not sure what to expect deeper into ages 40s, do ppl get better in this age group?

Oliver is my son wrote:

Thanks everyone for the constructive feedback. Really appreciate reading them. Definitely going to consider adding faster workouts before worrying about adding mileage.

Regarding marathon next year, well I dunno, I'm not getting any younger and if I'm gonna do it it better be soon. Not sure what to expect deeper into ages 40s, do ppl get better in this age group?

People have done the first marathon when they were in their 60ies.

A proper build up is actually a lot more important than your age.

And to answer your question, yes runners can get better in their 40ies if they just started running. Actually they can improve quite a bit over time. If you are patient and don't overtrain you can achieve a lot more than you think you can in the next 10 years.