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…
