Friday, May 29, 2015

That long run

As a beginning runner six short years ago, I was very intimidated by the thought of the “long run”. Anything over 3 miles was “long” to me. And it turns out that I was not alone. The punch line here is that my intimidation was only because I knew nothing about endurance training and had absolutely no appreciation for what the human body can accomplish when properly trained and conditioned.

But without a doubt, the mere thought of doing a 10 mile run was daunting to me, never mind doing a 20 miler in prep for a marathon. I might as well have been contemplating a trip to Jupiter. It wasn’t going to happen. How is it that anybody could run that far?  Ultra-marathoners were some kind of super-freakazoids to me. How could I ever possibly run 10, 20 or 26.2 miles, particularly given my very late start to my running career? I was convinced that you had to have been born with a special gene that enabled you to run far and survive it. I was in awe of marathon runners.

It all kind of came together for me after running my second Half Marathon. I finally realized that it was all about the training. I also noticed the numbers of runners that participated in these HM’s – and they came in all different shapes, sizes, and abilities. They weren’t all “super-athletes” – they were normal guys and girls living ordinary lives. Some were older than me (a helpful omen), most were younger, some were heavier than me, and so on… and for the most part, they all were able to go the distance, albeit some faster than others. It seemed possible for mere sub-mortals like me to run distance.

However, having said all that, I was only slightly prepared to accept the necessary training plan for my first marathon. As I reviewed my plan and realized the reality of how many miles I was going to have to run to build up my endurance, my reaction was: “I’m going to do what??!!”  No way. It’s not possible.

As it turns out, it’s not really so bad. Those long runs turn out to be (almost) a piece of cake, and I actually look forward to them.  Three reasons:

First of all, I didn’t have to jump from running 3 miles to doing 12 or 18 miles -  
The training plan edged me up mile by mile – there was no surprise and I had slowly built up the endurance to do so. So when the day came for me to do longer and longer runs, I actually had the ability to do it. Three miles became 6, became 9, became 14, and so on. This of course, was the point of the training plan. Improve endurance, get stronger, build stamina, run further ….  Amazing how that works, eh?

Secondly, I found that the miles just click by.  I get myself into a groove and just chug. It literally involves getting myself into a mental state of accepting the fact that I am going to run “x” miles today – that’s my mission, that’s my goal, and I’m going to accomplish that goal. Period. Having arrived at that “mental state”, I just go, and yes, the miles just click by… And I like it!

Thirdly, that feeling that I get after completing that long run is awesome –
Really - it is a feeling of tremendous satisfaction. I may not have the opportunity to tell anyone that I just ran some silly distance, but inwardly and to myself I’m wearing a sly self-satisfying grin. And there is no better feeling. This is something that only another runner would understand.

I do, however, have a few requirements for my long runs:
a)      The route needs to be interesting or at least attractive (no highways or traffic),
b)      If I’m running solo (which I usually do when going long) I need to have good music or a good podcast,
c)       It’s important that I anticipate my fuel and hydration needs and prepare for handling them accordingly. Most of the time I carry everything I need, which can be a pain, but it’s also amazing how good it feels to be self-sufficient.

I’ve done most of my long runs as early in the morning as I can get myself up for, as close to first light and sunrise as possible. In fact the best time is before dawn, when there is barely a hint of the sun coming up. I do this mostly just because I like the freshness of dawn and the fact that there are so few people out and about at that time of day. It’s calm and quiet, and the day is new. But I do it early also so that I have time to recover afterwards and still be able to do things later in the day with my family.

The first half mile is always the hardest for me, probably because I’m not 20 years old anymore and so it takes a little while for me to get loosened up. And then once I get past the first mile I get myself into a zone and I am able to just chug, and the next thing I know I’m at mile 10 or something. 

