Anything wrong with 2HR runs 2-3x a week if Heart Rate is kept low (140-150)?

Bob Deines training was 2 hour jogs everyday and would jog 4-6 hours on Sunday or Saturday. Ended up getting fourth at the 68 Olympic trials and setting a American record for 50 miles.

Heart rate is not an end all, it can drift upward later in a run, especially in warmer conditions. It should be used as a marker for one of the turn points (lactate or ventilatory), if you get tested for them, of which there are two each and they are reasonably closely related. The first turn point a lot of people equate to aerobic threshold and the second turn point is tempo pace for runners. They vary with each person, so running a certain percent of maximal heart rate may put you over or above one of the threshold and could be too easy or too hard depending on your training intensions for that run. Find a good local health club that tests for them and paid the cash and get the testing done, then you can base your training on known heart rate and running pace. Retest a couple of months later, particularly as you feel better, those turn points will improve to faster paces.

At 28 years old, you might be right around your first turn point or just over it, depending on your fitness. If that is the case, physiologically, based on what Hadd seems to be recommending, you might want to slow down a bit if wanting to training easy and long. Running faster on hard days is the key, recovering by keeping the easy days easy will help with that. Go read the NAU and Galen Rupp Chicago threads.

In 2013, I got on a roll of doing ~15+ miles every time I left the house. For the prob 5-6 weeks. After the first couple of 15s, I did 17-18.

HOWEVER, I only did 2-3 runs per week.

So I think during this stretch, the most I ever did was like 52 miles in a week.

17, off, 18, off, off, 17, off

Oh, forgot to add, felt completely fine. Didn’t even feel very fatigued from one run to the next.

As mentioned above, do be wary of cardiac drift - it happens regardless of fitness level. Also, heart-rate is susceptible to many other factors, such as temperature, humidity, how stressed you are, how much sleep you've had... etc.

Your values of 140-145, do they equate to a certain percentage of your max? You should be looking for something around 70%.

Previously, running just slower over 5k than you but a faster HM, I was running 15mi in a 2hr run - and that was an average of ~73% Max HR (maximum for me is ~210 bpm)

Another thing, if you're gonna pay attention to HR, then make sure you're using a chest strap. Wrist-based HRMs are not nearly as good.

Ed Whitlock ran 4 to 5 x 3 hour runs a week and strung 20 days of 3 hrs together. This was at age 73 leading up to his 2.54. He ran them very slowly.

Old school Lydiard base had you doing a 2hr and 2.5hr run weekly. I used to do something similar. Like anything it’s all about progession and experience. What’s hard to do now will be easier to do later and you build on that.

Alan