How I’m Getting Faster Without Doing Long Runs

[00:00:00] I haven’t run over 75 minutes in four months, and somehow my race paces feel easier than it has in years. Here’s the crazy part. By not grinding long runs, I actually avoided the injury cycle, which means I can stay consistent, which means, yeah, I’m getting faster. In this episode, I’ll be touching on why avoiding long runs made me.

[00:00:19] Third, not slower. The three to 5% rule that keeps me fresh for speed work. Yes. Not the 10% rule. I modified it. How cross training unlocked aerobic gains without the pounding. A free course that will transform you right now into the runner that you want to be and more. I’m Daren D Lake certified run coach in 30 year lifelong runner, trying to figure out how to run faster each year.

[00:00:41] Perform better as I age and stop getting injured, doing dumb shit. As I figure it out, I want to show you and a hundred thousand plus more runners exactly how to do it and get 1% better right here each day, week, month, season, year, decade, life. You get it? Let me break down. The three things that I’ve changed over the last three or four months in the off season that I’ve never done before.

[00:01:04] Alright. The first thing that I changed was replacing long runs with smarter volume. Okay? Look, long runs are absolutely essential for distance runners. They build endurance, teach your body to burn fat and prepare mentally for race day, and also how to be in glycogen deficit and how to deal all those amazing things.

[00:01:19] I did a whole episode on long runs that you can get. Up here or below in the episode descriptions, but here’s what I realized. The dose mix, the poison getting stuck in the a need to grind long runs year round trap is exactly how you end up injured, burned out, and slower when it actually counts. The off season is a great time for you to take a break from the long run.

[00:01:39] I know this because I did a marathon block. I hadn’t trained for a marathon in about seven years. Did a marathon block last year of about 16 ish weeks and came off of it with tight hips. Thinking it’s just a marathon. Went back to training. Half marathon, had tight hips during the half marathon block.

[00:01:59] After the half marathon. I was like, huh. Took a couple weeks off, got back in training slow. Every time I did a long run, my hips were tight and I was like, what is going on? Every time I did a speed session hills, the hips were locking up. So as the front hip flexors, as I just found out, and it’s because the long run was not allowing me to recover.

[00:02:16] I had a couple other issues that I’m sorting out now. It was the long run that was the issue. Many studies have shown that rapid increases in training load, especially long, high impact sessions are one of the biggest predictors of running injuries. By capping my runs at 75 minutes and sometimes even 50 to 60 minutes some weeks, and building volumes slowly, I’m staying in the.

[00:02:37] Safe zone. So I built my aerobic base frequency and microdosing instead of one giant weekly grind that kept me fresh enough to actually run fast when it mattered and do some of those harder workouts as I do in base training. It’s not all just easy running. It’s a little bit hard stuff. Mostly easy though.

[00:02:52] Something I couldn’t do during my 2025 marathon training. Block, uh, last year when I was overcooked, went into that race way overcooked less grinding meant more capacity for smart volume and sprinkles of that all important speed work. So VO two max stuff, hills, plyometric, tempo runs, et cetera. So how do you actually build volume without wrecking yourself?

[00:03:12] If you’re stuck in the injury burnout comeback cycle, you’re not alone. I’ve been there multiple times and the truth. It’s probably that most runners don’t need another new training plan. They need a new approach to volume recovery and smart progression. That’s why I created a free six lesson email course called Injury Proof.

[00:03:29] Your Training, it’s free. It takes less than five minutes a day for a full transformation. It’s designed to help you break the cycle for good. Grab it at the link below or the QR code here, or in your show notes if you’re listening on a podcast player. And when you sign up, you’re gonna get the first lesson.

[00:03:45] Right now in that free course. Alright, back to the volume issue, and this is the second thing that I’ve been changing over the last few months. It’s the three to 5% rule. It kept me fresh, small, consistent gains. They compound. I’m rarely too tired to do my hard workouts because recovery is where the speed was happening.

[00:04:04] I’m. Double downing, triple downing. On recovery, I’m only running five days a week. One full fun, whatever I want. Workout even in season. Bike, swim, ruck, basketball, whatever, one totally off day with sauna and cold plunge. Then elliptical or aqua jogging for the other two days, just 20 to 30 minute easy sessions.

[00:04:22] Two, help me and let my body recover it while still building the aerobic. Engine ’cause you need that for distance running. Which leads to the third thing that I’m doing very differently. This, uh, last training block and moving forward into my actual faster speed work, race specific training is the third point.

