cpaiglesias wrote:
michael t. smith
Your advise if good. I think you hit the nail with your observation about me needing more speed endurance.
However, if I didn't run long runs over two hours, I would be running long runs of only 16 miles. You are saying that long runs of over 16 miles would be counterproductive? If I were doing long runs @6:00 per mile, I would agree but not at 7:30.
I always had much better luck with a marathon-pace, (or, if hilly, marathon effort, 16-miler than with 20-mile plus runs. Recovery was a matter of 48 hours, rather than a week.
As Parker puts it, correctly, I think, a 2-hour plus run is not a training run, but a depletion run, which depletes your glycogen stores, which, much like a marathon,will require extended recovery, thus compromising the next week or so of training, and courting injury.
I'm not of the school that thinks you have to rehearse the entire marathon experience to succeed at it. You need to systematically build you aerobic engine, which includes enough easy running to teach your body to burn fat and glycogen simultaneously, then build your pace endurance, and make sure you toe the line with plenty of glycogen aboard.
I was a 2:46 marathoner whose 10-week buildup typically totaled 650 miles, including a 36-mile final week, and last four or five weeks (when emphasis included speed endurance) incorporated a planned off day.
My best mile was 4:59, my best 800m was 2:17, and I never broke 60 for 400m, facts I mention just to emphasize that I didn't bring much that commonly passes for natural running talent to the task.
A typical daily run was about 11 miles @ about 7 min/mile in training shoes.
So, try doing a long run of two hours at 7:15 pace rather than 7:30. A 20 mile run at half a minute or more slower than race pace at best would develop your areobic base, which I think is already adequate, while depleting glycogen. A two-hour effort @ something closer to marathon effort would build pace endurance. You have enough pure endurance to get through the distance; what you want now is training that will help you get through the distance comfortably at your desired pace.