Confusion

I don't know what running long is anymore.

Three of my last four runs have taken over 2:30, which is fairly long.

Today's run was 16 miles, which used to be my cut off for long.

Tuesday's workout was 19 miles, but there was 44 minutes of threshold work which turns it from something long into something vaguely indescribable.  No quite true.... I can describe it accurately as painful.  It took all of my will and most of my concentration to put one foot in front of the other during the latter part.

Next week is "long" in that I'm supposed to go 2:30 or 22 miles, whatever is less.  At my goal marathon pace, that would be maybe 18.8 miles- and it's supposed to be significantly slower than my MP... perhaps 30 seconds to a minute slower per mile.  So, 16-17 miles... does that qualify as long, after doing the threshold run on Tuesday?

I'm trying to figure it out.  Perhaps if I go crazy on the ultra thing, I'll figure that everything that takes less than six hours won't quality as long...