Long runs are damaging, both physically and mentally. Without recovery, you’ll never absorb their training benefits and boost your endurance. I completed a 22 km run on Saturday and took Sunday off, and still felt the pain in my quads today. You need to be aware of the sheer ruin you cause your body, and its need to recover. This is why most runners never do two long runs in a single week. However, there’s one advanced strategy that you can implement in your training to get similar benefits without the damage: the medium-long run.
This is something I have yet to bring to my training program. But I have read of a few runners who do go this path.
It entails a “long run” is 17+ miles, so a medium-long runs are typically 12-14 miles and occur in the middle of the week, at least 3 days before the long run. They provide another opportunity to develop your aerobic system without excessive fatigue.
If you’re a runner that responds to mileage, consider adding a medium-long run in the middle of the week that’s about 75% of the length of your long run. Gradually increase a distance you’re comfortable with until you’re about halfway between a normal distance run and long run length.
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