So if you want a strong durable body to be able to run distances, whether it's 5K, 10K,
half marathon marathon or ultra, you need to incorporate the long runs, but do it in
a smart way.
And that's kind of what we're alluding to here in, you know, looking at piecing for
your long runs.
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What are long runs?
What is the long run?
It's a common term that we hear in running and this training is really going to get into
the why, the how.
You can actually execute a successful long run and add it to your arsenal in your training
and I brought on an expert to talk about the long run with me today.
I have Coach Whitney from our Spark Healthy Runner coaching team.
What's going on, Coach?
Hi, not much.
It's a cloudy rainy Monday here in Arizona, which is not usual, so I'm enjoying it.
Alright, it is sunny and very warm on this February day in Connecticut.
This is like abnormally warm weather we've been having.
It feels like spring outside.
So I'm going to take it because I'm not a big cold weather fan, so I'm going to take
that.
So, guys, I just want to kind of give you a little bit of background on why I brought
Coach Whitney on today.
To talk about the long run, Whitney LeCom is an RRCA and USA TF certified run coach as
well as a certified personal trainer.
When not working with her clients online, she is coaching the local middle school cross-country
team as well as the track and field team.
Coach Whitney loves running both on the road and on the beautiful desert trails of southern
Arizona.
She knows what it means to run in the heat and really enjoys training during those cooler
winter months.
Coach Whitney is a self-proclaimed gear head.
She just loves testing new running products and gear and sharing her great finds with
her fellow runners within our community.
She is also a wife and a mother of three awesome kids and understands the challenges of balancing
family life with running.
She was a stroller runner for many years and knows the challenges that come with running
with your little ones, but she's got a ton of tips and tricks for our mother runners.
She really loves helping runners chase their dreams and accomplish the unimaginable at
Spark Healthy Runner.
That's the formal bio, Coach Whitney.
I know you just ran an amazing marathon.
If you can, please share with us what marathon did you run and what was so amazing about
this experience for you?
I ran the Mesa Marathon in Mesa, Arizona, which is basically Phoenix.
We stayed right by Arizona State University, literally on campus and it was super close
to the finish line.
It was the weather was perfect.
I mean, honestly, I'm going to keep this short because I can go on for days about the
race.
It was awesome.
The weather was perfect.
It was chilly to start, but nice and like 60-ish at the finish.
Perfect weather, sunny.
I executed my plan.
I followed my training, which showed because I followed the plan.
My coach and I, Coach Lou, came up with the pacing plan, all of that.
It went smoothly.
I didn't have any cramps.
I didn't have any stomach issues.
I did have my headphones die at mile 23 and I stopped for a second to try and reconnect
them.
I made a set of bad words too and just said, forget it.
I'm doing this without music.
Other than that, I could not have asked for a more perfect day.
My kids got up with me at 2.30 and helped me film roll and get ready and do all the things
and they were absolutely fantastic along the course with their signs.
They had really funny signs.
Then after the race, I followed our recovery plan and I did not sit down.
We went, I showered.
We went to the aquarium, walked around for two hours.
Then we went to IKEA and walked around and then we drove home.
It was all in all magical, magical day, an absolute perfect first in-person marathon.
I'm still kind of riding high off that race, reliving it.
It was fantastic.
Absolutely fantastic.
Yeah.
I was just so happy for you first off because this was a long time in the making because
of COVID, because of stuff getting rescheduled and injury.
This has been three years in the making essentially of doing your technical first in-person marathon
even though you ran three or two.
Three virtual.
Yeah.
Three virtual marathons.
This was your first full race experience.
People are running next to you.
People are cheering you on.
For you to have this quote unquote magical day, even though there's stuff that went
wrong, you lost your music.
Obviously that took some mental mindset tricks that you needed to do during those last
couple of miles to kind of carry you through because I'm sure you didn't plan on not having
music during the hardest part of a race when you're trying to really push to that finish
line.
Yeah.
But is there any major, I guess, take home points or things that you really think allowed
you to be as successful as you were for this experience?
Trusting the training process because like you said, it was three years.
I signed up for my first marathon to do in May of 2020 and I kept thinking there's no
way it'll be canceled.
There's no way.
It's so far away, you know, typical beginning of COVID stuff.
Then it registered the next, the next.
This training cycle, I was absolutely dead set.
I'm doing this.
Nothing is going to derail me.
I did the strength training that was prescribed to prevent any sort of injuries.
Any of that.
I did my recovery.
I did my pre-hab rehab.
I did my long runs as prescribed.
All of the things that were recommended or suggested I did.
I did at Christmas, I did get sick and miss a long run and 18-mileer.
Then three weeks before the race, I got COVID and missed a 20-mileer.
We ended up moving my 20-mileer.
But other than that, like I knew that if I wanted to make this a reality, I needed to
do all the things.
And that's what I did.
I really fuckered down and followed my training.
One thing that helped, and we're going to talk about long runs, is I moved my long run
to Thursdays so that instead of running on Saturday when my kids were home and they were
wanting to do soccer games and all the typical little kid things, I could actually be there.
So I did my runs while they were at school.
And that for me was a huge game changer for this training cycle.
So.
Yeah, I know I found that extremely helpful for my last marathon training as well as being
able to do those long runs either on Fridays or Thursdays myself.
Yeah being flexible with the plan is what I'm hearing and trusting your training, the
process.
And you do make it sound easy.
And I just want to reiterate again that Coach Whitney has been consistently running for
more than three years and putting in the right type of training.
It's not like she just decided to pick up a 16 or 20 week marathon training plan, kind
of free off the internet and had this magical experience.
So.
There is definitely something to be said about consistency and you know the things that you've
been implementing into your running and it's not only the three or four months before your
marathon but it's the body of work and clearly that showed honestly during your training because
of all of those things that did quote unquote go wrong right with the injury with the illness.
All stressors that you had go God you know leading up to that race that week.
You know it definitely wasn't the optimal environment but you definitely displayed some
true you know mental toughness and you know being able to overcome obstacles is a true
testament to your mental and your physical preparation honestly leading up to that.
