OP - your weekly mileage is 45 mpw. Opinions vary, but a good rule of thumb is that the long run should be 20-25% of your weekly mileage and no more.
At 45 mpw, 20-25% = about 9-11 miles. Aim for about 10 miles and you should be fine. More is too much and as far as I understand will be detrimental over time.
IMHO, if you "reset" your long run as a weekly or biweekly LSD (long slow distance) at a pace 30-60 sec slower than your easy pace, then over time it can become something else. Or, just leave it as an LSD if you are also including regular tempo work.
Sounds simple and doable, right? Let the aerobic benefits accrue over time :)
For races 10k and below, I don't think they're absolutely essential. I think a lot of people who run these distances, only do long runs out of habit or tradition.
Overall volume will produce greater gains than a once a week long run that leaves you wiped.
I know it's only anecdotal, but the Ingebrigtsens rarely run for longer than 75 minutes at any one time.
I'm averaging 52-53 miles a week for the last month and my longest run is 75 minutes, about 9.3 miles. Seems to be working out fine. I'd probably add an extra 15 minutes on if I was targeting anything from HM up. I think any longer and it would be leaving fatigue hanging around for any of my sub threshold workouts, which is where I've found my biggest bang for buck fitness gains.
I always feel lethargic for a couple of days after. In high school I'd probably do 10-12, with 13 very rarely, at an easy (6:30 to 7:30, depending on how I was feeling) pace every week and that was fine. But now I'm running 14-16 at a jogging pace and it leaves me wiped. I only do it every other week, but I find it insanely challenging and I don't think it benefits me anyway - my best workouts and races come off medium mileage with a fast easy pace and good quality.
- hobby jogger: 2:00/4:20/15:00
Try shortening it from time to time to 10-13 but let it be a bit more uptempo. It helps if you train with people, especially if they are slightly better runners than you.
Sounds like you could use them if you don't like them and they wipe you out.
Hydration, nutrition, recovery, possibly missing something in your diet?
Run for time. 90 min-2 hours is usually plenty unless you're training for a marathon.
Haha that's a normal steady run. Long run is 2+ hours IMO.
I'm more a fast twitch type, and I also found longer (which for me was 100 min range) a lot more tiring tiring than track sessions. I've only done about four runs of 2 hours/20 miles in my life (training for two marathons about 30 years ago).
As a 65+ I managed to get on the World Rankings at 3000m with nothing much longer than 8 miles (and that a long interval session). I have state age records for 10k set in my 50s with nothing longer than 100m.
For years in my younger days, the "long" run would be an hour or so in the 6 min/6:30 range.
I would say that for racing up to 5k you could get away with 90 to 100min every two weeks, and then go to 60min for maintenance in the next phase.
This is probably not a popular opinion, but if you are middle-distance with a fast-twitch/big Vo2 max combination, a lot of long runs are going to prove more deleterious than positive.
Ex-collegiate hobby jogger now. I train however I want. If I hate a certain workout I’m not going to do it. I don’t care how “good” the workout is. Something is better than nothing and nothing is bound to happen if you hate it.
Think of it this way: do you like to run? Long runs just mean you get to spend more time doing the thing you love! I love the days that I double for this same reason, that means I get to do my favorite thing in the world not 1x a day but 2x a day!
Sounds like your long runs are a little up-tempo. My rule of thumb is long runs should be done no faster than marathon pace + 60 seconds (as long as it's not designed to be a quality session). Slow down to as much as MP + 120 seconds if you wish. Even if you're a 5K/10K guy, I think a weekly 2-hour long run is critical to training.
I spoke with an D-1 head coach from a very prominent XC program a few years back at an alumni event about this very topic. I won't out the guy.
But if you are focusing on the 5K-10K only, no matter the amount of mileage you run each week, he told me that 15 miles is the maximum you should go. He had a few guys in the 90-100+ range and they never went above 15 on their group long runs.
In fact, he asked me how much mileage I was running each week, which was between 45-50mpw at the time. He paused and and he told me to do two 10 mile long runs during the week along with 2 hard track workouts and 6 mile half marathon pace run (so 3 quality days). I'll post my typical week if you want me to.
I spoke with an D-1 head coach from a very prominent XC program a few years back at an alumni event about this very topic. I won't out the guy.
But if you are focusing on the 5K-10K only, no matter the amount of mileage you run each week, he told me that 15 miles is the maximum you should go. He had a few guys in the 90-100+ range and they never went above 15 on their group long runs.
In fact, he asked me how much mileage I was running each week, which was between 45-50mpw at the time. He paused and and he told me to do two 10 mile long runs during the week along with 2 hard track workouts and 6 mile half marathon pace run (so 3 quality days). I'll post my typical week if you want me to.
Right, that's all in line with what I thought.
I didn’t include everything comprehensively in my above response to OP, since it didn't all apply to OP's situation.
Here's my basic understanding of long run general guidelines:
For 30-60 mpw, up to about 20-25% of your weekly mileage.
Not more than 90 min or 15-16 miles, unless marathon training.
For marathon training, build up to 20-22 miles.
Caveat: Just regurgitating what I have absorbed over the years, not an expert.
Ironically I enjoyed long runs in high school even though they were faster and a bigger percentage of my weekly mileage. I'm currently running 70 with decent easy pace (6:45, give or take a bit) and daily strides, and feel stronger and faster, but true slow paces feel far more difficult for me. I'm probably using more of my fast twitch fibers so my slow twitch ones are underdeveloped, but it's still a challenge.
Maybe I'll hop onto a treadmill to run at a constant slow easy pace.
This description reminded me a bit of the 'famous' Hadd document from his posts on LetsRun, particularly part 3:
Everyone is different, but if running slow feels more difficult for you, maybe you would be a better runner if you spent more time running slow (my feeling is that 6:45 easy pace is on the fast end for someone with your PRs)
I feel that long runs are essential. On a 75 mpw I did one 15 miler/wk. After consistently doing this I felt stronger and stronger. I thought if one is good lets do more. I experimented with it and got up to three 15 milers / wk and did this for about 3 months. (M-W-F) I got so strong that the long run on Friday was usually the easiest. All my times came down. THe 5K was my distance but it even helped me in the mile. That last 400 I felt like a beast! My pace on the long runs was about 6:15-7.00 depending on how I felt.
70-90 minutes should be your long run. The distance will depend on if it’s a recovery run or steady state run. You don’t need two hour long runs unless you’re prepping for the glycogen depletion of a thon. Then it’s your focus run anyway. Does Jakob ever go over 90 minutes? I don’t think he does.
Seems to me that you are just running them too fast. You used to do them at 6:30 but now you are going faster?Get your long run pace up to over 7:00 and you'll probably be fine.
70-90 minutes should be your long run. The distance will depend on if it’s a recovery run or steady state run. You don’t need two hour long runs unless you’re prepping for the glycogen depletion of a thon. Then it’s your focus run anyway. Does Jakob ever go over 90 minutes? I don’t think he does.
Jakob states that never in his life has he run longer than 20k. NEVER.