The long workout is a staple of most successful athletes' training regimes. Some have groups they join for this weekly ritual, like the famous Sunday forest run in San Diego, while others prefer solitude as they log long hours on the road. No matter how it is accomplished, the long workout is an important part of the training process for anyone doing Olympic distance races or longer.

Long rides and runs are important because training slowly and for longer periods of time allows for your body to develop in two key ways. The relatively long duration of the activity, coupled with the lower intensity, allows the body to build specific strength as well as general aerobic endurance. It stimulates your heart, lungs, muscles and circulatory system to adapt and become efficient absorbers and transporters of the oxygen and sugar which fuels your movement - long workouts actually improve your collateral circulation, so that you grow more capillaries. Secondly, you are also building muscle memory and developing neuromuscular pathways that will come in handy when you are fatigued and nearing the end of a race.

Long workouts can make or, if done improperly, break your race season. So with that in mind, there are several basic concepts that should be considered in planning these training sessions.

Timing
Long workouts need to be done throughout the year. Although the length of these workouts will vary depending on your phase of training, approaching races, etc., they should be an integral part of your schedule at all times.

Simply adding in one long run/ride in hopes that it will get you fit, without having built up to it, will actually hurt you more than harm you. Your body adapts over time to your long workouts so that you experience less muscle fatigue as you progress through the distances. In order to reach the max time/distance that you need to perform at your peak you need a long workout every 7-10 days.

I usually have my Olympic-distance athletes build the length of their long workouts throughout the base phase of their training to a max time/distance and then hold slightly less than that time throughout the rest of the year. I will also have them do a short base focus again in the summer, event permitting, just to rebuild their aerobic engine. I do this because many long workouts are missed as a result of racing or traveling to/from races during the summer.

I use a similar plan with my Ironman athletes during their base phase, but they will not put in the mega miles needed for IM at this time. Their training will resemble an Olympic distance athlete's with a few differences, such as weight training. The really long IM workouts will be scheduled during the 14-week lead up to their IM event. Make sure that your last long run (relative to each individual's program) is at least two-three weeks out from the event as these workouts take the most amount of time to recover from.

Proper order
Many of us that try to work, train and raise families try to cram a week's worth of training into the weekend. Although it is possible to get several key workouts done on the weekends, it does require some proper planning.

When structuring your training for the weekend I have found that it is better to do your harder sessions on a Saturday, and longer workouts on a Sunday.

I usually prescribe long higher-intensity intervals or bricks on Saturday, with a long aerobic run and then a long aerobic ride on Sunday (do your run first if possible as it easier to hold technique riding than running when fatigued). By using this format you are helping to ensure that you are not entering the more intense work fatigued, so that you can hold your form, and you are able to reach the necessary heart rate zones. It also allows you to flush your system with the lower intensity session on Sunday. If you reversed these days, you would run the risk of getting injured or not being able to complete the workouts because of the muscular fatigue you carried going into the hard sessions.

Intensity
Generally, long workouts are done at a lower intensity/slower speed than most other training sessions, other than recovery workouts. The question is: how slow is slow?

This is where individuality comes into play. The speed your long workouts should be done at will vary depending on your training background. The traditional and most basic way of monitoring intensity in long workouts is ensure that you are still able to hold a conversation during the activity. If you are not, then you are going too fast.

For the scientifically inclined in the group, long workouts should be at a heart rate approximately 20-30 beats below your lactate threshold or between 60 to 75 percent of maximum heart rate. As you progress into you training you should be closer to the 70- to 75-percent range for the duration of the workout.

Note: It is important not to go too hard in these workouts, as there should be no lactate created during the session. This means that your speed should slow when you are going uphill to ensure that your heart rate stays in the aerobic zone.

Nutrition
Nutrition is an important part of having successful long workouts. Your body needs to be properly fuelled going into a long session, and it needs to be refueled throughout the session in order to maximize the benefits of the workout. I recommend taking a gel on the hour for every hour that your workout lasts, or using a carbohydrate drink.