So I'm super proud of you.
Thanks for sharing about the Mason marathon.
And for those that want to actually get that training that you and I were last on the podcast
was episode 144 in the healthy runner podcast where we talked about recovery marathon tips
with coach Whitney shared some great tips and we had a nice conversation about how we recover
from marathon.
So for those of you who are new to our audience and you don't know who I am I'm Dr. Duane
Scott I'm a running physical therapist a run coach the CEO of spark healthy runner and
the host of the healthy runner podcast and we just love helping runners get stronger
run faster and enjoy lifelong injury free running and in today's training we are going to really
get into one of the critical runs within your training plan as an endurance athlete right
or as a recreational runner.
If you ever have dreams and aspirations of running a marathon like coach Whitney just
did running a half marathon running a 10 K running a 5 K we still need to actually master
the elements of the long run that we're going to be talking about today.
So some of the things we're going to cover today is really what are long runs.
Why should you do a long run and what are the benefits of doing long runs.
How often should you do a long run.
How do you do a long run.
A play word there what pace should you run your long runs at.
Do you need to fuel for your long runs and what does that look like and then really what
do you need to bring with you for a long run and then what is the best way to recover after
your long run and then we're going to talk about five common long run mistakes that we
see a lot in our runners in our program and we're going to share those with you so you
can not make those mistakes and be able to be a little bit ahead of the curve if you will
in mastering the long run.
So I set the table there coach Whitney so if you don't mind really tackling the first
topic is you know someone might have like downloaded a free plan from the internet and
they were like five mile long run and they're doing that on the weekend and they see the
word long run like what is a long run.
Well it's pretty simple a long run is a long run it's going to be your longest run for
the week and typically that I don't know it's going to be your longest run of the week
it doesn't really matter which day of the week it is I was going to say it's on the weekends
but that doesn't really matter because I do my other Thursdays so for someone who's just
starting out that could be a six mile run for someone finishing a marathon training cycle
that could be a 20 or 22 mile long run or someone who's doing a couch to 5k or just starting
their fitness journey that could just be the longest workout a walk run interval workout
that they are doing for the week so it's going to be the longest run of your weekly runs.
Alright so it's not dependent upon mileage it's not like a double digit run is a long
run or it needs to be a certain criteria it's literally that person's longest run that they
do during the week and I even start with a lot of the runners that I work with who are
currently you know currently having a quote unquote injury we'll call it right they're
having foot pain from plantar fascia I just are being knee pain from runners and he you
know we're gonna really start running right we don't stop running we actually heal from
these injuries by continuing to run consistently and even if I'm doing walk run intervals and
I literally have someone doing a one minute on let's say one minute off run walk intervals
as we're healing from this injury as you know they're doing this specific exercise they
need to recover from the injury there's definitely one run that I program in during the week
that is going to be a little bit longer and usually I modify this by adding more repetitions
to their walk run intervals right like so certain days I might have them do six rounds
of that one minute on one minute off another day I might do eat and then usually the long
run that I'm going to use an air quotes there is really ten repetitions of those intervals
so even starting out with lower mileage you can do a long run and I think that that's
you that's an important concept to think about is number one adding that variety in
the training but then we're gonna start to talk about you know why is it that we add
these long runs and what are those benefits so you know I guess why don't we get into
that now you know why should a runner consider doing a long runner or what are some of those
benefits of doing a long run so what I my number one why you should do a long run is
it's going to improve your stamina like you're going to build up the tolerance to running
for longer periods of time you can't just jump from sitting on the couch to running a marathon
your body needs the time to build up so the long runs are going to get you used to running
for longer periods of time they're going to build up that resiliency and that mental toughness
also that is required to be out on the road or the trail wherever you're running for
an hour two hours three hours whatever the time is that you're out there it's mentally
exhausting and physically exhausting so it's going to build up that resiliency yeah it's
also going oh sorry go ahead no no I I just wanted to say I agree with the the mental part
because when you're when you're building up and you're starting to grow and do longer
long runs right it's always that mental game too that's like I've never done this before
and you know can I can I run a 10 mile long run can I do a 14 mile that's more than a
half marathon distance that you know I've done one or a couple of half marathons I've
never run longer than it right like can I do that so I just agree with that mental point
there yeah absolutely it's also going to I'm going to get a little technical it's going
to create denser capillary networks so the more capillaries or tiny blood vessels that
you have surrounding your muscles it's going to be able to deliver more oxygen more easily
to your muscles to allow you to work harder so I think that gets a little technical there
but it's essentially feeding your muscles more allowing them to work more efficiently
nice yeah now it's bringing that oxygen to the muscles and like helping I think of it
as also like that cardiovascular system and like just making our aerobic capacity like
the ability to exchange oxygen with our muscles with our heart pumping the blood to the muscles
and exchanging some of the waste with our lungs it just helps that whole system work
more efficiently so like you said we can actually build our stamina and be able to run longer
periods of time yes and for any of you that have we all started out as beginner runners
but any of you that are still beginner runners sometimes you can feel like you're on fire
like you can't catch your breath you can't you're just you're going going going you can't
catch a break when you're running that gets better and easier the more you do it and that's
sort of what we're talking about is the the cardiovascular system you're building that
endurance as well as your muscular endurance so it will get easier promise it's also the
long run is going to improve your mechanics so it's going to help it's going to help your
form it's going to help the way that you swing your arms because you're practicing all of
the essentials it's going to help the way that your feet land it's going to make sure that
you're not hunched over while you're running it's going to help you perfect the way that
your body works as a unit right so you you're basically running to get more efficient at
running right and because you're out there for a longer period of time it's it's kind
of what we talk about like specificity of training right like you want to become a better runner
you know you don't just cycle or you don't just swim and you know thinking that that's
going to translate it to running so because you're out there for a longer duration and
period of time that it just helps to improve those mechanics and you know that practice
it's kind of like our neuromuscular system and our brain and the wiring and how we improve
our form and our mechanics yes teaching your body to all work together yes absolutely it
is also now this is something that Brooke will be would be able to speak a little bit
