We built this because we couldn’t find it anywhere else.

If you’re over 50 and serious about your running, you already know the problem.
The training content online is everywhere, and almost none of it was built for you.
The plans assume you recover like a 30-year-old. The advice ignores the hormonal reality of where you actually are in life.
The coaching culture is either aimed at beginners who just want to finish a 5K, or at elite athletes chasing podiums at national championships.
There’s almost nothing in the middle for the person who trains consistently, races with genuine intent,
and wants to keep improving without destroying themselves in the process.
That gap is why The Longer Run exists.

Who We Are

We’re Dragan and Linda. Two people in our mid-to-late 50s who are still very much in the game.
Between us, we run, swim, hike, ride, and lift. We take active holidays because sitting still doesn’t really suit us.
We’ve been around long enough to know what works, what doesn’t, and what the fitness industry keeps getting wrong about people our age.

Dragan is an accredited running coach with nearly 15 years of experience, including time working with national-level athletes.
His coaching philosophy draws from the great endurance traditions: Lydiard, Coe, Canova, Daniels, and the modern sports science that builds on their foundations.
He’s analytical and evidence-driven, and he has little patience for shortcuts or gimmicks.
If there’s a why behind a training decision, he’ll find it and explain it plainly.
He’s also still running and riding himself, which matters. This isn’t coaching from memory.

Linda brings something different and equally important.
She’s a deeply experienced researcher and practitioner in nutrition, health, and longevity, with a lifelong commitment to understanding what actually happens to the body as it ages — and what to do about it.
She pays close attention. She does the reading.
And she applies it to her own training and life before she writes about it here.
Her knowledge is grounded in real experience, serious research, and a lifelong commitment to her own health.
She’s warm, she’s thorough, and she genuinely cares about getting it right.
When she writes here, it’s because she has something specific and useful to say, not because it’s her turn.

Together, we think the 50+ athlete, male or female, deserves better than what’s currently on offer. That’s the whole premise.

What This Blog Is

The Longer Run is a coaching blog for performance-motivated recreational runners over 50.
Not beginners. Not elite. The committed middle, people who enter half marathons and City to Surf and Parkrun time trials, who track their HRV and read their Garmin* data, who want to improve and are willing to do the work. People who are frustrated by generic advice and ready for something more specific.

Every article here is built around a simple principle: tell you the why, not just the what.
Beyond the articles, the Resources page curates the books and research that underpin everything written here
We’re not interested in listicles or quick tips. We’re interested in helping you understand your physiology well enough to make better, more consistent training decisions over the long term.
Female physiology, menopause, and hormonal effects on training and recovery are not occasional topics here. They are core content. Linda writes about them with authority and without apology, because this is something the running world consistently underserves and it matters enormously to half our readers.

What’s Coming

The blog is the beginning. Over time, The Longer Run will grow into a proper community: The Longer Run Club. A place where performance-motivated runners over 50 can find coaching knowledge, structured training guidance, and a community that feels like a real run club rather than a generic online forum.
We’re not rushing it. One quality article a month, built on real coaching knowledge, aimed at people who can handle depth and specificity. The community will follow when the foundation is solid..

A Note on Our Approach

We’re not selling you a shortcut. We’re not telling you that 50 is the new 30, because it isn’t, and pretending otherwise doesn’t help anyone train better.
What we believe is this: with the right knowledge, the right methodology, and the right community around you, you can run well, stay healthy, and keep improving well into your 50s, 60s, and beyond. Not despite your age. With a full understanding of it. That’s what The Longer Run is for.

If that sounds like what you’ve been looking for, subscribe below.
You’ll hear from us when we have something genuinely worth saying

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