Longest Run Weekend

I did my longest run leading up to the Jersey Shore half marathon yesterday, and while it wasn't easy - I completed the distance. I did pretty much everything wrong leading up to the run, walking around for 10 hours the day before at an outlet mall and not getting enough water and nutrition that day being the biggest mistakes. Tip #1 - don't do that.

I felt like this yesterday

When doing your longest runs, there are a few other things to keep in mind:

1. LSD - If you're not doing Long Slow Distance, you're tripping. It's important to focus on getting the miles in, more so than going for speed. You need to train your legs to go a certain distance, speed comes from mid week training.
2. Dehydration - It got warm yesterday, faster than I would have hoped. I unfortunately began to feel a little dehydrated about 4 or so miles into my run. The bad news - I was doing a down and back so I was 4 miles away from home. It's critical to know the signs. If you're feeling lightheaded or thirsty, take it easy. I slowed down, took some walks and worked on getting water into me as best as I could. 
3. Sore Legs - It'll happen. As noted, I was walking literally all day on Saturday, so my legs were pretty worn out before I even started. oops. As I've stated in the past, it's important to listen to your body. Sore is different from pain - you can run through sore. I simply slowed to a reasonable pace until I felt warmed up.
4. Heat/Sun - Make sure to use sunscreen and a hat (I of course didn't and am now paying the price). This was not smart - always protect yourself from the sun!

All of the challenges that you face on your longest runs are experiences to take with you on race day. I can promise something will not go as planned, but if you've done a good job in preparing, and have contingency plans, you'll be in good shape to finish.

*Special shout out to Gretchen Burkhard who is participating in the Boston Marathon today with Team in Training. Her fundraising page can be found Here

Drive slow