Can I Split Easy And Long Runs In Two

Audio Transcript

Sinead: Today, we have an awesome question from Megan. Megan is wondering if it is okay to split her easy and long runs into two parts on the same day.

Megan gave the example of the 10 kilometer run she has scheduled on Wednesdays. She asked if she can do 5K during her lunch hour at noon, and the remaining 5K at night time when she gets off work. We believe this is perfectly fine for easy days.

At Runners Connect, easy days are supposed to be purely aerobic and recovery in nature. We put a lot of emphasis on our easy days at Runners Connect, because we want you to focus as much on easy days as you do on workout days, to ensure that you are recovering properly.

You can fit the entire run into one that is usually preferable, it’s that’s on your schedule. If your schedule conflicts with this, you can split it up into a 5K at noon and a 5K at night.

We want to make sure that you are getting adequate recovery between the two runs, and you did say that you were doing them eight hours apart. Eight hours is the golden rule when it comes doing split runs like this because you need to recover from that first run in time for a second run.

Eight hours is the window in which that recovery takes place. For a total of 10K, an even split is okay. The 5K-5K split is perfectly fine.

When you start getting into a higher mileage, it’s better to do slightly longer in the morning, or in your case at noon and less in the afternoon. For instance, say you are doing a total of 12 miles or about 19 kilometers, you’d want to go longer in the morning or at noon, say eight miles and do the remaining four in the afternoon. Again, this ensures you’re getting adequate recovery after that second run.

If your schedule alters a little bit and you’re not doing your runs at noon and in the evening every day, if you do some of your runs in the morning, this ensures that you’ve adequately recovered after the second run.

It also ensures that the second run was the less taxing of the two runs. In your case, you also want to make sure that you are not running too late in the evening because by doing this, you might actually be risking compromising your sleep and the quality of your sleep.

I speak from experience because when I go for a run later at night, it takes me a little bit longer to fall asleep. This is because your body goes from an exercise state to a rest state too abruptly and it can be hard for your body to transition between the two. You got to be careful about not running too late in the evening.

You also asked if you could do the same little long run. You asked if you could split the 24 kilometer run into two.

Do one half in the morning and the remaining half, eight hours later in the afternoon. Unfortunately, in the case of a long run, you can’t do this because it actually defeats the purpose of a long run.

Long runs offer many benefits, but the biggest benefit is simply the endurance. Long runs strengthen the heart and respiratory muscles. They stimulate the development of more blood capillary beds and they condition muscles, tenants, and ligaments, so that you are able to run further and further as you continue through your training.

Long runs also enhance your body’s ability to burn fat as fuel and they recruit different muscle fibers, than a regular easy run or a workout.

They also build your mental capacity to go the distance. If you are training for a marathon which is 26.2 miles and we have on the schedule a 20 miler for a long run, that 20 miler is there to essentially prepare you to go the distance on race day, both mentally and physically. That long run is there for a purpose.

If you split it into two, you are not really seeing the benefits that you would, if you were to go the entire distance at once.

Of all the benefits that long runs have, improving the body’s ability to burn fat as fuel is of special importance particularly for a marathon. I’m not sure what you’re training for Megan, but if it is the marathon then the long run really needs to stay in place.

Apart from endurance, one of the benefits I just talked about was the body’s ability to burn fat as fuel. This is extremely important for the marathon distance.

Our bodies use a blend of carbohydrate and fat for fuel, both at rest and during exercise. The exact blend of your fuel depends on a variety of things, including the type and amount of exercise you do, your fitness level, and your genetics.

The lower the intensity level, the higher the percentage of fat is used for fuel. This is why a long run is particularly beneficial for this. You’re kind of running an easy pace, but for a very long time.

This increases your ability to use fat as fuel. As long runs deplete glycogen stores, this triggers a host of physiological adaptations that result in making you become more efficient of burning fat for fuel, even at higher exercise intensity levels.

This fat burning ability reserves your glycogen stores for later use. By improving your fat metabolism and increasing glycogen store capacity, you are also able to successfully complete the marathon distance and less likely to hit the wall, as most runners call it, when glycogen stores are depleted.

Runners usually hit that wall somewhere between 17 and 22 miles. This is why doing long runs is especially important, as it lowers your risk for hitting that wall. When you can efficiently oxidize fat as fuel, you’re much less likely to hit that wall.

Thank you so much Megan for your question. I hope what I said helps you and our listeners today. If you haven’t already, please consider heading over to iTunes or your favorite podcast directory and either subscribing or leaving us a review.

Again, we would greatly appreciate this. This helps us to reach more runners like yourself and hopefully give them some things to take away and use for their own training.

For those of you listening that want to have your questions answered by one of the Runners Connect coaches, you can head on over to RunnersConnect.net/daily. Then from there you can either click on the record button or type in your question and send it on over, and we’ll be happy to answer whatever you guys have going on.

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We have so far helped 867 fellow runners to personal bests and we would love to help you do the same. I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s episode and have taken something from it to use in your own training. I hope you join us again next time. Have a really great day.