better about our dietitian on our team but it's going to increase the efficiency that
your body uses the fuel that it has so we don't want your body to go into using it's
glycogen source we want to be feeding your body fuel carbohydrates essentially that
it can use as energy versus digging into these stores that we have which are what feed our
muscles in our body so practicing these things on a long run is going to teach your body
how to do it properly so come race day you're not putting in fuel and your body is freaking
out you're practicing it and your body can handle it and knows how and where to get the
fuel that it needs the carbohydrate set it needs yeah no that's a great point I think
it it also goes back to like that whole like aerobic versus anaerobic and for those that
don't know like those terms is like aerobic is like we're using oxygen essentially as
energy and you know you're thinking about that's our like slower longer duration type
activities versus like anaerobic is we're going so fast we're like sprinting let's say
and we're not going to be able to like hold that for a long distance right or if you're
doing like heavy heavy lifting in the gym that's more like anaerobic and it's a whole different
like energy system that we use so being able to do these long runs then we're just getting
we're practicing being more efficient on what energy system that we're actually using and
then we also get more efficient at utilizing the fuel that we have on board so you're not
like burning through that fuel like super fast essentially yes absolutely and the most
fun would be it makes you faster long runs in the long run pun intended make you faster
the more you do them the more you practice the more muscle endurance you've built up over
time your body is going to be able to withstand and hold those faster paces for longer periods
of time you can't just out the gate be able to run a seven minute mile but over the course
of running slow and easy paced long runs for long periods your body is going to learn how
to more efficiently use your muscles and allow you to run ultimately at a faster pace nice
so we can maintain those faster pieces for a longer period of time we're getting more efficient
so if I have a half marathon goal then practicing these long runs will actually get me to that half
marathon and even get me there faster eventually so you definitely have me sold to your coach Whitney
there are many many benefits I don't know I think we like listed six benefits of doing the long run
so how often like if you know long run is like you know the magic if you will you know how often
should we do a long run should I be doing these like every day or if I do more long runs does that
make me better no and no you should definitely not be doing one every day that would be craziness
but once a week every week you should have a scheduled long run whether that's like we said
a three mile run a longer walk run interval or a 20-mileer whatever is appropriate at the stage
that you're at in your training once a week you should have a longer run yeah we want you to be
able to improve on your long run we don't want you to jump from 10 mile a 10 mile long run into an
18 mile long run we take the baby steps to get you to the ultimate finish line of your long run
whatever that distance is if you're doing a half it's gonna be different than a full a 5k is gonna
be different than both of those so whatever is specific to you we're gonna work you up to it we
don't want to just jump right into the longest long run yeah and I think this is a this is a
really important point and this is really going to lead to many of you know runners success in
being successful in whatever your running goal is whether it's your first half marathon it's a
marathon PR or it's a 5k because and I think you know this is evidenced by you know 5k cross-country
athletes at high school level collegiate level like they all run long runs that are like double
digit and even middle distance runners so like if someone's like a specialist of the one mileer
they run like double digit long runs believe it or not because they know the benefits of building up
that aerobic capacity even though they're never even coming close to running that mileage or the
duration that they would do in their event so there there is really a key benefit to adding in this
long run to your plans once a week and you know can you maybe speak to and I don't know if we'll
go over this later but maybe I'm not sure speak to I know you mentioned every week does that what
does that look like to you when you program for your athletes is that let's use an example of if
someone's building up to a half marathon you know are you programming like every week you're going
like six miles then seven is it like a ladder where you just keep climbing and climbing yes and no
because we want to have what is called a cutback week so each coach is slightly different but
typically you'll increase I'll start with the six like you said you'll go from six to maybe eight
then ten and then you'll have a cutback week after that ten mileer where you'll have a recovery week
so your total weekly mileage that week will be slightly less including your long run and then
you start building back up for a couple more weeks and then you have a cutback week so it's a ladder
with us where you come back down like a rung or two and then you go back up and you come back down
a few runs does that make sense absolutely does yeah exactly and the reason for that guys is just
because that's where we start to get into the injury zone and we're all about keeping you healthy
here on the health runer podcast so you know that is where we start to see this overuse because you
never actually allow your body to recover and we know those are one of the six steps to you know
growing as a runner is that recovery element and what coach Whitney is talking about is is
building those long runs over time but you want to do it in a gradual progressive fashion
but then also having those cutback weeks and even on those cutback weeks that long run preserves
so in that example they use like let's go six eight ten for that runner you know when you cut back to
let's see did six eight ten then six they're probably honestly you know their longest other
run during that week is definitely not more than five miles i'm going to guess right so that's six
mile or still serves as that longest run four weeks later just like it did you know four weeks
earlier if that makes sense so you're still getting in the long run as your definition in the
beginning was it's the longest run that you're doing during your week but we want to make sure that
there's always that kind of cutback long run week to allow the body to recover and to prevent
any overuse injuries from happening yes absolutely absolutely all right so how do we do a long run
so this is kind of simple you need to mentally prepare first of all so that for me i sit down on
sunday and i look at what my plan is going to be and i i'm a paper planner person so i write
it down paper and pen in my planner and i will mentally prepare okay this week i have an eight
mile run okay where where's that going to take me where do i want to go there are lots of different
routes near my house we live in a very runner and cyclist friendly community so i have lots of
options so where do i want to go do i want to go south do i want to go north do i want to go through
the neighborhood i sit down and i plan out my route depending on the mileage do i need to add a loop
here do i need to add a street over here plan it out the night before i lay out all the things i'm
going to need the socks the fuel the water all of the things my outfit almost as though it's a race
just so i know i have everything morning of get ready get dressed and i go out the door i start my
watch put on some music or podcast maybe the healthy runner podcast i don't know yes and you know my
long run through on thursdays that's when the healthy runner podcast drops so it's usually
pretty exciting so that's how you do it it's pretty pretty simple you really don't need to make too
many other adjustments to your routine than you would for a normal run i mean there is a little bit
of planning that goes into it to make sure you have fuel water you maybe want to take your phone on
