Long run, 25% of your weekly mileage?

maybe below 80 miles a week you could pull that off

I guess you could up to 120 really; I've heard of marathoners doing 30 mile long runs, but generally thats probably too high, 18-20% seems about right to me

Makessense wrote:

Malmo,

You gave your opinion on page one. I gave mine above. It's sad that you have to come back and tell me I am wrong, completely wrong.

I am sure there is more than one way - your way - to get faster.

No, it's sad, very sad, that stubborn people promote training philosophies that have caused so many not to come close to reaching their potential. I will weigh in whenever I seen stupid shit being promoted. We don't need to go back to the 90s.

I've spent the winter building up from super casual 25mpw jogging towards 60-70mpw. At 55mpw now, my average Saturday run is 16 miles, though I'll go to 20 miles (very easy pace, HR about 140) to keep friends company.

So this is *way* too much mileage in the long run, then, at about 35% of weekly mileage. Perhaps I should run my weekends at 15/15 instead of 20/10.

I have been reading Malmo's posts since the 90s and the TnFmedia days. It is hilarious how many people have tried to claim it is ok to tell kids how to just get a little faster rather than how to reach their potential.

There are two methods to get a little faster. You can either be a little more consistent or you can vary your intensity from day to day a little more. If you look at what you have done for the last 3 months it is easy to pick one or the other.

To reach your potential, you have to listen to people who have tried to reach theirs.

Well said.

9z8-seh rt,

This sounds interesting and well reasoned but could you please expand/explain further? I am a little slow and would like to make sure I understand

It's also sad that a guy like you has to have such a myopic point of view that you can't see any other options but your own.

Very sad.

Makessense wrote:

It's also sad that a guy like you has to have such a myopic point of view that you can't see any other options but your own.

Very sad.

Ehh.. not really. The difference being that the one-sided view seems to have worked pretty well for many elites, and the other views, well, not so much.

Makessense wrote:

It's also sad that a guy like you has to have such a myopic point of view that you can't see any other options but your own.

Very sad.

If we're talking about malmo, then it's not at all the case that he can't see any other options. Were, say, Henry Rono or Bob Hodge to offer their views in this thread, I expect malmo would carefully consider what they write.

Makessense wrote:

It's also sad that a guy like you has to have such a myopic point of view that you can't see any other options but your own.

Very sad.

My view isn't myopic at all. Yours is.

Putting a disproportionate share of your weekly mileage into one day, when it could have been better allocated over the other 6 days is idiotic.

malmo wrote:

Makessense wrote:

It's also sad that a guy like you has to have such a myopic point of view that you can't see any other options but your own.

Very sad.

My view isn't myopic at all. Yours is.

Putting a disproportionate share of your weekly mileage into one day, when it could have been better allocated over the other 6 days is idiotic.

Aren't you worried that you'll hurt Benji Durden's feelings?

altoroad wrote:

Aren't you worried that you'll hurt Benji Durden's feelings?

Why would I hurt Benji's feelings?

You need rest. You're struggling.

malmo wrote:

altoroad wrote:

Aren't you worried that you'll hurt Benji Durden's feelings?

Why would I hurt Benji's feelings?

You need rest. You're struggling.

No, I'm fine; very easy run today and lots of weekend sleep. As I recall, Durden placed more emphasis on long runs, and it didn't seem idiotic to me. Of course, he was totally oriented to marathon preparation.

altoroad wrote:

No, I'm fine; very easy run today and lots of weekend sleep. As I recall, Durden placed more emphasis on long runs, and it didn't seem idiotic to me. Of course, he was totally oriented to marathon preparation.

It doesn't seem idiotic to me either. Was he running 40 miles a week?

I've gone through this clearly and concisely many times. The long run is the icing on the cake. You shouldn't be making icing if you haven't yet made the cake. Long runs should be proportional to your overall mileage and and to the specific event that you are training for.

No one, especially and beginner, has any reason to be loading 25% of their weekly mileage into one single workout.

I've always put a proportional emphasis on long runs which might partially explain why I'm 2-0 against Benji in marathons.

J.R. wrote:

[quote]dotato wrote:

Rosa Mota's longest training runs stopped at 90 minutes.

What do you read or how do you know that one ?

Wrong. When she did prepare one marathon she did 2hours long run every week. May be you miss the name of the runner. It´s Carlos Lopes that rarely did more than 90min even during the 3 month specific marathon period of training. Antonio Pinto win of 2:06:36 in London 2000, still european record used to do 2h30min on every week independently of he is on 3 month specific marathon period or if he isn´t.

Once again i think you all you try to take your opinion as universal one, but in my opinion it doesn´t exist one single and unique long run pattern.

I´m against long runs except for the marathon. As i understand i share Malmo´s long run opinion, that is very similar to Renato. With the exception of the marathon the long run is useless. Might be that doing the long run isn´t wrong, but it´s not the efficient way to improve the perfromance. If yopui want best benefit double on the day you think about do one single long run. You can get the same mileage, the same avarege pace, and it´s best stimulus.

In "Running with the legends", Michael Sandrock explicitly says that Mota never ran longer than 90 minutes. Guess he was wrong, then.

Has anyone ever come across this website?

http://www.powerrunning.com/Training/Power%20Running%20Training%20Guide%20part%203.htm

That guy emphasizes training load, which makes sense (i.e. a 90 minute training run easy is to be treated the same as a 45 minute hard run).

The guys sounds stupid at times yet as a point, no? I've read a lot about running, and Let's Run is the only place where people seem to only focus on mileage as both a measure and goal of training. I am not disagreeing, just curious about this site mentioned above.

As far as i remember it´s on the same book that says that Lopes did run 90% of his training equals or faster than his marathon pace, what is not true either.

In another earlier post of this same thread Malmo says that Pffifer book contains diffrent training that what he did.

About Rosa long run, it´s the same case. I guess that the author of the Running with the Legends did a questionaire or ask himself in one special occasion or did read from some out source what Rosa used to do as long run. Might be she answered 90min in a quick answer out of the context of the Michael Sandrock context. Imagine that he asks: Rosa what you do as long runs ? She might answered 90min what is not a typical mileage/lenght duration of one long run. But if MIchael would add another question: But what you did during the 3-4 months marathon specific period before every marathon ? She would answer 2:00hours on every week.

What you say from read and what i know as factual testemony it´s the reason why we can´t trust in everything that we read or hear from the others.

malmo wrote:

altoroad wrote:

No, I'm fine; very easy run today and lots of weekend sleep. As I recall, Durden placed more emphasis on long runs, and it didn't seem idiotic to me. Of course, he was totally oriented to marathon preparation.

It doesn't seem idiotic to me either. Was he running 40 miles a week?

I've gone through this clearly and concisely many times. The long run is the icing on the cake. You shouldn't be making icing if you haven't yet made the cake. Long runs should be proportional to your overall mileage and and to the specific event that you are training for.

No one, especially and beginner, has any reason to be loading 25% of their weekly mileage into one single workout.

I've always put a proportional emphasis on long runs which might partially explain why I'm 2-0 against Benji in marathons.

Judicious or fortuitous choice of races might also provide a partial explanation; NYM was by far his worst marathon of 1982, and he rebounded from that rather well.

My point, though, is that I object to your absolute statements, because they're not absolutely correct. Whether I agree or disagree about the long run emphasis is of no interest to you, so I won't bother.