Casual Sunday Long Runs
Just about every week, my running club organizes a Sunday Long Run. These are highly organized in the period leading up to The Boston Marathon. The SLRs start-up again in the late summer to help people prepare for their fall marathons such as the Bay State Marathon and New York Marathon.
After Boston and through the summer the long runs are more like a pick up game of basketball: who ever shows up gets to play. Some weeks we have over twenty runners and other weeks we may have half-a-dozen hearty souls. Regardless, we are always on our own.
These “pickup runs” are generally over 12 miles so we try to stash water, Gatorade and gels around town or park someone’s car on our route. Last week was a little odd as we had shopping bags in the bushes of a bank parking lot. After Boston it was odd leaving things in the bushes at a bank.
About half of our group ran 12.5 and the other half ran 15 miles. I ran 12.5 as I’m training for a half marathon next weekend and didn’t want to push it.
Does anyone taper for a half-marathon? I really don’t but it occurred to me today that it may be something to consider. I never do a long run the day before a half but I may run 5k or 10k.
The course we ran today was very hilly. Thanks Dan! I tried not to push up the hills too hard but I did test my self to see how ready I am for the hills of Gloucester and Cape Ann next weekend. If I play my cards right and the stars are aligned I think I can PR next weekend.
I hope everyone had a great weekend and got in a good long run.
Run well my friends!
10 responses to “Sunday Long Run”
I do taper for a half if I’m aiming for a PR; otherwise, I’m usually doing a half as part of marathon training so I don’t bother tapering. With my last half, I ran the following mileages per day for the six days leading up to it: 4, 3, 3, 2, 2, 1, then 13.1 on the seventh day. I did set a PR, so it worked pretty well for me. Purely anecdotal, though! 🙂
Were these miles significantly less than what you had been running? Was this part of your plan or did it just work out that way?
I’m trying to build from my current 25 miles per week and get to 35 miles per week over the summer.
I also use races as part of my marathon training and don’t really train for a 5k or half. Though a 5K is a completely different race than a marathon and if you want to PR in a 5K you should train for it.
I’m trying to be more organized with my training as It’s one of the things that I can control.
I guess the week before a Half I should worry less about hitting my weekly mileage goal and focus on my Half.
I think I will try your idea this week. Short runs, but every day.
Thanks.
Yeah, these were significantly shorter – I don’t have my calendar in front of me with the exact mileage, but this was a 15-mile week when I was peaking at about 35 miles/week (give or take 2 or 3 miles) during training. If I had to guess, I’d say a peak week would look like:
Sunday long – 12 long & slow
Monday – 4 easy
Tuesday – 5 speed as necessary
Wednesday – 6 easy
Thursday – 5 speed as necessary
Friday – 4 tempo
Saturday – 2 easy
I should add the caveat that I didn’t take any rest days this go-round because I’ve been on a streak since November – run at least 1 mile every day – and I didn’t want to stop it. It’s not for everyone, so if you take rest days, don’t go messing with that this week – take one if you usually do!
But yes, you should just focus on the Half this week; your hard work is already done, and you’re not going to get any last-minute boosts from changing anything. You know this already, so I’m preaching to the choir, I’m sure! 🙂
You’re welcome, and good luck!
Urgh, and I forgot to add – the taper I did was part of a plan, but it was one that I concocted myself based very loosely on Higdon’s Novice 2 program. I followed his program to the letter for my first half, and finished well, but I knew that if I wanted a PR I’d have to run more. So, I cut out rest days and reduced cross-training in the name of more miles. I also ditched my watch and learned to run by feel – I think that made a huge difference, too.
Yup. We are totally on the same paage here! Thanks, and have a great week!
Good stuff! I’ll be looking forward to your report next week. Happy tapering!
Good luck on your half this weekend! To your question, I’ve run two halfs and trained from the Hal Higdon plans, which include tapering ….
Jim, I’m going to give that a try this week and see how it goes. Have a great week.
I know this wasn’t what this post was about, but I love the idea of stashing water on your running route. I always carry mine while I run, but holding a bottle while running 5 or 6 miles is not fun. Thanks for the tips they are helping so much!
Hi, It is a good idea but you need to be careful.