a longer run in case your husband's car breaks i don't know your kids need to be picked up from
school something happens or you need to be picked up maybe you ran out of water i need someone to come
pick you up that may have happened to me a few times but you know it does take a little bit of
planning but it shouldn't be a stressful thing long runs should be fun and exciting so enjoy the
peace and quiet enjoy the music enjoy the miles and just have fun it's super fun i love long runs
all right so what i'm hearing is that it just requires a little bit more planning essentially
then our easier runs right or the shorter runs that we're doing during the week you just need to
think about more you know course wise and your route and make sure that you have your gear which
will get into like what we actually need to take with us during this run but i completely agree with
you as far as like i love my long runs just because you know most of the runners that you know we
talked to on a daily basis most of runners in our program you know i always ask like what's your
why you know why is it important for you to be able to get over this injury and get back to running
or why is it important for you to be able to you know run your fastest half marathon or marathon
and it's always you know stress relief right like i love getting outdoors you know clearing my head
or helps manage my stress and there's nothing better than the long run to do that because it
really allows you to fully decompress like you're thinking about a lot out there right you're either
not thinking at all or you can like fully decompress and for those that have stressful jobs you know
you guys can relate if you have like a commute and use your car ride to like just either get peace
and quiet like you shut the doors and it's like boom you could just unwind before you like step in
your home and you know the kids are like screaming and you know getting dinner together
or you're listening to music whatever meditating podcast and it's like your unwind time like the
long run for me is like my total like unwind time and you know it is helpful if you can do it and
not have to like rush back for something so that's why i think your earlier point was a valid and
it was a good point too on you know make sure it's it's that day or that time period where
you don't need to rush back and you don't have to like you know suddenly turn your long run into
like a super hard run because now you're trying to sprint back home to make it back in time to do
whatever you had to do on your schedule which has definitely happened before but in general i would
say try to make sure you plan it out where that is not the case so let's talk pacing what piece
should we be doing our long run set it depends most most of the long run should be at your easy
pace your easy conversation pace you should be able to i don't really run with anybody but you
should be able to run with the buddy and have a full on conversation the entire run and not be
gasping for air and not being like hold on hold on you should be able to have a conversation with
somebody i always tell my clients if you can sing the national anthem or say the pledge of allegiance
while you're running even if you're by yourself people might think you're crazy but it's fine
then you're going at a conversational pace if you can run with your mouth closed only breathing
out of your nose you're going at an easy pace once we start gasping for air or you could hear
yourself breathing we need to slow it down now there will be times when in a training cycle your
coach might have a spicy long run in the schedule for you so something with a little bit of speed work
and when that happens yes you will be running at a faster pace but the majority of our long runs
should be done at an easy pace right no i did it's a great point and and for those that um
haven't listened to many other episodes before when coach Whitney is referring to a little spice we
get that from coach lu on our team the aforementioned coach lu um and we had talked about actually
you know the purpose and like when we add those in in episode 139 on the healthy runner podcast
where we did really cover the topic with coach lu of like advanced marathon training and we talked
about you know the benefits and who is really the best type of runner or when to add in some of
this what we call long run with spice and it's really just adding in some of the shorter elements
of running that is at a faster pace right so now you've taken your long run and you've essentially
turned it into a quote-unquote workout right or a some people use the term quality run or some
people might say i'm adding in a speed day so you can kind of turn that long run into a speed day but
i think the biggest thing for those that are listening is this is only something that is
added into the plan not just because you want to get faster as a runner and you want to get a PR
but it's added into the plan when you can do that distance easily and you've covered that
consistently and stayed healthy over the course of a period of time and usually we're talking months
if not years so if you know you've only let's say let's use a half marathon distance for an example
and you've only you know done a handful of 12 mylers before you've ever trained for a half marathon
in your next half marathon training cycle i wouldn't necessarily recommend you doing you know a 12
mileer and now turning it into a workout and adding in some of these faster miles it really wants to
be the runner who has covered that distance consistently has done a bunch of easy 12 mylers and they know
it's not that stressful on their body and they've recovered easily from it they haven't been injured
then that's when you can start delving into some of this faster mileage during that run and a lot
of people do this in different ways there's usually you know we start to add in on the second half of
that run what we call like a progression run and you know each mile you're starting to run a little
faster or you can do different mile repeats at a certain pace so whether you're training for the
marathon and you really want to practice marathon pace so what you're going to be doing for your race
or you know a certain amount of miles let's say you do mile repeats or you do it for two miles and
there's a recovery mile another two miles and some you know might even run at the end when fatigue
is setting in a mile or two at even threshold or tempo pace so those can look different we kind of
cover that topic with coach lu in that advanced marathon training episode but just to give folks
an idea of kind of what we're talking about and really who is that beneficial for but most likely
if you are listening to this episode i'm going to assume that you are more on the beginner side of
things and you really want to as coach whitney said keep these long runs at that easy piece because
this is already stressed to your body because now you're running the longest duration that you know
your body is ever run right as you build up so that in of itself is adding stress and load to your
tissues and if you increase that variable at the same time of running faster and speed adding speed
in there then usually that's where the balance is off and the tissues don't tolerate all of that
load and then that's how we get injured right and that's how you start to have an it band that gets
a little cranky or your plantar fascia starts to act up or you know your Achilles tendon really
starts to give you a little symptoms so that's kind of how we manage that and how we prevent those
injuries and and really i guess what we're also talking about we had talked about recovery before
in kind of looking at our six steps to growing as a runner everything we're talking about today
guys is really part of the run plan that we talked about in that six steps to growing as a runner
and building that strong durable house so if you want a strong durable body to be able to run
distances whether it's 5k 10k half marathon marathon or ultra you need to incorporate the long runs
but do it in a smart way and that's kind of what we're alluding to here in you know looking at
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for your next long run trust me you won't regret it all right so let's talk about some fueling
