No One Said the Long Run Would Be Easy

On Sunday, I did what most people training for a marathon do on the weekends; I did a long run.

Long runs are supposed to be your opportunity to stretch out to the distance you're shooting for, and can be a decent barometer as to where your training is. One thing it is not is a time trial for your race! As a general rule you should be going a bit slower than race pace during these runs and focusing on "Long Slow Distance". The time to work on speed is during the week with interval training and whatnot.

The one thing that a long run can really help you with in terms of race day simulation is how to deal with adversity.

Spoiler Alert! You will face challenges during a marathon.

Some of these (hopefully) are easy to overcome and some could knock you out of a race if you suffer an injury. The important thing is to know what to do when an obstacle comes along.

On Sunday, I set out to do an 8 mile run along the canal path near my home. The first mile or so, I felt ok, and was just warming up (it was about 50 degrees).

Some of the trees I stretched against on Sunday

Then, my shins tightened WAY up. If you've every experienced this, it is not a whole lot of fun. I spent the next 3 or so miles running/walking/stretching. It was pretty much the opposite of "hitting a stride". The other bad/good thing about my long runs is I typically do "down and backs" which is running out half of the distance I plan on running, then coming back. It's bad because, well, I was 4 miles away from my car and wasn't feeling awesome. It's good because, well, I'm doing those last 4 miles in some way shape or form, or sleeping under a bridge.

I turned around and wouldn't you know it - at that point my legs loosened up! I was able to run, still taking it easy, but slowly was able to get my pace back up to where I wanted it to be. I, being a competitive male, then got a little aggressive and started running a bit faster; but as you can probably guess, this wasn't a great idea (tired myself out a bit too fast).

I never really got into a groove, so my run was a bit disjointed, but the key is I did the distance. Long runs can be a great learning experience - teaching you that sometimes you just need to keep putting one foot in front of the other and eventually you'll get back on track. You have to be smart when running though - if you have sharp pains - stop. Even for me on Sunday, it was just muscle tightness, but I slowed down to a walk and made sure to stretch when I was feeling it. I was rewarded with a pleasant last 4 miles, and an injection of motivation. As one of my favorite professors, Scott Galloway, at NYU is oft to say during class (and did last night again) "Things are never as good as they seem, but they are also never as bad".

Remember, you're stronger than you think.

Drive Slow.