Long Runs Explained

Long Runs

Let's talk about the long run. There's a good chance you haven't been assigning a long run exactly like the one I'm going to teach you. Even if the long run has been a cornerstone of your program, we're going to tweak it a little bit. For athletes who are ready for it, we add strides in the last 20 minutes of the run.

Before we get there, understand what I mean by long. It depends on each athlete's history. For a veteran, the long run might be 70 minutes. For an incoming freshman, the longest run of the week might be 25 or 30 minutes. The full workout in this article, with a 20-minute stride section at the end, is for athletes whose history has them ready for it. I'll explain how to think about everyone else in the next section.

Obviously, the long run is a great way to build the aerobic engine. About 95 percent of the energy in a high school cross country race comes from the aerobic metabolism, and in the summer I think the long run might be the most impactful thing you can do to build that engine. It also builds the athlete's attention span for hard work. And when it's done well, it teaches them to finish strong, because their fastest running of the day comes at the end of the run.

What's less obvious is that a well-executed long run is the simplest way to learn to run by feel.

Running by feel is a cornerstone of my system. It's one of the few skills runners need to learn if they want to race to their potential and stay healthy.

If an athlete is running 60 minutes and they run too fast in the middle, then slow down in the final minutes, that's a problem. But it's one they can correct in the next workout or long run. They simply didn't know how the run should feel and misjudged the rhythm they could hold for 60 minutes.

The next workout will likely be a fartlek workout, which is another workout that teaches them to run by feel. By the time the next long run is on their schedule, they've got a better shot at running a negative split, where the second half of the run is faster than the first half.

We're not going to worry about paces for our long runs. We're going to focus instead on making this a challenging run. That said, it's fine if the athlete keeps the data on their GPS and looks at it when the run is finished.

Another key aspect of my training is that your hard days need to be hard and your easy days need to be easy.

The long run is a hard day. We're not simply "getting in the miles," or worse, doing the "long slow distance" run that was popularized decades ago. We don't want athletes shuffling through long runs with poor posture. As I'll explain below, a key reason we do strides is to make sure athletes run with good posture.

Hold one more idea at the same time. The long run can also hurt kids. Get it wrong in the summer and an athlete can miss weeks of training, or carry an injury into the fall and miss the season. I don't say that to scare you. I say it because it's on us as coaches to build this run thoughtfully.

The Longest Run of the Week

Here's a mistake I see every June. Coaches hear "long run" and assume long means the same thing for every athlete on the team.

It doesn't. For your younger or less experienced kids, I want you to take the word long out of it. Think of it as the longest run of their week. And don't equate long with important.

Picture an incoming freshman who didn't run track in the spring and didn't play another sport. It's week three of summer training, and they're doing a 30-minute long run. They went from zero to 30 minutes. For that athlete, 30 minutes really is a long run. It could even be too long.

Now picture a junior or senior who's been running with you for several years. They had a great state meet in May, took a couple of weeks off, and were doing 60, 70, or 80-minute long runs during track. For that athlete, 30 minutes isn't a long run at all.

Class year doesn't tell you which athlete you have. History does. Think about a kid who ran cross country as a freshman, wasn't consistent in the winter, and came out for track without much running behind them. They might be a sophomore now, but they really haven't run that much in their life.

For some kids, the longest run of the week might be 25 minutes. It might be 30. For them, that's plenty long.

That changes the workout, too. If an athlete's longest run is 25 minutes, don't automatically give them strides in the last 20 minutes. Most of the run would become the stride section. How to handle that athlete is a coaching decision based on their history. If you're new to strides, my article on strides explains why I use them and how I think about progressing them.

I don't know your program or where your kids started. You do. Let each athlete's history decide what long means for them. I talk through this idea in this video on the summer long run.

Minutes or Miles?

I start a season by assigning the long run in minutes. We want the athlete to "win the day," even if they have a sub-par day and slow down in the final minutes. If the assignment was 60 minutes and they got in 60 minutes, that's a great day.

Weather is another reason to assign the run by time. An athlete who typically runs 10 miles at 7-minute pace obviously runs 70 minutes on that day. But on a day when the roads are icy and the wind is howling, or the heat and humidity are oppressive, they aren't going to be able to run 7-minute pace and say they ran controlled. They might hit 7-minute pace if they treat the run like a race, and that's not the goal.

If the athlete (and the coach?) insists on getting in 10 miles, they'll run longer than their normal 70 minutes, and they'll be overly fatigued from the run. Forty-eight hours later, they may not be ready for another challenging day.

So I assign long runs by time. On a tough weather day, or a day when the athlete is a little off, they can still meet the objective of the day, which is a run for a given amount of time. That doesn't mean pushing through dangerous conditions or illness to finish the minutes. When the day calls for it, the coach changes the plan.

I know many programs have traditional runs where former athletes have established times, standards, and course records. Coaches and athletes know that when a young woman can run a certain 10-mile loop in a certain time, she's fit and ready for a great cross country season.

A great compromise is to assign long runs by minutes in the first 4-6-8 weeks of the season, then switch to mileage assignments after that if that's best for your program. To be clear, I think having one day a week with a mileage assignment is great, and that day is the long run.