you know do we do our long runs fasted like we just kind of get up and and hit out the door
and and do these fasted because you know i might be you know thinking that michael was you know to
run a half marathon or run a marathon because i really want to lose 20 pounds coach Whitney so
shouldn't i like not eat anything so which would ensure like i burn fat off my body and you know
so that would be more efficient right if i eat something then obviously i'm just burning
the the food that i'm eating so you know wouldn't that be like counterproductive can you hear a little
sarcasm in my voice you guys can't see me because it's a podcast but i'm over here laughing because
this is all so silly no you cannot do your long runs without fueling beforehand actually you should
really be fueling before all of your runs essentially to fuel your body you really don't want to be
running on an empty stomach i mean yes there are times where we wake up and we literally have 30
minutes to get in a three mile run so there's not really time it occasionally that can slide
but these long runs you need absolutely 100% need to fuel before you go out the door
now that's going to look different for everybody because what i eat before a long run is going to
be different than what Dwayne eats now i'm probably going to say this funny he's going to laugh at me
but some people eat a bagel and peanut butter before they go out for a long run and that's great
as New York is say bagel i tried so hard i tried i do a banana and i do a granola bar
and that works fantastic for me some people just have one of their gels that they are going to eat
during their long run which i'll talk about before their long run and that works some people do
oatmeal there there's so many different things that you can try but you need to eat something you
can not just have a cup of coffee first of all really bad idea before you run and go out the door
something to eat some water then while you're running you need to be fueling your body throughout
your run now that also is going to look different fueling is so person specific so like i said what
works for me is not going to work for you but you need to be fueling throughout your long run now
this is something you can work with your coach about when how often what how much all of the
specifics so i'm just going to kind of give you a general guideline so anything longer than 60
minutes an hour long run you should fuel definitely before and maybe at the halfway point for that one
some people say 90 minutes i say 60 because it's not worth going into your lichen source it's not
worth being exhausted because you didn't fuel just eat the fuel and you will feel fantastic
then throughout your run i recommend to my runners about every 40 minutes some people that's going
to be every 30 minutes some people it's 45 or 50 some people go by distance so when i did my marathon
i did every four miles because my brain couldn't do math while i'm running that it like physically
hurts me to try and do math while i run so i can figure out four miles that was super easy so that's
what i did and what you consume is going to be very personal as well i like gels just because
they're simple they're easy it's like two slurps and they're done some people like the chews like
the little they're almost like gummy bears squares some people like gummy bears some people do pretzels
sometimes on my long runs i eat an uncrustable peanut butter and jelly sandwich it is so personal
and individual you need to find what works for you and there are a bajillion technical number
different things that you can try so don't be discouraged if you don't find that perfect fuel
on that first time you try something keep trying different things my biggest recommendation from that
do not try two things in one long run because you won't know which one hurt your tummy
and the other one is you need to do it for at least two long runs to make sure it actually works
because the first time could be a fluke so those are my tips for trying new gels or fuels
and then after you run now i am horrible at this absolutely horrible because i come home i start
foam rolling i put my legs up on the wall i'm starting to scroll instagram you know i'm posting
myself these i'm doing all these things and i forget to fuel when i get home and you would think
well coach with me that's stupid you're a coach you should be doing these things it just i just
i don't i do drink chocolate milk and i am adding dairy back in yay but fair life chocolate milk is
lactose free so for those of you that are dairy free you might be able to handle fair life but
chocolate milk has a pretty balanced carb and protein ratio making it ideal for recovery
but after you run you want to make sure that you are getting some carbohydrates you are getting
some protein you are getting a little bit of fat within everybody's a little bit different 30 to
60 minutes of getting back from your long run you also want to make sure you are rehydrating
water water water electrolytes make sure you're rehydrating and you're refueling because it will
make your recovery so much better now you don't want to skip fueling on your long run because
you're going to feel terrible so practice it talk with your coach talk with one of us reach out
to dwayne or myself and we'd be happy to chat with you about fueling but it is definitely something
that needs to happen before during and after your long runs yeah now you bring up so many great
points there and i guess to summarize that what i'm hearing is you definitely need a fuel
not only for kind of energy purposes for the run but your legs are going to feel lighter they're
not going to feel as heavy so like if you've been a person who's never eaten during your runs and
your legs always feel heavy and your long runs just suck like you're like i can you know never run
10 miles and it's it's just so laborious to like build up for like a half marathon or marathon
or even a 10k honestly because you don't have that energy it's amazing once you start fueling for
your runs and we've talked about this we've worked our registered dietitian many episodes on the
podcast as well it's just it's just such a a light bulb moment honestly for like you know all the
runners that we work with in our coaching program that once they start fueling and i know for me i
was always like a fasted runner when i first started you know 12 years ago and you know once i
started fueling it's just been like night and day so you have to fuel you know for performance
element efficiency standpoint and you're gonna have to fuel your race anyway so you might as well
practice during these long runs because if not then you know your gi system isn't going to be
used to running with food in it right so we're actually training your gi system to tolerate
food and fuel while you're running so it's almost like training our muscles to run you have to train
your gi system to tolerate you know doing its thing and those smooth muscles like surrounding
our organs like are starting to digest food while we're actually exercising so those are important
and then you know the after effects of recovery right like the reason why we have to refuel is to
stimulate that recovery process so your long runs don't feel so taxing on your body like you're not
you know totally zonked of energy later in the day to like play with the kids the next morning
you're not waking up and feeling like oh my goodness that was like the worst thing ever that i ran
this 10 mile long run this you know 12 mile long run you know you can actually function and a lot of
that is the recovery aspect and why and it's normal like you mentioned coach Whitney that you know
you don't want to eat right away because that's normal like your body is essentially all your
blood flow is still going to your skeletal muscles and it's not going to your gi system and it doesn't
want to digest things like no one feels hungry after a long run guys and don't think that it's just
your body like you don't need to eat because you're not hungry and you think like nobody is hungry
after a long run or a race right away it like i don't know anyone that that happens to but
you have to eat in order to stimulate that recovery process like coach Whitney said
ending the carbs plus the protein with a little bit of fats in there to really kick start that
