The Long and Medium Runs

One of the important principles of running without injury is running heavy/light. The two words, heavy and light refer to the stress on your body not to your effort in completing the run. A light run should always follow a heavy run, because the light run gives your body extra time to recover from the heavy run. Sports doctors say we need at least 48 hours between heavy runs for recovery, and the light run gives us that 48 hours. Light cross training such as swimming, cycling, walking, or lifting light weights could be used instead of a light run.

Since a week only has seven days, the most one can expect to run in a week is three heavy runs, the remaining runs being rest runs. Some of us, because of our age or other factors that limit the amount of stress that our bodies can handle, only plan for one or two heavy days per week. Since I'm currently running three days per week, the strategy that works well for me is to have two heavy runs and one rest run per week. The remaining four days are not running days for me, although I may eventually add a fourth day of running which will be a second rest run.

 

My Plan for Running

My week is geared to half marathons and is planned as follows:

Monday or Tuesday: a rest run of 5 miles
Wednesday or Thursday: a medium run of 10 miles
Saturday: a long run of 13-15 miles

Actually, I'm currently only running 3.5 miles due to blood clots, three times per week, but I've used the plan given above in the past and will use it in the future. As soon as my Monday or Tuesday run reaches 5 miles, I'll cap it as a rest run. When my Wednesday or Thursday run reaches 7 miles, I'll cap that run as my medium run, and as soon as my Saturday run reaches 10 miles, I'll cap that as my long run. Then, after my body has gotten used to those distances, I'll slowly advance the medium and long runs to reach the numbers given above. I'm letting my body tell me how fast to increase my distance, but I expect it will take at least a year to reach the 10 and 13 mile distances.

 

The Long Run is the Key to Distance Running

Look at my distance figures from the viewpoint of stress. The run of 5 miles is a rest run that puts minimum stress on my body. The purpose of that run is to let my body recover from a previous heavy run. The medium run of 10 miles is to increase the stress on my body but to not maximize that stress. The long run of 13 miles is to significantly increase the stress on my body. This run is the most important of the three runs, because the stress is greatest, and my body will become the strongest as it recovers from the long run.

 

Long Runs Prepare for Racing

There are two aspects of distance racing: endurance over the distance and speed. The long run is the key run in terms of developing endurance, and speed workouts are the key runs for developing speed. Running hills is important for developing body-strength, and body-strength is important for both endurance and speed. With the exception of the marathon, long runs that are part of the training for shorter races should be at least as long as the race. Long runs for marathon training should approach the marathon distance. The following table gives suggested long-run distances for common races. Running those distances will help your body adjust to the distances before the race, thus allowing your body to focus on speed during the race.

5K: 5 miles (8 km)
5 Mile: 7 miles (11 km)
10K: 8 miles (13 km)
Half-marathon: 15 miles (24 km)
Marathon: 15-23 miles (24-37 km)