PUBLISHED 11/08/2006
A couple of decades ago, marathon runners and coaches argued endlessly about how many miles to cover on long training runs. Some thought 16 miles would do; others argued for 30. Many settled on the nice, round 20-miler, which has become a standard of sorts, unless you're lucky enough to live in a metric country. In that case, you only have to cover 18.6 miles on long runs, since 30-K is the nearest round number.
Today, I take it as a matter of marathon faith that longs runs of 18 to 22 miles suffice. Now the hot question is: How fast (or slow) should your long run be? There's little to no research available on the topic, although exercise physiology Ph.D. candidate Jason Karp did an interesting questionnaire several years ago with American runners who qualified for the 2004 U.S. Men's and Women's Olympic Marathon Trials. Karp didn't ask them about their long-run pace, but he did discover that the qualifiers ran roughly 28 percent of their weekly miles at marathon pace or faster. Twenty-eight percent is quite high, indicating that the Trials qualifiers did some part of their long runs at marathon pace or faster.
Lacking a clear scientific path, I poked around a little to uncover the best long-run pacing strategy. The contenders included these pace acronyms: EZ (easy, relaxed), MP (marathon pace), LT (lactate threshold, otherwise known as tempo pace), and RTYP, which I made up. It stands for "Run Till You Puke."
Take It EZ
Your EZ pace is about one minute per mile slower than your marathon pace. The many fans of easy-paced long efforts contend that these runs allow you to get in your miles, with all the desired physical and mental benefits, while limiting your risk of injury. To increase your speed, you can enter races, or do faster workouts on other days of the week.
This kind of training worked wonders for Bill Rodgers when he was king of the roads. Rodgers would often race on weekends, and do his long runs on Monday. "I was usually tired from a weekend of travel and racing," he says, "so most of my long runs were at a pretty moderate pace."
Critics point out, however, that slow running makes you slow, which is true if it's all you do. And two-time U.S. Olympic marathoner Pete Pfitzinger cautions that slow running can also become sloppy running after 15 miles or so, which could lead to injuries.