recovery process so many many great points there one point that i just thought about that
we didn't mention earlier that i do want to mention is the length of the long runs
and i know there's a little debate out there there's some variability so i guess i just wanted to get
your take on you know what's the longest long run you would ever give someone you know maybe we
could talk about you know maybe marathon training you know what is the longest long run someone
should do and then i'll give you my take so there are a couple of circumstances so i have a client
Emily who i've i've helped her through two marathon training cycles and a handful two or three maybe
half marathons and we're working together now but she was really she had a time goal that she was
really really hoping to hit she didn't hit it the first one that we were working together so the
second one we decided to do a 22 mile long run not there was no speed work in it whatsoever it was
22 miles just to kind of give her a little bit extra confidence maybe it's the right word um she
did go a little bit faster for those last two miles just because she was feeling good it wasn't
prescribed but typically for a marathon i would cap it at 20 if the runner has done all the things
but has you know hit the benchmarks that i'm looking for that they're consistent with their
running that they're not missing a lot of long runs that they're not running the runs too fast
if those things are not happening i might suggest only an 18-mileer because i don't want them to get
injured so it is totally dependent on the runner and the individual and the goals for myself
20 was a great stopping point for my long runs it time wise fatigue wise all the things 20 was
perfect for me now i probably would have been fine with an 18-mileer but having that extra
two miles just gave me that confidence that yeah there i can finish six more miles i can totally
do that so it's totally dependent on the runner but definitely 20 you don't need to go any further
than 20 when you're training for a marathon yeah and i i completely agree with your take
the big thing here guys and i'll take it from like a physical therapist standpoint is most
you know runners get injured on the 16 the 18 the 20-mileer before marathon training and
really what this comes down to like those are going to be your greatest risk factors for
getting a running-related injury because it all relates to the duration that you're out there
and how much time you're on your feet generally speaking you know i really don't recommend runners
running more than three and a half hour tops so whatever you know pace you're running at so if you
are a 12-minute 13 14-minute pace per mile person you know your longest long runs is going to be a
lot shorter and sometimes that could be tough for folks right because they see plans out there and
they say marathon oh i got to run a 20-mileer in order for me to complete 26 and even that i don't
even think that's long enough like i have to run 22 in order to run 26 like if you could run 20
you can definitely run 26 and same goes for the half marathon by the way literally if you could run
10 miles for your longest long run you can run 13.1 like physically you can do it on race day even
though mentally you're gonna second guess yourself and be like no there's no way but trust us like
we've seen many many runners do this right if you can hit those benchmarks you can definitely
complete the marathon however it really comes down to and again like you know social media if
you're comparing yourself to all the runners you're like wow they did a 22 and like Emily for example
right like Emily did a 22 or this person wow they ran 24 miles before their marathon maybe i
should be doing that that person who's running you know 24 miles for their marathon or they're
running 22 they're a faster runner so their longest long run is done in a shorter amount of time
so that's where you're gonna really see and that's the big differentiator there if someone you know
we got like a coach loo for example right who you know his easy piece is like by tempo or
threshold piece i think his easy face like eight minute piece right for his easy runs and he might
be doing that for his long run he's going to be done a lot quicker right with that 20-mileer
so he might do more like during his marathon training than the 20 miles because it's it's a
matter of that time on feet and then the other thing i'll add there is experience level and like
someone like Emily you bring up a great example she's done many marathons right so this wasn't
her first marathon right and you know it kind of goes to the experience level of the runner the
durability of the runner and if you are an often injured runner then you are definitely not the
person that we would recommend crossing that 20 threshold or even for if it's your first couple
of half marathons getting even close to 13 right we might cap you at 11 miles as your longest run
sometimes 12 right so all of those variables go into play when we're looking at how long should
your longest run be when training for a half marathon or when training for a marathon
so i want you guys to think about that and then if you are listening to this and you're really looking
to take it to the next level you've done many many marathons many many half half marathons you can
even for half marathon training like i don't know i think you know half marathons my favorite
distance i think i've done like 20 something of them you know now with my half marathon training i run
a 14-mileer and now i'm even you know going to build that up actually in this next training cycle to
doing a 15 and a 16 because of the benefits that you talked about before coach Whitney of building
that aerobic capacity and base and for me now that's not a huge stretch because i've done it
during marathon training you know last fall so just thinking about when we cross that threshold
there's a rationale and there's been years a body of work that's built up to that point where we can
cross that threshold so hopefully that just answers you know that common question you'll hear
and you'll also see percentages of weekly mileage out there guys some people say 20 percent some
people say 30 percent but it really matters is all those other variables on like how much percentage
your long run is for your weekly mileage and i wouldn't like perseperate on any of those numbers
by the way and you'll see different like coaches and schools of thought on what that should look like
so i would just keep your you know make it your longest run of the week and don't get caught up
on too much of like those percentages in mileage because it really matters if you're
a faster runner we'll put that in air quotes versus like a slower runner and it's going to take
you a longer amount of time to actually do that amount of mileage and it's that longer amount of
time on your feet that we're most concerned about in really increasing that risk level of actually
getting a running related injury while you're training and doing your long runs
absolutely i agree 100 percent all right let's get to one of your favorite topics gear
because you're a gearhead as we said you're bio so what do we need like gear wise what do we
need to take with us for a long run so i'm going to start with what we actually need and then i'll
go into what's also fun to have so you need to use your good running shoes whatever you normally
wear whether you wear hats sunglasses whatever you normally take on your shorter run throughout
the week you need that stuff but you also need to have water with you whether that's in a hydration
pack whether that's in a handheld whether you are going to do laps and come back to your car that's
going to have water or i have a friend who plants a bottle of water under a certain tree that they
run back and forth on the path and come back for their water as they pass you need to have water
you need to have fuel which we talked about you can carry your fuel in your hydration vest
you can carry it in a waist belt you can carry it in your hands you can put it in your pockets
some people put it in their sports bra which sounds uncomfortable to me but if it works it works
and i have no personal experience by the way with that
yeah t-v- i will not do that that sounds really chafy and awful no thank you
