How Slower Runners Train For Longer Distances 

Great video on a great topic! As a heavier runner, I would like to add my two cents as well. Keep a log of your training: Now whether it's strava. Garmin, Polar or a notebook, doesn't matter. But having that data to look back on really helps you get perspective on how much you've accomplished so far. A run is a run: There might be some official rule stating what qualifies for a run, but if you tell yourself you're going out for a run and you actually step outside and put one foot after the other, then it does qualify as a run! whether it's 400m or 42km, or 2:30min/km or 10:00min/km, doesn't matter! Lampposts for the win: if you want to pick up running but it feels frightening, try going for a walk and just run the distance of two lampposts, or any distance of your choosing. And go back to walking again. Then when you feel recovered, try another one. That's it. You just ran! Running is hard: regardless of how fast or long you're going, running is hard. And doing hard work makes you winded and sweaty, that's how it works, it's completely fine! And lastly, one statistic you forgot about marathon times. You know how fast an average person runs a marathon? Average people do NOT run marathons! :D

Thank you for making this video. It's a bit harder to find advice for long distance runners in the 5-6hr ranges which can be frustrating! Really appreciate this

As a slow runner this is great to see. Thank you for this! Zone 2 training has been a huge breakthrough for me. As I've grown older I've found a lot more benefit from focusing on S+C than grinding out a ton of miles every week. I basically swapped my S+C and Running sessions during my last block and saw a 30 min. improvement at my last half marathon race.

Thank you thank you so much for considering and passing on advice to slower runners. I am 72 and returned to running 2 years ago after 30 or so years non running. My pb back in the day was 3.09 for the marathon and now it’s 5.20 and am desperately trying for a sub 5 hours which would give me good for age to get into London. So much youtube content are for sub 4, sub 3 etc and not applicable for me. Please follow up this topic in future episodes including what speed work could be included and rest days etc for the 4.30-5.30 marathoners and whether to include faster than marathon pace efforts within a long run. Thank you again and I hope your reach the 100k subscribers also Mary is an inspiration again as her content is very balanced showing her difficult runs as well as the good ones.

Walking is so underrated! So many people expect to go straight off the couch to running a half or a full in a few months. Long hours (3+) on the weekends are possible, but you have to build up to it slowly like everything else and really focus on staying in zone 1. Split sessions are a great suggestion as well! Last year, I committed to strength training each week. This year, my old joints have led me into yoga as well. It takes a lot of extra work (non-running) work to maintain a solid foundation. Great video!

I did a 20k yesterday and I had to walk for a minute right around the 12th mile and I always get mad at myself, like i shouldn't need to. Im going to keep telling myself that its the 20k that counts, not a minute of walking 🎉

Structured run-walk long runs helped me get back up to marathon distance again, and improve my times. The Galloway method is a great way of building time on feet, as well as endurance

I hope you guys get 100k, your channel is the reason I started running with any consistency ❤

Looooved this video so much, feels so relatable! As a slow runner I was concerned about how to progress the long run in relationship to distance, this gave me exactly what I needed! Thank you so much for such great content!

Thanks for making this video! It is such a neglected topic

Slow runner here and training for an ultramarathon- this is such a helpful video!! I am the runner who takes 3h for 24km and learning that from now on I can split my long runs into two makes those run days with 30km a lot more manageable, especially reducing the risk of injury. I also just watched two of your other videos and subscribed immediately, hope you hit 100k!

Much appreciated by an older, slower runner!

You’ve answered so many questions all at once! Thank you so much! I love you guys!

Thank you so much. Love love your content. Hoping you guys reach 100k sooonest. I'll definitely share this and other videos for wider reach. Keep up the good work.

Solid advice as always . Thanks for sharing. As an older (67 ) year old runner I am all about injury prevention and slowly building up my pace and distance. First 5 K in several years now next weekend and I have been slowly building up my running time and logging it on All Trails. Your training, stretching , and conditioning tips are spot on . I have subbed your channel and always look forward to your videos.

This was great timing....i needed this one

This is the video I needed to see this Monday morning, especially after a disappointing half marathon yesterday. Thank you guys and good luck with the 100k! (already a subscriber here)

Love this channel! 💛

Love your channel ❤️ One of my favorite things is just seeing your relationship it seems amazing. Thanks for all the awesome running information!

Jam-packed seasoned advice!!!! Enjoy Boston! I hope Whats good Roberto meets up with you all!

