Why long runs do not get you faster and how to fix it.
Updated: Sep 8
Hi guys! how are you doing today?
The topic today is, why long runs do not get you faster.
If you are preparing for a half marathon or full marathon race, long runs are, of course, very important workouts. And even if you are a track runner, long runs are very important either.
But some runners say ‘’Long runs do not make me faster and I don’t know why’. So, today I want to tell you what most common mistakes amateur runners make with long runs are.
Before I dive into this topic, let me tell you two things.
First, in this real World, we cannot make a split test. We should know this. So, very often people say ‘’Long runs do not make me faster’’. But probably there are other reasons why you cannot run faster. We need to understand this first.
Second, what is long runs exactly speaking?
My answer is very simple. Anything obviously longer than your moderate volume is long run. For example, if you run 70km a week regularly, then 10km a day training is your moderate volume. Then, 15km run is already long run from this point of view.
Considering that full marathon is 42.195km, 15km is too short. From this point of view, long runs should be at least 30km. However, if your moderate volume is 10km a day, 15km run is already long run for your body. You need to understand this first anyway.
Now, let me stop beating around the bush and dive into the topic.
First, you need to think about the frequency. Very often amateur runners say like this ‘You say once a week long run is enough. But I did once a week 30km long run but I couldn’t run well after the 30km on a race day. Probably, I need long run twice a week’.
In fact, in Japan often amateur runners do a long run with moderate pace on Saturday and they do 3 hours LSD on Sunday at much slower pace. For example, they do 30km run at 5:00/km and on Sunday they run 3 hours at 7 minutes per kilometer.
Or, very often they do so-called semi-long run. They do 25km run on Wednesday and 35km run on Sunday.
But I very often ask them to show me their exact training program in the last 4 months of the marathon preparation. And what I very often figure out is, that they do 3-4 times 30km long runs before a full marathon race. 4 times in 16 weeks means not once a week, but 0.25 times a week.
The frequency is what very often people miss out on.
Second factor is something similar with the first one. That is how many long runs you’ve done in your whole life.
Basically, the more you do long runs, the more your body adapts to long runs.
So, even if you do ten 30km long runs before your marathon preparation, if the last 30km run is still your 10th 30km run in your whole life, probably you won’t run as well as I run on a race day because I’ve done countless 30km or longer than 30km runs in my whole life and also this is the reason why top marathoners are older than sprinters.
In marathon, it is very normal that you reach at your best performance after 30 years old. And these runners already have run for more than 10 years.
So, if you start running at the age of 40 years old, probably your best time comes when you are from 50-55 years old. This is very normal. It’s not only for super veteran athletes.
Not only for training, but also for mentality.
Basically, the more experience you have, the more mature your mentality gets. Patience is very important for the success as a marathoner. So, be patient and learn to be patient. When it comes to patience, always my grandmother beats me, in other words, normally older people beat younger people.
Anyway, the third common mistake which amateur runners very often make is, not to make proper steps. Here’s an example. Someone heard that it was good to start preparing for a full marathon race 3 months before the race. So, he starts doing 30km long run from 3 months before his race. There’s nothing bad for itself.
But if he has done only 15km long run so far, his body does not adapt to 30km long run. Always remember, the progression does not come from training but adaptation. If your body does not adapt to a training stimulus, you don’t get faster at all.
If you want to optimize your training, you need to think how to get your body adapt to the training stimulus which you give your body maximally.
One answer is, making one step small enough. Basically, 2-5km at one time is proper.
But what I mean is not you do 20km in this week and the next week 25km and the next week 30km and the next week 35km and the next week 40km and so on, but you need to confirm that your body adapts to 20km run enough. And then, you go for 25km and wait till your body adapts to 25km run and then you go for 30km run.
Basically, it takes 4-6 weeks to adapt to one training stimulus. So, again be patient.
And a good news is, also this is the reason why some elite runners do only 30km long runs in training and still able to reach at the top level. Marathon race is 42.195km, but their longest run is 30km but still top level, why?
If the adaptation level is the same, there is no meaning to do 40km long run in training. And this does not mean that you don’t need to do 42km run or you should not do 42km run in training. In fact, I do 40-45km long runs in my marathon preparation.
However, if your body adapts to 30km long run very well, you are still able to make fast time in full marathon race.
The last common mistake amateur runners make is that their long runs are too fast or too slow. Both is very common mistake.
But here’s the question. How fast is too fast and how slow is too slow.
If it is slower than 80% of your marathon race pace, it is too slow and if it is faster than 90% of your marathon race pace, it is too fast. You cannot ask me why, but simply it is so. I’ve seen more than 1000 amateur runners’ training program and results and if you do 3 hours long slow distance run at 6 minutes per kilometer, it is difficult to run full marathon under 3 hours. And also, very many people try to do 30km long runs at their goal race pace, also results are not good. Their bodies do not adapt to the training stimulus.
But if you’ve learnt about marathon training well, probably you would make the following counterargument.
‘But some of top runners do 30km long runs at the goal race pace or current race pace and make a great result’.
That is true. But you need to understand the following two things.
I’ve analyzed as many as possible top runners’ training programs in the last 60 years, and I saw no significant difference between athletes who did 100% of the race pace long runs and 90% of the race pace long runs.
Second, even though some top runners did 30km long runs at their race pace, all of them did many 30-45km long runs at 80-90% of their race pace and only after that, they did 1 or 2 30km long runs at their race pace.
So just like that, it is OK to do one or two 30km long runs at your goal race pace after you’ve done ten 30-45km runs at 80-90% of the race pace if you want. You would get more ready for the marathon race mentally but not physically. You need to understand this well and make a decision by yourself.
Also, in terms of making proper steps, you also need to think about volume and intensity both.
If your body already adapted to 30km long runs at 5:00/km pace, then you are ready go for 32km at 5:00/km pace or 30km long runs at 4:50/km pace, but not ready for 32km at 4:50/km pace. You also need to think about this.
Lastly, if you want to learn more about running faster, please click the link below to read my blog post ‘The most effective training for distance runners and marathoners’ for free because it’ll help you if you are serious about running faster. Jut believe me, the only problem you’re gonna have is that you didn’t read this article and take an action already 6 months ago. Does that sound fair enough?
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