[Scholesm]

I’ve read through the book twice and go back to it constantly but I don’t remember seeing a specific answer to my question (it might be in there somewhere… there’s lots of info!)

Let’s say I’m going for a 4 hour trail run in zone 1 but end up in the upper range of my z1… let’s say in those 4 hours I get 30km. Would I get more benefit from slowing down the pace even more and say do the same 30km but over a 5 hour period? (While keeping to the lower end of z1).

I know in the book I recently reread how it’s good to do a both ends of the heart rate zone but let’s say there’s some weeks where I could only do one of these long sessions? Is duration the ultimate factor here or is there a certain point of diminishing returns where I should focus on the speed to heart rate ratio? (Talking z1/2 base building specific)

Topic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on June 24, 2019 at 6:39 pm #23928

You are correct that duration is the most important aerobic training stimulus. However, if your goal is to run faster and cover more ground in the same time then you will need to do at least some of your base training at higher intensities and faster paces. At some point long and slow becomes a less valuable stimulus than shorter and faster.

If you’ve been training like this for many months then I think you will get more benefit out of a slightly faster 30km than a slower 30km. If you struggle to make 30km then keep them slow.

Scott

[Scholesm]

Scholesm on June 24, 2019 at 10:18 pm #23931

Thanks for the reply. I was just using 30km as an example, I generally try to have slower and longer runs most of the time while still having the shorter faster runs. Come August I’ll be back to a new training cycle and wanted to build the base up even more and was curious about duration vs speed within z1/2 base building.