[00:04:40] Cross training. It unlocked base without the damage and it’ll keep continuing. ’cause I need that base for even 5K events. So here’s actually. Throw actionable tasks to you. Something you can do at home. If you’re playing, listening, watching, reading this week, cap your longest run at 75 minutes. This isn’t for everyone.

[00:04:56] This may be for people that are feeling a bit drained and tired from their half marathon or marathon training, or if you’re in the off season. This is actually, you know, you decide to be alpha if type A. You’re like, oh, I’m just gonna train a lot. Cap it at 75. You know what? 60 minutes if you’re not really running that long.

[00:05:11] 60, 45 minutes and then add in. This is the other second thing. Really easy, just 20 to 30 minutes cross training session to maintain aerobic work. Take a runaway, just throw it in. I like to do run specific cross training, so that’s elliptical is phenomenal, or aqua running or aqua jogging where you kind of just run in a deep water pool or body of water and you want to have that pool boy around you, that floaty device around you so you can keep, keep your hips up if you’re like.

[00:05:39] Oh, I don’t know how to do all this. I did a full episode on cross training. You can get that up here or below in the link description, but the whole point is to actually see if your legs feel better going into the next speed work session or the next long run. Just lemme know. I’d love to know. Put in the comments, be like, yo cross training helped, or It didn’t help.

[00:05:57] Or You’ve done cross training and you didn’t like it, or whatever, whatever, and go check out that video. But the thing I’ve learned through all these three slightly different things that I’m doing is that now I have more energy to tackle more volume, and that when I go into do my speed sessions. My legs felt properly fresh.

[00:06:14] So because I’m actually doing a little bit less on the easy days and recovering better, I’m actually able to go harder on the hard days. So easier on the easy days, harder on the hard days, and you get the gains. And again, I’ll be taking that into the race specific season and seeing what happens. I’m also gonna do a couple of weirdo things.

[00:06:31] I’m gonna do six week training micro blocks where I’m focusing on just certain parts of the 5K. So I’ll actually be doing a shorter. Uh, speed session, like a lot of anaerobic stuff. So 408 hundreds, one K repeats, one mile repeats at faster paces, and then longer recovery. That’s new. That’s a bit advanced.

[00:06:52] And then again, I’m gonna have six weeks do a race and then take one week off, two weeks off. Easy. I’m gonna do easy running, back it out, and then. Learn, figure out what I did, look at the data, look at how I felt, look at my journals, and then go into the next six weeks and then focus on, uh, more like a three K sort of thing.

[00:07:08] So doing a bit more like 5K specific workouts and then go away from that, and then come in and do like 10 K work. So like the longer, faster temp runs, 30 minute temp runs, 40 minute temp runs, and then put it all together after those three, six week blocks. 18 weeks of like specific 5K work where I’m like working on weaknesses and doing very strategic.

[00:07:28] A lot of recovery, a lot of hard work. Like I’ve never done this before. I’ve just ramped it up like a marathon runner. Just a lot, lot, lot, lot, lot, and not enough recovery. Let’s see what happens. Track me how I’m going. Subscribe if you haven’t. Like, you’ll get notifications, or at least the algorithm will know, uh, to serve you some of the stuff.

[00:07:45] You can also sign up for the newsletter for free. And to do that, all you gotta do is get the free email course. So you get the free newsletter and you get the free email course that will allow you to avoid. Injury, burnout and run faster without the effort and farther. If you want, scan that QR code here or grab the link in the episode description comment Again, I want more comments if you took long runs out and still maintain fitness in the off season or not.

[00:08:10] I love this all. I love talking to you. I love reading through my comments. I’m getting back to them much faster than I did before. Appreciate all the love and support. Port and everyone that does everything around this whole, uh, running sphere, YouTube, et cetera. You could be anywhere. You could be on ai, but you’re on here and I appreciate you.

[00:08:26] Okay, so I’ve talked about how long runs are the issue. They are the issue at certain times. Again, the dose is the poison, but the definitely necessary and something that you need to run everything from. The mile 5K, half marathon, marathon, ultras, et cetera. So check out my full deep dive on long runs and the five types that I like to do in the video below or in the link description.

[00:08:48] If you’re on other platforms besides YouTube, happy off season training. Happy long runs if you’re in race season. Thanks for watching. Peace.