Hydration
Water lost through sweating is not easily replaced. Low water-intake during exercise leads to dehydration, and even a loss of only one percent to two percent of your water is enough to hurt performance. Never restrict water intake during exercise in an effort to be tough. Well-conditioned athletes need more water, not less.

Drink continuously during your long training rather than a large amount at one time to prevent bloating. Moderate amounts of cool water taken frequently before, during, and after activity prevent this problem. Six to eight ounces of fluid taken every 15 to 20 minutes during strenuous activity is about right for most athletes. I have my athletes set their watches to beep every 15 minutes to remind them to take a drink during long rides, and I recommend that they have access to water (carry a bottle, run by a fountain, etc) for any run over 75 minutes.

Although water is a great way to stay hydrated, when activities last an hour or more some sport drinks may offer advantages both for carbohydrate and electrolyte replacement. There are many different commercial sports drinks available that contain varying kinds and amounts of sugars and electrolytes. If you use a sport drink, use one that has less than 8% total solids (sugars, electrolytes). More concentrated solutions can delay fluid absorption. Also, avoid drinks that contain fructose as the only source of carbohydrate. Fructose may cause upset stomach. Fructose also must first be converted to glucose before it can be used for energy. This conversion delays its use as an energy source.

Length
Another consideration in planning your long workouts is the progression in length of the sessions. Generally, during the base phase of training, I increase the time of an athlete's long workout by 5 to 10 minutes for running and 15 to 20 for cycling each week for three weeks. In the fourth week I decrease the time of the long workouts significantly in order to give them a chance to recover and adapt. In the fifth week the length of the long workout would be the same as it was in the third week. This pattern would continue until the athlete reached the maximum time I want them to be at (see below), where they stay until they move into race season.

The question is, however, how long is too long? Determining the optimal time/mileage for a long workout depends on the athlete's current level of fitness, their ability at handling mileage, and the length of the races they will be doing. It seems obvious that someone training for an Olympic distance event will not need as much mileage as if they were training for an Ironman. Yet there are plenty of people who disagree with this. In fact, I know many athletes who hold that the only difference between training for the two events is that their Sunday long workouts are slightly longer. This approach short-changes one, or even both, of the events. Both events need a combination of speed and aerobic training, but an Ironman does require a larger number of miles under the belt in order to perform well.

For athletes that are solely competing in Olympic distance events, I would recommend building up to 90 minutes as your long run in your base phase, and then keeping it at 75 to 80 minutes throughout the season. For elite level age-groupers, or pros, I suggest building your long runs to 2 hours in your base phase, and keeping them at 90 minutes in season. Long rides should be built up to 3.5 hours in the base phase and held around 2.5 to 3 hours in season (elites to 4 hours in base phase and 3-3.5 in season).

Athletes competing in Ironman events need to spend more time in the saddle developing some calluses on their backside. Anyone training for a marathon will need to have lengthy runs (20 miles or so) to prepare for an optimal performance, let alone doing it after a 112-mile ride. Of course adding length to your long workouts does follow the law of diminishing returns. At some point adding the extra 30 minutes will hurt you more than help you.

Depending on their ability, I get my IM athletes to build up to a 2.5- to 3-hour run, and a 5- to7-hour ride. I also have them do several long brick workouts that are composed of a 3- to 4-hour ride followed by a 60-90 minutes run all at steady state pace (15 beats below threshold). Although this is usually a Saturday workout, sometimes it will comprise the long workouts of that week.

The range in time for long workouts is bigger for Ironman athletes, as I have found that some athletes are better are handling long workouts than others. Although much of this depends on proper nutrition as well as using good recovery techniques, some of it is physiological. The key is to build slowly and find out exactly what your body can handle.

Long workouts are one of the keys to a successful race season. By following the guidelines above you should be able to avoid some of the pitfalls that athletes regularly fall into, and maximize the benefit you are receiving from those long hours on the road.