The Role of Long Runs (And How to Do Them Right)

Two weeks ago I told you to start slow. Last week I told you to stay patient through the boring middle. This week we get to the run that finally feels like it counts: the long run, the one piece of the training block that actually gets some glory.

It’s also the one most runners get wrong, so let’s fix that before it becomes a habit.

The long run isn’t just the day you add extra miles because the calendar says so. It’s doing real, specific work. It teaches your body to burn fat more efficiently once glycogen starts running low, builds the kind of durability that only comes from time on your feet, and trains the part of your brain that has to keep making decisions in mile eleven when everything in you would rather be done. None of your other runs this week can teach that. It’s also the closest thing you get to a dress rehearsal for race day, which is exactly why it deserves more respect than “just go long.”

Here’s where it goes sideways for a lot of people. The long run becomes an unofficial race against last week’s version of yourself. A little faster, a little further, a little more proof that the training is working. I get the instinct. But a long run that’s run too hard stops teaching your body anything new, it just adds fatigue on top of fatigue, and it’s usually the reason someone shows up to the following week’s easy runs still flat. If last week was about being patient with the boring miles, this week is about being patient with the long ones too. Same lesson, longer distance.

Doing it right starts with effort, not pace. Your long run pace should let you hold a conversation, at least for most of it, even if that pace is slower than you’d like to admit out loud. That’s not you losing fitness. That’s the run doing its job.

The other piece people skip: use the long run as practice, not just distance. What you eat before it, what you carry during it, what shoes and gear you plan to race in, all of that should get tested here first, not figured out for the first time on race morning. A long run is the cheapest dress rehearsal you’ll ever get. Use it.

And if you’ve been doing these solo, consider finding company for them. This is exactly what KTC’s group long runs exist for (and so many other groups in town!). Running an honest, slower pace is a lot easier to stick to when you’ve got someone next to you doing the same thing, and there’s something about mile nine feeling shorter with company that no amount of willpower replicates on your own.

Next week we’ll get into fueling, because once your long runs start stretching past an hour, what you eat and drink actually starts to matter in ways it didn’t before. For now, just get the run itself right. Slow down, stay honest, and treat it like the rehearsal it is.

See you out there on the long ones, friends.

-bk