Love this video.....as a person who just hit the sub 5hr marathon it's nice to hear all of this. I have one more marathon in my plan for this year and hoping to go out with a bang and get close to 4hr 30min....I really enjoy your content and I hit the subscribe button about a year ago

Great video guys, I’ve got my first marathon soon and so under prepared but will just keep going and get to the end! 🏅

Just did a 12-miler for the first time in literally nearly 20 years. I was absolutely adamant about keeping it low and slow, and I did 90% of it breathing thru my nose and keeping HR constrained. STILL took two full days to recover lol. Running is very humbling and the only thing that has worked for me in this phase of running life is removing the ego, being consistent, and extra rest. "It's a marathon, not a foot race."

100k let’s go! Liking the sound of those short runs during week and sat plus sun longer distance.

Great vid guys👍

👍 thanks for the information that all runners need. Especially me! 🏃

I really like the idea of splitting the long run. I’m super slow so I absolutely see that in my future if I keep upping my mileage. I was just thinking how to even train effectively for my half marathon when my current long run (9 miles) already takes me 2 hours 🥴 Overall it can be kind of discouraging being a slow runner; I’ve been in a bit of a running rut lately so I’ll def implement some of these tips. Thanks for the vid!!

This is great advice, thank you. I really want to do a marathon next year. I will definitely be using the split long run. I'm spending this year building volume as I've had a knee injury for the past 28 months and don't want to rush into a marathon this year.

Great video and congrats on being so close to 100k subs! Keep up the great work guys 💪

As a slower runner, this was so helpful, thank you! I’ve been running consistently for over a year and love it but never actually considered some of these points but I think they could really help me :)

Thank you so much. As an over 50 doing my first marathon in October in 5+ hours, the idea of splitting the long run is going to be good for me. I'd heard of it before, but you have given me the reassurance to put it into my plan. Thanks 😊

Very good advice as I definitely am quite slow and I’m always trying to push too fast. thank you both and good luck in Boston 😄

Great wisdom. Time. Effort. Mixed up terrain.

As an old and very slow runner, I actually focus on distance, not time, otherwise I'd never get any kilometres done. Injury has never been a problem - I figure cos it's so slow and low impact (and on trails). Oh, there's also a lot of walking, lol.

Thanks, this has helped so much for me today, London in 4 weeks and as a slower runner i was beging to think that I wasn't really ready for it. Ive been hitting 2-2.5 hours in training. I know its gonna be along day on feet. I best get out and walk too. Thanks for covering what other running channels dont go near Oh and I subscribed !!!

Great tips for those within those pace ranges. I found the Hansons plans where my weekly LR's were capped at 16 miles great until I started looking to run Sub 3:30 Marathons. Since then I have become more time and effort focused even though my next aim is to chip away at 3:05 and quicker. Strength work and consistentcy are still my current weak areas. All the best at Boston to you and Mary.

Zone 2 is great for the slow run and I love it. I disagree with the time though. As a slower runner my longest run of 20 miles takes 4 hours. My coach states it’s the build up that matters. Love the mix up of terrain.

Thanks for including slower runners in your family. I appreciate all the advice. I'm doing my first half marathon 6/1 and goal is 3 hrs but I'd be fine with 3.5-4 just want to complete it as the next step in my long journey of building health.

Thank you so much 😊

Nutrition for a 5-6 hour marathon can be an absolute killer. Especially if you're a bigger person burning ~ 800-1000 calories an hour. You don't really start to feel it until about the 3-4 hour mark and you just can't catch up. My first ultra was a looped course, and after about 6 hours in, I was chugging a full can of coke every 3 miles or so (so like 40-45 minutes) lol. Got me feeling a lot better after some heat issues.

Very helpful as someone looking at at 6hr for their first marathon

Great video. Just finished the Craic 10K in Belfast today in 58mins when my previous 10Ks were in the 1hr 8min range. Zone 2 running really contributed to this improvement. Hoping it stands me in good stead for the Belfast Marathon in May. 😊

Hey good content. I’m in the peak weeks of my marathon training and have adopted a plan where on runs longer than a half marathon I walk for exactly 1 minute every KM. I saw a huge leap in fitness and distance from doing this

This is the first time ive heard this advice from anyone thank you. I ran my first half marathon in December at 2hours 26 minutes and i was pushed to my limit. I have my second half in a week but its on a much harder course so i know ny time has a good shot of being slower with all the hills. I will definitely use this advice combined with the yoga and strength days your plan has that worked well on my first half to work towards my first ever marathon in october

Such a great video. Thank you. I’ve increased my mileage slowly by doing 1.5mile loops with 30 min rest in between. I’m 62.

Thank you for this. Exactly what I needed to hear. My long run this morning was 3 hours and I covered 26 km. I was just wondering what to do next !

