Long Run Pace, Page 2 of 3

If you are a disciple of Arthur Lydiard, how fast you run you long run will depend on which phase you are in. If you are in the initial phase, where you are building up your mileage, then your long runs should be run at an easy pace. Beyond that, your runs should be at a more brisk strong aerobic effort.

OK, but exactly is an easy pace and what is a strong aerobic effort. The problem with Lydiard is that although he was an extraordinary coach, he was a miserable writer and most of his books are unorganized. (Many will be yelling "blasphemy" at this point.) Reading Lydiard is not like reading Daniels or Pfitzinger. With those two you know what they expect of you; Lydiard needs to be interpreted. Here is my interpretation of "easy pace" and "strong aerobic effort". The former is faster than jogging, but not so fast that you can't carry on a conversation. You should never feel like you are pushing yourself. The latter approaches you're anaerobic threshold. In his 1995 book Running to the Top, Lydiard instructs us to "keep the effort just below that point where it can overbalance into anaerobic running." Sorry, no firm heart rate ranges or percentages of your goal marathon pace when discussing Lydiard's approach.

Dr. Noakes in his discussion of Base Training (fourth edition of Lore of Running) states "base training consists mainly of long, slow distance (LSD) running. The aim is to run as high a mileage as possible without overtraining and to increase gradually the average speed and distance of the training session." In this and in other discussion about base training, Noakes clearly states that runners should not be concerned with speed during this preliminary part of the training cycle. Obviously that includes long runs as well as other runs. Noakes is less clear about how to treat long runs during other phases.

According to Hal Higdon, "speed is of little importance during long runs, according to coaches I contacted. More important is time spent on your feet." Thirty to ninety seconds, or even more, per mile slower than goal marathon pace is OK, he says in Marathon. Well, that is pretty clear. Higdon does, however, believe in the principle of specificity and consequently does believe in race pace training, but that, he states, is better done during a shorter, mid-week workout.

In Serious Training for Endurance Athletes, Sleamaker and Browning suggest a pace on the low end of the scale. Any "overdistance" workout, and this is defined as any exercise lasting more than 75 minutes, should be done at between 60% and 70% of ones maximum heart rate or 55% to 65% of one VO2max.

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