« Back | Main | One hour portal »
August 14, 2004
The long run
A major part of my marathon training is the long run. The long run is where you try and extend your endurance so that your body gets used to being on the go for several hours. Something that I have come to understand is that the long run is not just a run. You don't just put your running gear on and go for it.
The long run is a quest. It needs to be prepared in advance. At least the day before, you will start planning on when to run. After all you will be gone for around 3 hours and that needs to be integrated into the general plans for the day. 3 hours running means planning your meals so that you don't eat to far ahead of the run (or you'll get really hungry after around an hour) or eat to close to the run (or your meal will come up during the run to say "hi" a few times). Drinking is even more important. You need to make sure you drink enough but stop about an hour before you run (for obvious reasons). During the past couple of weeks where the temperature was between 28 an 30 C I took some water with me. Which means carrying more weight etc. Of course running during those temperatures is not really recommended (your water supply will be empty after exactly half of the run - that's a law :-)) - but if that's how the quest planning turns out....
A 2 hour plus run is really really long. Boringly long. Terribly boringly long. You'll be cursing after the first 15 minutes when you realize you still have oh so long left. So you need distraction. Now normally the track you take won't exactly be full of distraction - so you need to supply your own. I switched from listening to music (the beat influenced my pace) to listening to spoken stuff (audio books etc.). Listening to spoken words means you have to concentrate more on and so the time passes ... somewhat ... quicker.
Finding a good track to run is really important. After all you don't want to end up in the middle of nowhere after 3 hours of running. So you'll be planning a sort of circular route that brings you close to home at the end of the run. Just make sure you take a mobile with you in case things don't go as planned and you collapse after 2 hours with still around 10 Kms to make it back. Also, make sure your pickup will be around when you call for help. (My wife took the kids to the beach - so it was tough luck and a long crawl back).
And in case you're wondering - my marathon training still isn't going very well (I'm way below the "plan") - but at least I'm learning "stuff" :-). Berlin is very much touch and go at the moment.
Posted by Matthew at August 14, 2004 01:13 PM