Tuesday Training: Long Run, Long Run, Long Run!

Happy Tuesday, HOF marathon followers! It's another week again which means we are that much closer to marathon race weekend! We have almost made it through January and now will be challenged by February’s brisk.

If you haven’t already, make sure to check out last week’s post regarding “beating the snow.” Since we are approaching February, which usually is the snowiest month for Ohio, that article will be helpful.

Moving forward, let us talk training for this week. There have been a lot of questions from you regarding ways to improve times and optimize training.

The focus is actually simple-- Long Runs!

The biggest energy system you will be using during your half/ full marathon will be your aerobic system… so focus on those long run sessions and volume.

Your long run days are the most crucial training days during marathon training. For February, if you haven’t already, focus on progressing those long run days! I usually like to utilize Sundays for my long run days because oftentimes those are my days off and I know I can get a great quality session in. 

It is also a great way to get the body used to running long on Sundays considering you will be racing on a Sunday. Think of it as practice for the big show!

So as we are heading into February, mark up your calendar every week for “Long Run” days.
Each week add  .5-1 full mile more than the week before so that volume is rising and you are challenging yourselves to go longer.

Another way to optimize your long run is adding some intensity to the run. Consider running a few miles of your long run at an upbeat pace rather than all at recovery. I usually refer to this “upbeat” pace as AT pace. Now, you may ask what does that mean? This pace is going to be slightly faster and stands for an Aerobic Threshold. Usually this pace is around 1:30-2:00 minutes slower than your 1 mile personal best. 

For example, if your fastest 1 mile race is 6:00 minutes, you essentially will be hitting AT pace around 7:30-8:00 per mile pace. I recommend building up to that pace. If you haven’t incorporated a true long run session, keep the first few weeks at "recovery" pace just to get miles down. Then when things are clicking, start adding a few AT miles in.

If you have already been incorporating long runs into your training regime, start adding in some AT miles! The best way I usually like to do this is breaking up my long runs into zones. For instance, I’ll start my long run at recovery pace to get my legs warmed up and then I naturally speed into AT pace, eventually dropping down to “tempo” pace. (1- Warm up, 2 - AT-Pre Tempo, 3- Tempo)

Depending on where you are at in training, be mindful that this is a progression each week. So if you haven’t added any intensity already, start at a slow progression with maybe 2-3 miles of your long run at AT.  Eventually the goal would be getting to a point where you are doing almost your entire long run at AT while hitting some tempo at the end. 

Happy training, everyone!

**If you have any questions regarding training send Coach Tina an email tina@hofmarathon.com

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