7:56 Mary coming down and then realizing you’re recording 😂😂😂😂😂

I just entered the ultra trail running space after doing 2 marathons... the second took me 4 hours and 12 minutes. But now into longer distances 50k and 60k complete, I could not run the entire races. Uphill is brutal on messy terrain and I suck at ascents as my heart rate inclines as elevation does. But I love love love the training process of time on feet and working on different elements of my efforts. Super fun. This was helpful. I do wanna run more of the miles in the ultras...125 miler in May... we'll see. Goal, finish right now and next year see improvements. Good video....thank you.

Thank you for this! I'm a 5 hour marathon runner and I sometimes feel like I should be embarrassed about that time!

Longtime lurker; now a subscriber!

Thank you for this video. I have run a sub 2h half marathon last year, but my average heart rate was 167. It was hard and I definitely know that I could never maintain that effort for 4 hours. I usually try to keep my heart rate lower, but even when the effort feels okay, I mostly fail at it. I also do not see any increase in speed on my slow runs despite me trying to keep my heart rate down on most of my runs for over a year now. Now I usually run in hilly terrain, which explains part of it. I don’t know if I should maybe try to only run on flat terrain to keep a low heart rate, or if it is good to also get used to hills.

Thank you for thiiisssss

I really appreciated this video as a slower runner. For Tarawera 50k I only managed a longest run of 28k due to injury recovery. I ended up doing 3 weekends of split long runs. It really worked well and I had an amazing race. Thanks for another great video.

You might want to update the overall channel description. The statement that Mary is looking to “run a 1:30 marathon” is probably too ambitious even though she a super fastrunner 😊

I'm re-reading The Marathon Book by Neil Wilson Andy Etchells and Bruce Tulloh (printed in 1983). The book mentions the Finnish team of 4 that finished in the first ten - Kohlehmainen won in 2:32:35.. "the Finns swore by walking as the basis of their phenomenal endurance. Several claimed to walk about 60 kilometres weekly and run as far again."

I appreciate this video because I am training for ultra runs and my miles go into 6 hours and over

Thank you, I really needed this video! I'm a really slow runner and currently battling if it is possible for me to run a 3h half marathon in five months but maybe it is if I manage to stay injury free.

Wow, a video made just for me…😂😂😂

Super helpful video! I just started running last year and am hoping to run my first marathon in June. Did my first 12 mile run yesterday, and it took me 2.5 hours. Yikes! 😂

Im half way through doing a half marathon training program with a speed focus. I try to hit the paces my plan suggests, but because im not a fast runner AND im injury prone, i will often forgo the pace and train by effort. I use to feel like a failure not following my training plan perfectly, but its better in the long run, and keeps me my burning out or hurting myself.

Awesome video and I only just talked about this to my coach as I was always trying get in the distance in the past and ran for over 3.5hours to get my marathon pace (last on 4 hours 8)….i guess same principle applies if you are trying to break the 4 hours?

I’m a 3x/week runner and have added 2 days a week on my indoor bike. My average HR on easy runs is notably lower. It’s making a big difference, as is S&C, as older runners we gotta do it.

Back to back long run sessions is a great tool for non-slow runners training for beyond marathon distances!

Just found you guys today on RU-vid! Are you guys based in Chiang Mai, Thailand? I’m based here as well!

Another great video and I was interested in the diminishing returns comment beyond 3 hrs. Would you still take the same approach for longer events when you may expect to be moving for 12 hours? I'm now questioning how long my longest runs should be. It seems a big jump to have been doing 3 hour training runs then need to be on my feet for 4x that on the day. Currently up to 4 hour training runs and was planning to push it up to 6-8

You deserve to get to 100k! Rest video as usual

I would sub twice if I could! I can still hit the up thumb!

He won’t make a hard sell, but I will everybody out there wasn’t subscribe subscribe. We’re getting a wealth of information here in a joyful great way so go subscribe hit the light button. I’ll be the hard sell

Any advice for someone who has just dipped into doing longer runs (over 1h)? E.g., hydration/fuel/technique? Great video! =D The S&C is so important; a lesson I learnt too late, but really seeing the difference it makes, especially towards injury prevention, especially in the hips, knees, and ITBs.

How to decide which exercises to do for those 10-15 minutes after a run? I end up skipping them because I don't know what to do. I know I can't get through all the exercises I should do within that time range.

speed > hart rate zone?

For a 5h marathon, realistically how much difference is there between "marathon pace" and Z2?

I've noticed that you guys hardly ever wear your own merch in your videos. Why is that??

Yes...Only 1% of all women and 4% of all men marathon runners around the world manage to run a sub 3hr marathon.... I watch a lot of these videos...With all the Gadgets available..Pepole tend to focus more on the Gadgets and less on how they really feel...they go into races thinking their bodies is computers and miserably fail on their sub 3hr attemps....thank god I managed a 2hr28min way back before all this high tech bullshit ...we learned to pace ourself by listening to our bodies and not Gadgets... Good luck !!!