Long Run: How Long, How Fast and How to Progress

What a long run is and what it is for

A long run is an easy run with more duration. It is not a fast session or a test: it is the outing in which you spend the most time running in the week, at the same comfortable effort as your other runs.

It serves to get you used to being on your feet longer and to learn to pace your effort. If you are still not clear on the idea of easy pace, it is explained in what pace to run your easy runs at.

What pace to run it at

The pace is that of an easy run. Three guidelines sum it up:

• An effort of 3 or 4 out of 10 and the ability to speak in full sentences. How to gauge that effort is in perceived effort in running.
• First 10 minutes a bit slower than your body asks for. The feeling of being in great shape at the start is misleading.
• If you need to walk for a moment, do it. A long run with pauses is still a long run.

Distance depends on your easy pace, so it is better to measure the session by time. For example, 50 minutes is 6 kilometers if your easy pace is 8:20 per km, and 8 kilometers if it is 6:15. Both runners do the same session.

The three parts of a 50-minute long run

Splitting the session into stretches helps you not overdo it at the start:

• Minutes 0 to 10: slower than your body asks for. It is the stretch where you are most tempted to go fast.
• Minutes 10 to 40: steady effort of 3 or 4 out of 10, with calm breathing.
• Minutes 40 to 50: just as easy as the rest. If you feel good, hold the pace; there is no need to speed up to finish.

How long it should be

There is no single duration. It depends on your level, your goal and how many days you run. With three running days a week, the longest session goes on the day you have the most time, as explained in how many days a week to run.

This is the long run progression in the 10K training plan for beginners (in Spanish):

Notice how it goes up. The usual increases are about 5 minutes, and each duration is repeated for at least a week before going up again. The +15 minute jump in week 5 looks big, but it comes after a deload: compared with the last normal week, week 3, which was 45 minutes, it is only 5 minutes more. To check how you are doing every few weeks, the tests in how to measure your running progress will help.

How to increase the duration without overdoing it

• Go up a little, about 5 minutes at a time.
• Repeat the duration before going up again.
• Come down once in a while. A deload week, like weeks 4 and 8 of the plan, is part of the progression.
• Change one thing at a time: either the duration or the pace. Never both at once.
• Measure by time, not by kilometers.

How to fit it into your week

• Put it on the day you have the most time. In the plan, Saturday.
• Arrive with a calm day before. In the plan, Friday is full rest and Thursday is an easy run.
• Do not put a hard session right before. For example, avoid a fartlek the day before.
• If you do not run three days, the principle is the same: the longest outing, at an easy pace, with an easy day before.

How much it weighs in the week

In the plan, the long run is the longest session, but not the only one. In week 7, with 130 minutes of running (45, 35 and 50), the 50-minute outing is 38% of the total. In week 8, with 100 minutes (30, 25 and 45), the 45-minute one is 45%. In week 9, with 95 minutes (35, 25 and 35), the 35-minute one is 37%. That is, between 37% and 45% of the week. Use it as a reference, not as a rule.

What to do if you do not reach the duration

It can happen that one day your long run does not reach the duration that is due. It is not a failure: there are several ways to handle it.

1. Run what you can at an easy pace. If today calls for 50 minutes and you reach 38 at a comfortable effort, those 38 minutes are your long run for that week. Next week, repeat that duration instead of trying to make up for it.
2. Split the time with walks. For example, 5 repetitions of 8 minutes running and 2 walking add up to 50 minutes, of which you run 40. It is the same repeat-or-advance method as in the plan for running 30 minutes without stopping.
3. Lower the duration for a week. It is what the plan does in its deload weeks: week 4 drops 10 minutes.
4. Do not compensate. Do not add another session in the week or lengthen the next one to make up for what you did not do.

Before and during the outing

Some logistics ideas, without changing the session:

• Choose a route you know, ideally a loop where you can cut it short.
• Set a timer and track time, not distance.
• Start slower and keep the effort steady to the end. The last stretch, just as easy as the first.
• Finish wanting to keep going. That feeling usually indicates that the duration is right.

Common mistakes

• Running the long run too fast and turning it into a training race.
• Increasing the duration all at once, or pace and duration at the same time.
• Arriving tired from a hard session the day before.
• Measuring it only in kilometers and becoming obsessed with distance.
• Trying to make up for a lost week with a longer run.