9 Top Tips For A Successful Long Run

The long run is a staple essential for many runner's training plans. There are tonnes of benefits to be gained from this type of workout, and I absolutely love them. In this article, I'll share 9 top tips to help you have a successful long run every single time. Let's go...

What is a long run?

A long run is exactly what it says on the tin. There’s no secret. It’s a run where you go for further than you ordinarily would in your training runs. The main objective is to increase your endurance so that you’ll have greater cardiovascular fitness, ready for race day and to become a stronger runner.

Runners training for races of all distances can benefit from long runs. Whether you’re a 5km or 10km runner, a half marathoner or marathoner, or an ultrarunner, everyone can up their training game by incorporating this workout in once a week.

I personally find them one of the most enjoyable components of my training regime. At the moment, my favourite long run is going from Detling, in Maidstone, to Ashford, in Kent, all along the beautiful North Downs Way trail.

Link to this Strava activity here.

In this article, I’ll share 9 top tips for a successful long run

1. Get a good nights sleep the night before

This is an obvious one, but something that many runners (myself included) occasionally fall down on.

Getting enough sleep is absolutely crucial to feel mentally alert, refreshed, and for good physical performance.

The Sleep Foundation recommend that healthy adults get at least 7 hours of sleep a night. I try to get 8 hours every night, and make this a priority the night before a long run.

I used to take the stance of sleep not being important, thinking ‘I’ll sleep when I’m dead.’ This was the wrong approach to take, because limiting your sleep has many negative consequences in your day-to-day life. Including in your running (and long run) performance. It’s like taking one step forward thinking you're making the most out of your evenings by cutting sleep down, to later take five steps backwards.

I read a book called Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, a sleep scientist, which breaks down the critical role sleep plays in humans. It goes into detail on the mental benefits, and touches on how sleep is crucial for athletes including muscle recovery, organ repair, and performing at your best. This book really shifted my mindset on sleep, and I now view it as a top priority for my health and athletic performance.

Sleep is important at all times, especially the night before a long run where your body will be under intense stress to perform for an extended period.

Top sleep tips include:

• Limiting exposure to bright lights an hour before bedtime.

• Putting your mobile phone in another room, away from bed, to eliminate temptation.

• Sleeping in a cool environment.

• Totally blocking out all lights.

• Not eating a heavy meal right before bed.

• Eliminating noises in your environment.
  

I made a video which covers top sleep tips for runners. You can watch it by clicking here.

2. Route Selection

When choosing a long run route, I always consider three factors:

1.       Distance – how far do you want to run? Make sure the distance aligns with your goals, and is realistic.

2.       Terrain – Do you want tricky terrain, on the trail, or flat and smooth on the road?

3.       Novelty – Ideally, you want to mix up the routes you’re running on. Whilst routine and familiarity is important, I believe keeping things fresh is important for staying mentally motivated and engaged.

I’d highly recommend a route building or discovery application to find new routes and trails. Personally, I use Garmin Connect to find new routes and I have heard that OS maps is a great application (UK only).

Once you have your route built, you can download it as a GPX file and load it up into your watch or mobile phone. You can then use this to navigate on the fly, during your long run.

3. Gear preparation

Make sure you have all the needed equipment ready for your long run prior to heading out the front door.

The gear you’ll need depends on a range of factors including:

• How close you are to civilisation and shops.

• How long you’re going to be running for.

• What time of day you’re going to be running during i.e., with daylight or at night.

• How intense your long run effort will be (pace, elevation).

• The terrain you’re running on (trail or road) and how technical this is.

Equipment needs for a long run vary massively, and depend on the above factors, but some staples include:

• A GPS running watch. I’d highly recommend one with a navigational feature so you can backtrack, if required. I use the Garmin Forerunner 945.

• A running pack.

• Water bottles for hydration.

• Nutrition like energy gels, bars, sandwiches, fruit, wraps.

• Reflective clothing (if at night)

• Fully charged mobile phone.

• Earphones (optional but I don’t recommend earphones when running on the trail at night for safety reasons).

• Shoes, appropriate for the terrain.
  

What I like to do is organise, pack and lay out all my long run gear the night before. This means all the preparation is done in advance, and I can go to bed without stressing that I’ve forgotten something. When it's time to run, all I need to do is put on my clothes on, put my pack on, and head out the front door.

No stress needed.

4. Nutrition

A long run will place significant demands on your body’s energy stores. It’s essential to make sure you’re fuelled properly before, during, and after your long run.

Before a long run, I prioritise healthy carbohydrates and I’ll eat a bowl of porridge with a chopped-up banana.

During my long run, I’ll top my energy stores up with an occasional gel, sandwich, or banana. I also have one bottle filled with water, and the other containing an electrolyte and water mix (I use Tailwind).

Afterwards, I focus on carbohydrates and lean proteins. Carbohydrates to restock depleted glycogen stores, and proteins to give the body the building blocks it needs to enable muscle recovery.

Having a good idea of what you’re going to eat before, during, and after your long run is helpful. It means you have a basic plan in place, and takes the thinking out of the situation. I'd recommend not being too strict about your plan though. Being able to adjust it on the fly is always nice and definitely needed from time to time.