Build It Gradually

Once you know where an athlete is starting, build slowly.

Say you have a kid whose long run should be 40 minutes in the first week of summer. I might progress them from 40 minutes to 42, then 45, then 48, then 50. I'll often hold them at one of those numbers for a second week, so they might run 48 two weeks in a row. That means getting from 40 to 50 takes a while. That's the point.

This isn't a schedule to copy. It's an illustration of small steps and holding weeks.

Now do the math on a jump from 40 minutes to 45. That's more than 10 percent in one week. Go from 40 to 60 too quickly and that's a 50 percent jump. If that doesn't feel like a big deal, think about your own running. Would you run 10 miles one week, then 11, then 12, then 13, then 14, then 15? I wouldn't build volume that way.

I'm not handing you a percentage rule. I'm asking you to notice how big those jumps really are for a young athlete. And if you look at 40 to 60 minutes and think, "That's not a big jump, I did that," remember that your running history isn't your athlete's.

The 40-minute runner can get to 60 minutes or more over time. This summer, they might only get to 55. That's fine. By the time they're running 50 to 55 minutes the way I coach it, they're doing a really high-level aerobic workout.

A Long Run with Strides

I assign strides in the last 20 minutes of a long run for several reasons.

The first reason is posture. We want to make sure that at the end of the run, when the athlete is fatigued, they run with good posture. So long as the athlete remembers to "run up tall" when they do their strides, they'll run with good posture while they're tired.

Second, let's look at the long run through the car analogy.

We must build the aerobic engine, strengthen the chassis, and rev the engine throughout the week and throughout the year.

We're building the aerobic engine with the run. Following the long run, we'll go into a challenging post-run routine to strengthen the chassis. Wouldn't it be great if we could get in the third component and rev the engine?

Many high school athletes run five or six days a week. If they don't rev the engine during the long run, they're missing that work on either 20 percent or 17 percent of their running days. We should aim to rev the engine every day we run, except on a day when an athlete is ill or mentally fatigued and just needs to run easy.

Two more things…

When athletes do strides in the last 20 minutes of the run, the pace tends to increase. That reinforces the idea, and the feeling, that the longer the workout goes, the faster they run.

We want athletes to go "fast, faster, fastest" in workouts and races. Strides in the last 20 minutes of the long run gently force the athlete to do this, and that builds the feeling that they'll be able to do it in races.

Here's why the pace increases. For 20-30 seconds they're running a stride at 5k effort. Then, in the 10-20-30 seconds after the stride, they're running faster than they've run up to that point. So long as they don't drop below the pace they ran before the strides, the last 20 minutes will be noticeably faster than the rest of the run.

The final reason to do strides is psychological.

Say the athlete is assigned 70 minutes. Most athletes will get a little nervous at the 45-minute mark. That's about as long as they run on their easy days, and in just 5 minutes they'll need to run 4-6 strides while running for 20 more minutes.

Veteran athletes soon get accustomed to the mental side of the run. Younger athletes are typically a bit intimidated by it, and I think that's a good thing.

Racing is hard.

PRing means you're going to be uncomfortable. If a younger athlete finds the long run the hardest day of the week, and is uncomfortable in the last 20 minutes, that's a good thing.

Farther and Faster

The long run should be challenging. It shouldn't be a race. The goal is to finish in control, able to go farther and able to go faster.

In The Best High School Cross Country Workouts, I described it this way for experienced runners. At the end of the long run, the athlete should be able to say, "I could have run 10 more minutes, not a problem." They should also be able to say, "I could have run 10 more minutes and sped up. It would have been hard, but I could have done it."

That 10 minutes is an example for trained athletes, not a number for every runner. The principle is what applies to everyone. Farther and faster, both. When an athlete finishes that way, you know they ran a controlled workout. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't a race effort either.

If a long run turns into a long race, it's not the end of the world. The athlete will simply need more time to recover. Just don't let it become normal.

Give new and young athletes plenty of grace in their first few long runs. It's common for them to run the second half a touch slower than the first because they had to slow to a jog between strides. That's part of learning to run by feel. If they need to run the first half much slower so they can run the last 20 minutes faster, with good posture on the strides, let them. My experience is that after just a couple of long runs, most athletes can negative split them.

That article also shows how the long run fits with fartleks, progression runs, aerobic repeats, and the 30-90 fartlek.

Assigning The Long Run

A decade or two ago the rule of thumb was that the long run should be 20 percent of an athlete's weekly volume. A 40-mile-a-week runner would do an 8-mile run, and a 50-mile-a-week runner would do a 10-mile run.

To be clear, I assign all the running in minutes, not miles, at the start of the season. But let's keep using miles to illustrate the point.

An athlete who's handling 40 miles a week can handle a 9-mile run. An athlete running 50 miles a week can handle at least 11 miles, if not 12, for a long run.

What you'll find in my training is that the long run is much more than 20 percent of the week, so long as the athlete makes it a challenging run.

That math applies to experienced athletes with the history to support it. For a younger athlete, the longest run of the week comes from their history, not a percentage.

