bellabowie,
The answer is: what is the maximum amount of training volume you can perform without compromising recovery for the next sessions. Really, that’s the core of 80/20 training and what elite athletes do. Go hard on the hard days, but not so hard you can’t go hard again quickly.
We write our plans for a “typical” Level 0, Level 1, etc. athlete and put caps on those long runs based on assumptions. Athlete A can run 3-4 hours and recover in 5 days. Athlete B can run 2.5 hours and needs 10 days to recover. WE have to plant a flag for plans for the masses, and that’s the long run you see in your plan.
But, if you are confident that you can run loner than 3 hours and not mess up training the next week, you should go longer. Very few athletes can run longer than 3 hours without messing with future training. So my advise is stick with 3 hours as your upper limit.
Remember, if you can run 3 hours, you can probably run 5 hours.
David
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