that's really all you actually need for a long run or i would say because you just mentioned
chafy i would probably say right like your anti-chief cream or bomb yeah right this would be the run
that you definitely need that for unless you're just like one of those people i get a couple clients
or like i've never chafed in my life and i don't know any of my runs and i'm like and you run like
and you sweat a lot they're like yeah i'm like hey god bless you like that's amazing you have
really good skin yes i don't want to jinx it but i didn't chafe at all during my race that's awesome
yeah and i i put it this is really weird probably tmi for everybody listening so i apologize but i
only really ever put it on my toes i don't know and i did but i got up at 230 and the race started at
630 so i'm pretty sure it all like worn off at that point and i really i had one toe that
has like a small blister but it's not a big deal so i was very lucky lucky in that sense but yes
chafing cream i recommend squirrels nut butter not just because of the fun name but it works really
well and it lasts longer than the others i found yes completely agree i love that stuff and yeah i
use it on all of my long runs even in the winter guys when i'm not even sweating a whole lot tell
you the truth i find it's like super important all right what else do we need
i mean i like my watch you don't need to run with a watch if you are really good at judging
distance or you know your routes really well a watch is good your cell phone i've mentioned the
hydration packs several times mine is literally my security blanket i wear it on all my runs whether
or two miles or 20 it has water it's got small first aid kit in it i keep my gels i keep my
electrolyte drinks in it i keep myself everything so you can stick your phone in your
in your hydration vest you can carry it in an arm band having a phone is good in case there's
an emergency either someone needs to get ahold of you or you yourself have an emergency
or you want music because that's always fun so that's another thing music headphones are good
i have really a really small head so i can't wear air pods when i run so i wear the
oh they changed their name they used to be a shocks are they just now they're shocks yeah
now they're shocks okay so now i wear the shocks i've had like four pairs of them but
i wear those because they rest over my ear and they're super safe you can hear everything around
you my dad is super paranoid that i'm gonna get hit by a car even though where i run is probably 30
yards away from the actual street he's convinced someone's gonna go rogue and like run off the road
so i wear the aftershocks so that he's happy i can hear cyclists i can hear the coyotes i can hear
people it's awesome they are fantastic and i feel like they are like the safest headphones around
if you're going to run with headphones music and you want to be safe i also run with salt i've
mentioned that i there are a couple different forms you can get salt tabs which are like little
almost like children's tylenol they're the little chewables they're very chalky
but they do the trick i have since moved on from those and i now use base performance salts
they are the have the same components they have electrolytes like they have potassium and magnesium
and sodium and all the things that you need they come in a little vial which if you are going to put
the vial in your hydration pack you need to make sure you close the lid so you don't spill all the
salts out while you're running happens here personal experience both of us yep yep i told my client
that the other day i was like kuchwini and i both made this mistake the first time we got it we didn't
close it all the way and then it was everywhere and mine was my shorts like my shorts have a little
pocket in it and it was like salt everywhere i was like are you kidding me oh man no and i have
another client that ran new york city marathon this past year in 2022 and i mentioned to emmit
about the saltage so he was going to take him he's like i'm so glad you told me to make sure that
that lid is shut because he had put him in his hand held or he had taped it onto his hand held
or something and he was like if i hadn't that would have just been all gone within like a first few
miles because the lid it's just it's gone but i keep that in my hydration vest you guys hydration
vests are awesome if you don't have one they are an investment but for reals i mean i have two but
i've been running with like say purple one for four years so it's worth the investment like for real
get one and the other thing that you should bring with you is a smile you should always smile at
runners that pass you and cyclists and it's really fun to play this game sweet or sour i don't know
if you guys ever played that as a kid but i like to see the person coming at me and i try to guess
if they're going to say hi back to me or if they're going to totally ignore me and then i get really
excited if i if i win the game and guess correctly so bring a smile smile at everyone because you never
know who's going to like need that smile who's having a bad day or who's counting people that smile
so there you have it those are my things that you should bring and the things you need i like that
little distraction and also helps you get through that long run and it always is better to smile
when you smile at someone it definitely it almost gives you a little energy as well
and i've utilized that at races as well no matter how painful that point of the race is
all right thank you for sharing all of those tips there i totally agree with all of those
i don't know if we i don't know if you mentioned hat and sunglasses did we say that in the beginning
because this one might be and even if you think it's going to rain you know maybe an outer shell
or outer layer and then the hat is key because when you're out there for a while sometimes the
weather can change right so you guys want to think about you know taking a little bit more
especially when the weather is going to be you know kind of shaky you want to plan um ahead definitely
yes well and a hydration pack is great for that because you can take off that long sleeve or the
arm sleeves or your gloves whatever and you can throw it in the back of your hydration pack mine
has this little it's called a shove pocket in the back so i don't have to take it off i can reach
behind me and just like shove it it's like a hoodie like the pockets on a hoodie it's kind of like
that it goes all the way through so you can just put all your stuff in there you just carry it on
like ditch it on the side of the road yeah unfortunately my shoulder mobility is not as good as yours so
i would have to take my pack off and then put it in that pocket i'm like just thinking about that
like i can't reach back there all right so like i'm back so let's talk about uh recovery after the
long run what are the things we should be doing after we're done with our long run we talked about
refueling so that i would say is key if you're going to do anything after your long run in terms
of recovery refuel have a bagel with peanut butter have let me get it right one of these times have
a protein shake with some fruit that has some carbohydrates in it i really love like a chocolate
plant-based protein powder with spinach and cherries fantastic or i always put spinach because
it's a secret vegetable put blueberries banana because there's some peanut butter like smoothies
are great my husband refuses to eat them in the winter so that wouldn't work but you could have
oatmeal with some berries or you could have yogurt with some granola and berries there are so many
options you really want protein and um carbohydrate a little bit fat other than that you want to
rehydrate which we already talked about you want to foam roll your foam roller will be your best
friend after a long run like you can't foam roll too much and i always say to my clients like just
do it like just keep going there's not like a time limit don't stop at five minutes don't stop it
whatever just keep going you can foam roll before your long run too which kind of helps to activate
and wake up those muscles i like to do that foam roll compression socks uh i maybe need to
redo that video to show off how to easily get your compression socks on but compression socks
