Maximizing Your Weekend Long Run: How to Incorporate Parkrun into Your Training - Lee Grantham

Aug 13, 2025

Intro: This is a quick summary of Maximizing Your Weekend Long Run: How to Incorporate Parkrun into Your Training from Lee Grantham. It’s a great watch — we’re breaking it down so you can try the workout today. Be sure to check out the full video for all the details.

Key Points:

Keep your mid‑week interval session on Tuesday and move the long run to Saturday, merging it with the weekly Parkrun.
Treat the 5 km Parkrun as a paced segment of your long run rather than a separate hard effort, unless you’re dedicating the week to a fast 5 km.
Use three 5 km blocks inside a ~25 km long run: one ~20 % slower than marathon pace, the middle block (the Parkrun) at marathon pace + ~10 % (or 80‑90 % effort), and a final block back at marathon pace.
Include about 60 seconds of easy jogging between the 5 km blocks if needed.

Workout Example:

Warm‑up 2–3 km easy.
Run 5 km at ~20 % slower than marathon pace.
60 s easy jog.
Run the Parkrun (5 km) at marathon pace + 10 % (≈80‑90 % effort).
60 s easy jog.
Run final 5 km at marathon pace.
Cool‑down easy running to total ~25 km.

Adjust distances or paces to fit your current fitness and use the Pacing app to customise.

Closing Note: Give this Saturday “Parkrun long run” a try and feel the race‑day boost while still building endurance. You can easily tweak the paces for your own training – happy running! 🚀