Prevention is better than a fix when it comes to nutrition

A principle I always try and follow in my long run nutrition is that prevention is better than a fix. This means that I eat and drink before I get really hungry or thirsty, and that keeps me performing better for longer. If you’re feeling extremely peckish, or like you’re running on a dessert plain gasping for a drink, you most probably haven’t eaten or drunk early enough. It’s much harder to fix a nutrition problem mid long-run, than it is to prevent one from occurring in the first place.

That being said, I’m not perfect with my nutrition. I don’t think anyone is. I still make monumental errors from time to time, and I’m always learning.

The biggest nutrition meltdown I’ve ever had was during the Thames Path 100-mile ultramarathon in 2023. I relied solely on energy gels, opting to run really fast and minimise nutrition time, and I paid the price for it. Big time. I’ll spare you the grisly details, but let’s just say I’ll never make that mistake again…

5. Pacing

A long run is going to put a lot of strain onto your body compared to your regular workouts. You’re going to run further, for a longer amount of time, and you’ll expend a lot more energy.

Make a rough plan for how fast you’ll be going beforehand, and use a GPS sports watch to monitor your pace to ensure you stick to it.

Typically, long runs are not meant for running fast and are instead for building endurance. A relaxed, easy, low heart rate zone pace is what I’d recommend. Especially if you’re training for a long distance event like a marathon or an ultramarathon.

That being said, you may want to do some long runs faster once every while. A long run at tempo, or close to threshold pace, can be a useful workout for building race pace endurance to mimic the conditions on race day. This can be particularly useful for marathoners and half marathoners who want to run a fast time.

6. Logistics

This refers to everything that goes around the long run to make it possible. It includes several things:

Time allowance Allocate enough time to get your long run done comfortably. You don’t want to cut it fine and give yourself an unrealistic time window, where you end up rushing and not enjoying yourself.

Give yourself enough time to not only do the long run, but also to equip yourself with your clothes and gear beforehand and to eat a decent meal and then freshen up afterwards.

Travel requirements around your long run

If you’re doing a point-to-point long run, which starts and ends in different locations, prepare a means to get to the start and back to your starting point at the end (if needed).

This could include checking times for trains and buses in the town, village, or city you’re going to depart from or arrive in.

Ensure you have cash or a digital means of payment to purchase a ticket. Personally, I have my debit card details in my phones digital wallet which eliminates the need to carry cash around.

It could mean arranging a lift from a friend or family member to drop you off to the start or pick you up from the end point.

7. Bring earphones

This is a purely optional tip, some runners don’t like the idea of listening to something whilst they are on a long run. I share that feeling sometimes, and I really enjoy soaking up the sights and sounds of what's going on around me, being totally immersed in the experience. Especially on long trail runs.

But, it’s always good to have the option to listen to something during a long run should you want to. It’s better to have and not want, than to want and not have.

Packing a pair of wireless earphones can give you a means of listening to music, a podcast, or an audiobook during your long run. This can be particularly useful for several reasons:

• Music can motivate and uplift you during a difficult patch.

• You can learn something new whilst doing a long run. I use lots of my long runs to listen to French podcasts and books, and I find that – as a native English speaker – this is really helpful for improving my comprehension skills in my French learning journey. 

• You can keep yourself entertained if you’re running through uninspiring scenery. Personally, I always listen to something if I’m doing a long run on the road where the surroundings can be a bit lacklustre.
  

One caveat I would like to add is that I strongly recommend not using earphones when trail running at night. In this instance, it’s much better to be totally alert with all your senses available to you to make sure you safely navigate your way through the trail. 

8. Have fun!

This is a bit of a woolly, vague tip, but I think it’s important. Have fun!

We do long runs because we love running, we enjoy this sport, and we want to make the most out of our running.

I like long runs because they are usually slow, calm and relaxed in nature, unlike other workouts like tempo or interval runs.

Take your time, relax, soak up the sights and sounds, and enjoy yourself.

Running with others is a great way to have fun on your long runs. Friends, family, a running group. Doing a long run with others means you can socialise, make some special memories, and share some wonderful moments. I find this to be the case particularly when trail running.

9. Prioritize recovery

One of the most important tips on this list, tying in closely with the nutrition and sleep points. 

A long run, as mentioned, is a massive demand on your body. You need to make sure you:

• Eat properly

• Drink properly

• Sleep properly

• Give yourself enough time off of running before going again, to be 100% recovered and stronger.
  

A point made by British ultrarunner, Tom Evans, in a podcast I listened to was really interesting, about recovery for runners. He said that the post run recovery process is when your body gets stronger, not during the running itself. This is absolutely true.

When you run, you put your cardiovascular system through lots of stress and create microtears in your muscles. Immediately after a run, you’ll be in a worse physical condition compared to when you set off. It’s actually when you’re recovering that your body makes itself stronger, and you adapt to these physical challenges.

Assuming you give your body enough time to recover after a long run, before you go again, you’ll be better physically adapted, stronger, and fitter. Improvements come after the long during recovery, not during the run itself. This is especially important when it comes to long runs, and the extended period of time during which you’re on the move.

There you have it. 9 tips for a successful long run.

I hope they’ve been useful, and I wish you all the best for your long runs.

Have you got anymore top tips for a successful long run? Let me know in the comments down below.

Thanks very much for reading.

Craig

Running Café