The Dos and Do Nots of Long Runs – Oatmeal Style

10 years ago • 2 Comments • 13.1 Training, My Running, Running

You’ve probably stumbled across The Oatmeal’s famous cartoon titled “The DOs and DO NOTs of runing your first MARATHON”. The hilarity can be appreciated even by those of us runners who have not attempted the 26.2 – so if you haven’t read it, READ IT NOW. (All runners should also read about The Blerch.)

I was running a horrendous long run this morning (that quickly became a bit too short to call a long run) and one of the things that helped me successfully traverse those 5.5 miles that should have been 8 was thinking about coming home and sharing my long run wisdom with you – Oatmeal style. (Also, it’s difficult to hail a cab in Wellesley, MA.)

The DO and DO NOTs of Long Runs

-inpired by Matthew Inman

DO drink plenty of alcohol the night before your long run. Sweat releases toxins from the body, so timing your alcohol consumption for the night before a long run is smart, efficient, and healthy. Obviously alcohol should be consumed in moderation, but if you’re going to reach for that second (or third) glass of champagne to celebrate your wedding anniversary, make it the night before you run long and hard.

DO NOT wave, nod, or otherwise acknowledge other runners on the road. Certainly do not say “HI!” or “Good morning!”. Not only would speaking compromise your oxygen levels and reduce your running efficiency, it also makes you look less serious and reduces the probability that other runners will dive out of your way. Waving at other runners can cause a horrible mental illness called “lack of reciprocal wave anxiety”. This serious condition (to which some runners are more susceptible than others) can reduce running efficiency by up to 90% as runners waste energy and lose self-esteem analyzing possible reasons for the lack of reciprocal wave.

DO stay up late the night before your long run. Running is a great way to increase your energy levels. Make the most of it by staying up late the night before. If you’re well-rested, are you making the most of the energy boosting qualities running provides?

DO leave your empty gel wrappers in your running shorts while laundering. How else will your roommates or significant other have a weekly reminder of what an awesome and dedicated runner you are? Every time they peel that little piece of foil from the side of the washer or dryer, they’ll shake their head in awe as they contemplate your athleticism. This is also a great way to get them clean enough for recycling.

DO stop your Garmin as you pause to drink water, photograph scenery, take a walking break, or dry heave on someone’s lawn. Hitting the STOP button for any non running activities on your run makes sure that you have a BEST CASE scenario in mind for race day regarding the amount of time it takes you to traverse X number of miles. If you leave your Garmin running, you will have an ACCURATE idea of how long it takes you to traverse X number of miles. Accurate expectations lead to under-performing on race day, when you may be tempted to go out at a realistic pace rather than the pace you could run with an unlimited number of breaks. You can not make up that time later in the race, my friend.

DO train your body to perform in all kinds of sub-prime conditions by running directly after breakfast, or after skipping breakfast and waiting several hours without fuel of any type, and other such strategies. Don’t cater to your stomach’s weaknesses and give in to professional advice or common sense when it comes to when and what you’re eating before a long run.

DO NOT reduce your pace to compensate for heat or humidity. This makes your body weak, as does avoiding the heat by running in the morning or evening before it gets hot, or using a treadmill to avoid getting heat stroke.

DO NOT carry water because that weight just slows you down.

DO run the same pace for all of your runs regardless of distance. Because that’s the pace you run, darn it, and if you can’t maintain it, just press the STOP button on your Garmin until you can run that pace again. Race day adrenaline will delete all those STOPS and you’ll run a seamless half marathon at 5k pace, just wait and see.

DO book a babysitter who needs to leave ten minutes before you can realistically arrive home. Make the incentive real. Going out for a run when there isn’t much time before a family gathering is also a great idea. Make sure these runs are out and back runs so there’s no chance of you cutting your mileage short rather than over-exerting yourself at the end.

DO time all your running to avoid irritating obligations such as getting your house ready for guests or taking care of children solo because your significant other needs to “get some work done”. Print out sheets about how important running is to your health and how much you appreciate the support of your family and have them ready to hand to nay-sayers. Ask them to think about how they can better support your running while you’re gone.

DO take bad long runs as a sign that you should quit running. A real runner never has a bad day, or even if they do, they still get all their mileage in. If you’re not able to meet your prescribed pace and distance every time you head out for a run, you should probably take up Zumba instead.

DO NOT actually do any of these things. Because a runner who looks like this 5 miles into a half marathon should never be taken seriously. 😉

Hope and Failure – Duel Motivators

10 years ago • 5 Comments • 13.1 Training, Motivation, Running

I remember walking into the Runner’s World Heartbreak Half Expo and seeing race gear for sale with the race name emblazoned all over it. How sad, I thought, that these are all for sale BEFORE I know whether this race day will be a happy memory worth having emblazoned across my newest running tank?

