12 months ago - almost to the day - I ran in a 14 Klm "race" . I trained to complete it for around 2 months before the race. did it using a 2/1 run/walk strategy -- I did longruns increasing up to 15 KLm before the race. Most of those seemed to come out at around 8 minutes per kLM and I found them hard - so was surprised when I did the run and averaged 7:30 mins per K and finished much more easily than I thought.
So - now I am training for a HM in 8 weeks time - I want to complete it at the same race pace of 7:30 , figuring that if I did it over 14 Klm last year and do it this year over 21 Klm, I can call that an "improvement" .
I had been intending to do my longruns at around the same training pace og 8:00 - but they seem to be coming out at race pace of 7:30 - so today I did 15 klms at 7:30 - I have to admit that , although the actual run/walking is going OK - quite easy pace- I am feeling the distance!!! I will get my long runs out to 20Klms before the race - but I can see that Jeff Galloway only recommends a longrun every second week. I did them every week last year - but wondering if I should cut them back to fortnightly???
Written by
Bazza1234
Graduate
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I have heard things I've reduced in memory to a vague "Too much of a good thing is bad for you", to the effect that longer runs give diminishing health returns, and increasing wear and tear costs. If you find in the end that you agree with the reasoning behind whatever expert is promoting this view of things (as opposed to the "wear it out; it'll just get better at fixing itself" approach), then why not cross train just to get your general cardio right up? So instead of a long run, do your own private triathlon, with only a little run, a long swim, and a long cycle. (For instance). This, you understand, is from all the expertise I've gathered here in this armchair, on this forum, over the last few weeks.
I think the point I am approaching is not one of lack of cardio ( because I am keeping the run quite easy by using run/walk) - it is more a lack of stamina/endurance. ( endurance being the ability to endure a certain time/distance on our feet - and stamina the ability to endure it at a specified pace) . I am thinking of shooshing the boogyman away - by doing a 21Klm walk next week!!! If I can run/walk 15K, then I should be able to briskly walk 21K?? Then again , when I was training for my 14K run last year, I did a 12 klm casual hike in the mountains and I could hardly stand up for 4 days after that!!
It might be best. You don't want to over-run. There's no need to anyway. I only did the distance once before race day to prove I could do it. Once you've done that you could peg it back
I will be honest my training plan had the long runs every week near the end but I just couldn't do them every week and opted for one every other week as I felt weekly extra long runs was knocking my immune system and I am lucky enough with my thyroid condition I get a sore throat as a precursor to illness, if I take it easy then it keeps it at bay. I always felt that the extra long runs were good in isolation for me but not constantly. But then there was always a big difference In my times to yours a long run for me 17km and was 2 hour 37. A lot of energy to expel.
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