Why is the long run the most important of the week? What three things do successful marathon runners do on their long runs?
The long run is your most important run of the week. If you want to improve your running and especially if you are going to run a marathon, it is a the key run of the week. It is a vital part of base training.
There are three changes that happen to your body on the long run.
Doing a long run will give you the endurance you need to maintain your pace in your chosen race, whether it is a 10k or a marathon. Once you are running for at least two hours the following magic happens.
You begin to use fat as a fuel
Your body starts to use fat as a fuel at this point as long as you run gently enough. Run any faster and your body will use it’s glycogen stores instead. This helps with endurance as you only have two hours worth of carbohydrate or glycogen. Your ability to use fat as fuel is vital if you are going to race for over two hours. It also helps you recover if you run some faster sessions in the week, so is important for 5km and 10km runners.
More blood capillaries grow
The long run stimulates more blood capillaries to grow in your muscles because you need to supply more blood to the muscles. This helps supply the oxygen and take away the waste products.
Your faster twitch muscles ‘come to the party’
Everyone has different types of muscle, faster and slower twitch muscles. When you run a half or a full marathon distance you will use the slower twitch muscles. However when you do your long run your slower twitch muscles will get tired and this happens after about an hour and forty minutes. At this point your faster twitch muscles ‘come to the party’. It is like doing sprint training without sprinting. Some people will feel this happening because they suddenly feel more powerful.
Three things that successful runners do on a long run
- They don’t run for too long. A successful runner will only run for two and a half hours, whatever distance is covered in that time. You might think that this is all very well for faster runners who can cover twenty miles in that time but what about slower runners? Two and a half hours is the most you need to run even if you are going to finish your marathon in five hours. This is because you will be getting all the same adaptions as the faster runner. You don’t need to run for longer as it will make you tired and impact on how much running you can do in the rest of the week. Have faith that you don’t need to run twenty miles in order to complete a marathon. If you can a half marathon distance in training you will complete the marathon on the day.
- They run gently. Successful runners will run their long runs significantly slower than their marathon pace. A slow pace is the key to becoming fat adapted.
- They don’t fuel on their run. Successful runners don’t take gels, sweets or carbohydrate drinks on their long run. If you fuel on your long run you are feeding your body sugar when you are trying to get it to use fat. You will need to fuel on marathon day as you will be running faster and you can practice this on one long run in the weeks leading up to the big day.
Follow the three tips above and the magic will happen and you will get fitter, faster and be well prepared for race day.