are going to be your friends in the socks not just the sleeves because you want all of the blood
flow going up your leg you don't want it to cool around your feet around your ankles
which can happen when you wear just the sleeves that only cover your calves so those are okay for
like during the race if you want to wear compression but you also want to wear your awesome bellegas
you can do that but after the race put on the full full on compression socks good point and
personally i enjoy a nice run the next day a short run i feel like it helps to kind of
re-loose re-loosen that's not worth loosening up my muscles again and kind of get the blood flow
going to help the recovery process versus have again complete rest day the next day
yeah no it's definitely good to get those legs going so let's talk about the five most common
long run mistakes that you see in most runners i can attest to doing all of these at some point
so if you are guilty of any of these don't feel bad because we've all done them number one running
too fast you don't want to run too fast around run at our easy pace and less prescribed in your
workout too not building up the distance gradually so jumping from a six-mile long run into a 12-mile
long run don't do it bad idea you're going to get hurt and then you're going to regret it so don't
do it listen to your coach follow your plan if you happen to miss a long run say you missed your
eight-mileer don't jump into your ten-mileer the next week talk to your coach and figure out what
you can do and how you get back into the swing of the long runs because just missing one and
jumping to the next distance is the same as going up too fast going out too fast
uh number three not fueling before during or after your long run you need to be doing all three
like for reals not taking water with you would be number four because you don't realize especially
this time of year in the winter you don't realize that you are sweating and you are losing
not only water but electrolytes in your sweat you need to replenish that you need to be making
sure that you're drinking you're not going to feel thirsty like you do in the summer when it's
like five million degrees and you're running in an oven so bring that water sip on it i tell
me guys even if you just take a sip every mile that's going to be better than nothing so try
to do more frequently if you can but bring water with you handheld hydration pack whatever you
need to do to bring it with you bring water last and you might think this is silly but it's not
knowing where the bathrooms are is my last common mistake that runners make because sometimes you
eat something the night before that doesn't agree with you and you don't know it until you're halfway
into your run in the winter a lot of the porta puddies disappear a lot of the park bathrooms get
locked knowing where the gas stations are knowing where the public facilities are whatever those might
be is going to be super important even if you just have to go number one as my son would say
knowing where the gas station is that's friendly and gonna let you just go in and go to the bathroom
and leave not have to buy anything knowing where those are is super important you don't want to get
stuck i have a friend that i used to run with that had to um donate her belega sock because we didn't
know where the bathroom was and then had to finish the run with one sock so you don't you need to know
it's sounds silly but plan your route so you have at least one somewhere totally not silly at all
is definitely key and i haven't ordered anything uh to eat at a mcdonald's and i don't even know
15 years maybe but i visit mcdonald's on a weekly basis during my long runs i hit it on the way out
i hit it on the way back uh because it's strategically uh planned at a great spot when i'm really
pre-loading with some hydration before my long run and then it's at a great spot where it's three
miles from my house so it's like perfect time to kind of get it you know in the beginning and then
i'm good for whatever those middle miles are and then i get it on the way back so yeah thank you
for all of those tips and you know if you can change one thing about the misconception of the
long run what would that be it doesn't have to be hard don't make it hard it's easy it's fun
it might not be physically easy but it should it's you shouldn't dread your long runs they are
meant to be another piece of the puzzle they are meant to help you so enjoy them make them fun
create a playlist that is just for your long runs listen to one podcast only on your long runs
if you long run on the treadmill have one Netflix show that you're going to binge on your long run
because doing 10 miles 20 miles on a treadmill you need something entertaining so it doesn't have
to be hard enjoy it yeah it's great and i would add into there that it is probably one of the most
critical runs as we mentioned before because of the benefits that you need to be doing as a runner
year round not only when you're training for marathon not only when you're training for a half marathon
but year round for your overall health to stay healthy as a runner we need to allow our bodies to
adapt to tolerate a quote-unquote long run no matter what that mileage is but you need one
run in your weekly plan from a longevity standpoint that your body is going to get used to end it's
going to get more efficient so that's how we get faster as runners we get more efficient
when we run and we can run longer distances and be able to do those for faster times
so super super critical and yeah thank you for all of the tips that you shared today coach Whitney
the what the why the how of the long run i think this is uh going to be super beneficial for so
many runners out there and if you're a runner who's struggling to get faster or stay healthy
as a runner to meet your running goals or if you're a beginner and you just need a little bit more
guidance on how you program these long runs that we've been talking about today in a safe manner
so you don't get hurt especially if you're a quote-unquote injury prone right you've had many
injuries in the past that's exactly what we do with our one-on-one high touch point signature
spark healthy runner coaching program so within our program we have a team behind you guiding you
each step of the way you have a PT a registered dietitian and one of the amazing coaches on our
team like coach Whitney here um providing you the structure support and accountability to enjoy
lifelong injury free running so if you want to see if you're a good fit to work with coach Whitney
or anyone on our team then you can schedule a strategy call with myself and you can grab one
of the remaining slots that's on my calendar each month and we could talk about your running goals
and see if it is a good fit for you uh you can simply schedule your call by going to learn
dot spark healthy runner dot com forward slash coaching and coach Whitney this has been amazing
it's always great catching up with you and you know hitting that record button every once in a while
to you know share some of your awesome knowledge with our running community so thanks for taking
the time out of your day to share that with our community of course it's always fun I love
talking about running and thank you guys who have been listening to this and remember the next step
is you need to implement right so don't only kind of take in some knowledge and wisdom but you got
to implement it into your training so if you've been watching this on our spark healthy runner
youtube channel or if you're listening to this during a run hopefully you're having an amazing
run enjoy the rest of your run and let's maintain a strong mind a strong body and just keep running
until next time bye
thank you as always for listening to the healthy runner podcast where we help you get stronger
run faster and enjoy lifelong injury free running if you found this content valuable
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runner and you are ready to invest in becoming a lifelong injury free runner head to spark healthy
runner.com to apply for a one-on-one signature coaching program thank you again i mean it from
the bottom of my heart that i appreciate you for listening and sharing this podcast with a running
friend who can use the help now go and crush your run today see you next week