Writing The Workout

For an athlete who's ready for this version of the workout, we add the strides in the last 20 minutes of the run. If an athlete was going to run 60 minutes, we'd write:

Long Run: 60 minutes. At the 40-minute mark do 4 x 25 seconds at 5k effort, with as much recovery as needed.

If the run was 75 minutes, you'd simply say, "At the 55-minute mark do 4 x 25 seconds at 5k effort..."

Progressing the Strides

Here's the progression I've published for athletes who are ready for this version of the workout:

• First 2-3 weeks: 4 x 25 seconds
• Next 2-3 weeks: 5 x 25 seconds
• From there: 5-6 x 30 seconds

I don't assign more than 6 strides at 30 seconds. That's enough work for an older athlete to rev the engine and make this day very challenging.

Again, they get as much recovery between strides as they need. That'll typically be 2-3 minutes, but it could be a bit more. Running their long run rhythm between strides, rather than easy pace, is something they learn gradually. After the first couple of long runs, that's what we're looking for.

Here's the progression of strides PDF.

Once the run is over, we go straight into...

Post-run Work

This is going to be hard physically and challenging mentally. Put those together and we have an opportunity to strengthen the chassis and build the athlete's attention span for hard work.

Commit to doing this work immediately after the run.

Why?

We want to "extend the aerobic stimulus." When athletes finish the run, their heart rate is up. In my approach, we go directly into the post-run work to keep it up a while longer, extending the aerobic stimulus. That's the reasoning behind the whole routine. The athlete gets more aerobic work without more pounding. I like that for younger athletes who aren't ready for more running, and for older athletes who can add work without adding miles.

When conditions allow, go straight from the run into the post-run work. There are two times when you'll need to take a break first, and both are about weather.

If it's oppressively hot and humid, have them take some time after the run, get some water, then do just 5-10 minutes of mobility work and call it a day. On days when it's bitterly cold, get them inside, have them change into a dry shirt, then knock out the mobility work.

As I said earlier, post-run work at the end of the long run builds their attention span for hard work. The first 5-10 minutes of all my post-run routines are challenging. When an athlete can do that work with focus, it's molding them into an athlete who can focus in the final reps of a race pace workout and in the last 20-30 percent of a race.

Where the Long Run Fits in the Week

In my summer training, we only do two challenging workouts a week, and the long run is one of them. We do a long run in week one of the XC Training System, and we're not trying to fit in three workouts a week. Just two.

That's why the long run can't be an afterthought. It's one of your two hard days. Plan the rest of the week around it.

If you're an athlete reading this, follow your coach's plan. Your coach knows your history and how the whole week fits together.

The season changes things. Once racing starts, we pick our spots for the long run, and we often cut it out earlier than most coaches do. Athletes need fresh legs to race fast, and a long run can take a few days to recover from. We still build the aerobic engine, but we lean on progression runs and the 30-90 fartlek to do it. When you're down to the last few weeks of the season, read my article on scaling back the long run before you assign one.

Common Mistakes

Treating long as one number for everyone. A 30-minute run can be long, or too long, for an incoming freshman with little running history. It isn't long for a senior coming off 70-minute runs during track.

Making big jumps. Going from 40 minutes to 60 too quickly is a 50 percent jump. Small increases and holding weeks give each athlete time to handle the work.

Treating the long run as an easy day. The biggest mistake is not seeing the long run as one of the most challenging workouts of the week. Shuffling through it with poor posture misses the point.

Letting it become a race. The athlete should finish in control, able to go farther and faster. If they can't, it was too hard.

Making it a third hard day. The long run is one of two challenging days. Stacking it on top of two other workouts gives most teams too many hard days.

Skipping post-run work. When the weather allows, go immediately into post-run work. Standing around after the run gives up the chance to extend the aerobic stimulus.

Holding on to it too late in the season. Late in the season, fresh legs matter more. Scale back when the racing calendar calls for it.

Common Questions

The most frequent question I get is simply this:

"I thought the point of the long run was to get in time on their feet, and not make it so hard that they can't do two workouts a week."

That's fair.

Here's my answer. In my system, the long run is one of the two workouts. We aren't adding a hard long run on top of two other workouts. We're making the long run count as one of them.

What I've seen, working with coaches in both the XC Training System and the Track Training System, is that athletes can run PRs on two hard days a week. It's fair to assume that's because of the post-run work, but that's not the whole story. In my experience, the aerobic gains athletes make from this type of long run, with strides and hard post-run work, are remarkable.

If you've struggled to keep kids healthy, it might be time to rethink what you're doing and make at least one change, if not two. Dialing back from three hard days a week to two doesn't have to mean your kids plateau.

Another comment I hear is...

"We do a long run, but we do it easier so we can get in two workouts and a speed development day."

I've done this type of week with professional runners and had great results. And some very skillful high school coaches who've coached for a decade or more do something similar. But for most teams, this is too much density, too many hard days in a week, or even in a 10-day period.

If you've struggled to keep your kids healthy, consider a different approach. Start with the longest run of the week. Make it the right length for each athlete's history, make it challenging, and follow it with post-run work.