Should long run be the first, middle or last run of the week?

Depends what you consider the first day of the week. If my week starts Monday, I prefer my long run to be the last day of the training week. If my week starts Sunday, I like to start with the long run

If you are training continuously over a series of weeks then it doesn't matter when one week ends and the next one starts. Lots of people I know do long runs on Saturday or Sunday because that's when they have time.

Is this a trick question?

Weeks don’t “end.” Your body does not reset every 7 days.

What I do is just keep a spreadsheet log of my last 7 days of training as well as my last 30 days. If I feel like it’s time to do a longer run, I do it. If it feels like I need more threshold or speed work, I do that.

It doesn’t matter.

A week is a social construct just like freedom of speech or the human right to housing.

Sdfdsa wrote:

Depends what you consider the first day of the week. If my week starts Monday, I prefer my long run to be the last day of the training week. If my week starts Sunday, I like to start with the long run

Everyone knows God rested on the seventh day Sunday. First day of the week is Monday. No one in their right mind runs long on a Monday.

militant vegan wrote:

Sdfdsa wrote:

Depends what you consider the first day of the week. If my week starts Monday, I prefer my long run to be the last day of the training week. If my week starts Sunday, I like to start with the long run

Everyone knows God rested on the seventh day Sunday. First day of the week is Monday. No one in their right mind runs long on a Monday.

What? Monday is a popular long run day. I do all of mine on Monday, and Tinman also recommended it.

Since most races happen on the weekend (Saturday/Sunday), an ideal schedule is:

Mo - LR

Tu - Easy

Wed - Workout

Th - Easy

Fr - Easy

Sat - Workout

Sun - Easy

If Saturday is a race - perfect, no changes needed.

If Sunday is a race - make Saturday easy, and keep the Monday long run easy and relaxed. Again, no changes needed.

Doing LRs on either Saturday or Sunday forces runners to change their schedules on race weeks. Saturday long run? Not great if you have a race on Sunday. Sunday long run? A Sunday long run forces runners into a Tuesday-Friday workout schedule (if they want to have 2 easy days between workouts), which means Sunday Race -> Monday LR (replacement) -> Tuesday workout, again not an ideal schedule. Also, a Monday LR can be kept 52 weeks of the year, whereas the Sunday LR would need to be postponed if there is a Sunday race.

Many elites do their long runs on Monday, the main drawback is really just that many people have more time on Sunday or like to do long runs with groups which is both easier to do on a Sunday, but for an ideal day Monday is probably the best.

Another advantage of the Monday long run is that it's a day of low traffic. If you like running on busy trails, on a Monday it will be almost empty whereas on a Sunday you will encounter hundreds up to thousands of people, cyclists and dogs depending on the area. Doing LR on Monday is much more relaxing and enjoys you to enjoy the nature more.

Pointless to rigidly assign workouts to a certain day of the week.

militant vegan wrote:

Sdfdsa wrote:

Depends what you consider the first day of the week. If my week starts Monday, I prefer my long run to be the last day of the training week. If my week starts Sunday, I like to start with the long run

Everyone knows God rested on the seventh day Sunday. First day of the week is Monday. No one in their right mind runs long on a Monday.

Ummmm..... Ever read Running With the Buffalos????

Bizarre troll question. 3/10

I think the longer the race distance the more important the LR is. So putting it on a Monday or Tuesday is a great idea. I also don’t believe in an easy LR. If you like to race a lot on the weeks such as 5k/10ks that can be your speed training for the half/full marathon. So weekends with no race you can do CV or VO2max work etc. So Monday LR workout, Thursday recommend hill workout and Saturday Race or Workout

I know this is 3 years old, but how does anyone miss Sunday being the 1st day of the week, and Saturday is the 7th day.

I know this is 3 years old, but how does anyone miss Sunday being the 1st day of the week, and Saturday is the 7th day.

What if, ohmygawd, you did 8 day cycles?!

All the above

90 minutes to 2 hours three times a week

M- 90’

T- 60’ + A-lactic Sprints

W- Big Threshold Workout

T- 90’

F- 60’ + A-lactic Sprints

S- 2 Hours Steady State

S- 60’ or off

Sprinkle some 30 minute shakeout runs and core work throughout the week. You’ll be unstoppable!

Call it what you like. I used to run with my calendar going Sunday to Sat. Races would be the last day of the week and then I'd start the week with a long run to get some mileage from the get go. Physiologically it doesn't matter though.

At another time from above, I had enough time to do long runs Monday or mid week (grad school when I could structure my training how I liked). I treated the long run like a workout and recovered after saturday races with an easy run sunday. I felt like I got more out of this training than day after race long runs, but unfortunately, outside of maybe summer and possibly may/june its not possible with the time constraints of being a 9-5 worker bee, unless you're willing to do your long runs mostly in the dark (I like driving somewhere fun and seeing nature on my long runs). Rare holiday weekends, I'll do long runs monday sometimes.

If you're not training for a marathon then you don't need to do a long run. 10 miles will suffice.

When I'm on 10 day cycle the long run can be anywhere like quantum physics.