For my long runs my preference is to pick a circular route. Ideally, I have never run that route before which makes it a bit of an adventure. Alternatively, and actually more realistic, are out-and-back routes… in other words run a bunch of miles out, turn around and run back. The tough and good part about out-and-backs is that once I get to the turn-around spot, the only way to get home is to run all the way back to my truck… so there is a pretty good incentive to get it done. Then finally, there is the multiple loop routine, which fortunately I’ve only done a few times. While prepping for the 2013 Marine Corp Marathon I did a 6 mile loop 3 times so that I could get 18 miles in, and it really fell into the category of “work” – it was no fun and I got no pleasure out of doing it.

I do find that I negotiate with myself about the distance, like for example I’ll tell myself that in 3 miles I can suck down a GU or a banana, or in another mile I can turn around and head back, or I’ve only got 5 more miles to go, so if I run faster I’ll be done sooner, and so on! I never think about the time, i.e. how long I’ve been running, only the distance. The amount of time that I’ve spent on my feet doesn’t register with me until later, which helps me explain away why my feet might hurt. I do remember situations where I’ll promise myself a extra long Epson-salt foot soak, or (ever since my wife introduced me to it) promise to take myself to get a pedicure. [Side note here: my first time was after a particularly hard 19 mile run my wife encouraged me to go with her for a pedicure and I absolutely loved it – it was the best thing that I could have done for myself and I highly recommend it!]

The only caveat I have with long runs, particularly in prep for a marathon, is that I’m convinced that running for longer than 3 hours, or at the max 3:30 hours, is not beneficial.  I’ve done several 4hour runs because I was sure that I needed to be “able” to do it, but the truth is that those runs just beat the crap out of me. Recovery was tough, and I’m not sure that I actually helped myself or improved by conditioning.


The punch line here is that you shouldn’t be intimidated by that long run. It’s an adventure that you’ve been preparing for and now you are going to prove to yourself that you are good for it. The feeling afterwards is very satisfying and confidence building. When someone asks what you did this weekend you can say that, yeah you mowed the lawn, went to a party/dinner, and oh yeah by the way, also ran 15 miles…

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Plan A, no Plan B, ok.... Plan C

All runners go through this at some point:  Get up and out for a modest run before the day gets started and the sun gets things too hot.  That’s the plan -  no waivering.  Except that energy levels are really low, and I mean really low. It’s been a tough week, lots of miles, the house kind of has a lazy feel about it, and the resolve to get out for a run is crumbling. 

So Plan B begins to form in your mind… How about taking a “rest day”? After all, you deserve it, and your body will no doubt appreciate it. It’s a nice warm day, perfect for floating in the pool with a cool drink and a book.  Plan B sounds really good! Oh, and a sandwich. Something tasty and juicy. Key on tasty. Ohhhh yeahhhhh.

But then you remember your resolve to run… The sandwich sounds good, but then the guilt thing comes in, like maybe you should “earn” it first… So after pondering all of this for a while (and the sun continuing to rise along with the temperature) you finally decide on Plan C:  do a run, a couple of miles at least, and then follow it up with a guilt-free sandwich while floating in the pool with a book. But for the love of all that is good, get out there!  (remember it’s all about “showing up”….)_

That was me yesterday – I really struggled to get out for my run. All of my household members were being lazy and proud of it and I was getting sucked into their very comfortable aura. The day was beautiful: a clear, hot, Florida day. The allure of floating in my pool with a book and cool drink was intoxicating.

But what got me over the edge was two things:  I was hungry and I didn’t want to eat anything without having burned some c’s first (I don’t always feel this way, but I did yesterday) and secondly and most importantly, my insistence on “showing up!”.

As it was, I chugged out 6 miles in brutal heat. I started on the asphalt road but the heat from the road was getting to me, so I drifted to the cement sidewalk where there was some shade, and then tried to run whenever possible in the grass because it was so much cooler than the sidewalk. Unfortunately, the grass here is so thick that it is hard to run in – it’s like running through a sponge; I have to literally lift my knees up so that my foot can clear the sod – it really screws up my gait!


Nonetheless I did it, plopped into my pool afterwards, and thoroughly enjoyed a sandwich and cool drinks. Ahhh… oh yeah, now we’re talking!  I showed up, I did my best, and I felt great for having made the effort.