I bought nothing. (Luckily for me, Runner’s World runs a great event and their race package t-shirt was a technical dry women’s small, not cotton or unisex, and therefore actually something I can wear.)

When I looked at all the gear for sale, I thought I would want to remember the race if it was a great one. I figured if I had an exceptional running day, had magically improved by virtue of it being my third half marathon (despite my lackluster training for this one), that then I would be excited to remember it and wish I had a hat or a t-shirt or something with that race name on it that would remind me of how it felt running those 13.1 miles in the zone, confident in my own awesomeness.

What happened was a different story altogether.

I under prepared, started out too fast, and basically made every rookie mistake you can make. I had an amazing first 6 miles, and then crashed. THAT’S NOT EVEN HALFWAY. I walked/jogged/walked the remaining SEVEN MILES. With no music. That’s a long time to think about how much it stinks that you’re walking right now.

The only thing that would have made me feel more like a failure would have been quitting when I saw my in-laws at mile 9 and riding home in disgrace squished in the back between the kids car seats.

I was traversing those 13.1 miles, getting my medal, and going home. (damnit.)

Now I’m glad I failed. It was a wake-up call, a needed reminder that 13.1 miles is NOT a gimme. Just because I’d done it twice, didn’t mean I could do it again without adequate preparation. You have to work to maintain your level of fitness, not just to improve it.

Sometimes when I’m training I picture myself walking, exhausted, frustrated during that race. It drives me forward, to finish the interval, to log the last mile in a tempo run, to squeeze in a few miles on the treadmill rather than missing a workout completely.

It makes me grin maniacally and pedal faster in the middle of a spin workout, relishing the feel and view of the sweat snaking its way down my arm. Not again, not again, not again… I will not fail like that again.

Every second, every moment that I’m working hard, breathing hard, pushing through, those are to prevent the last 7 miles of the Heartbreak Hill Half Marathon from happening to me in October. Seeing that race medal or wearing that t-shirt doesn’t make me feel proud, but it does make me work harder.

On the opposite side is hope. Hope is something I’m familiar with, it’s been a friend of mine since I very first started running with the Couch to 5k program in July of 2012.

In that vision, I’m not walking up heartbreak hill in the heat, demoralized and apathetic about the time on the clock because I’ve spent miles walk/jogging my way forward in resignation.

Instead, I’m at the Maine Half Marathon in October. It’s cool out. It’s a medium sized race, so the course feels open but not anticlimactic. I know I’m running hard, but it doesn’t FEEL hard, it feels steady. I’m in the zone. I’m breathing, I’m moving, I’m flying. The leaves have changed color. Every breath of air is crisp, refreshing. The sky is blue. I don’t need to stop. I don’t WANT to stop. I could run like this forever. My family is waiting at the finish, it’s the first half marathon I’ve run in my home state. They’ve invested time in watching my children so I could run, they’ve encouraged me, they’ve even read my running blog. I won’t let them down. Those hours they helped, they counted… I built on them, I used them, they were a springboard to this moment. This bliss, this in-the-zone running bliss, where I’m going and I don’t need to stop and life is amazing and I AM AMAZING.

One interval at a time. One long run at a time. I will do whatever it takes to get to that moment.

Perhaps hope is the biggest motivator after all.

Track Repeats

10 years ago • 2 Comments • 13.1 Training, My Running

Today was an interval day, and I’d been worried about how I was going to complete my intervals down here in MA where there’s so much traffic and so many hills. How could I guarantee I wouldn’t stop at a light during my 800 meter repeat? Or hit a huge incline and have to alter my workout?

Oh wait… I know… pick me. I COULD RUN ON THE TRACK.

I guess that’s why they call them TRACK REPEATS.

I get it.

We live about a mile from a track that’s open to residents of our town, so I headed over after camp drop off and did 6 repeats of 800 meters each, aiming for 8:47 pace. It was great to have a visual mark for how much further I had to go, because once I settled into my pace, I knew I just had to make it two laps around the track and I’d get 90 seconds off. I also liked being able to leave water on the bench rather than carrying it with me while I ran.

I won’t say it was a breeze to complete each interval, but they felt like the right combination of difficult yet do-able.

Track – I’ll be back.

First successful tempo run!

10 years ago • 2 Comments • 13.1 Training, My Running

I ran my first successful tempo run this morning! Tempo runs are mentally challenging for me because unlike interval runs, where I push hard then stop, or long runs, where I run a long time but at an easy pace, I have to combine the hardest parts of both and maintain a slightly uncomfortable effort without any break.

My training plan had me running a mile easy, 3 miles at 9:34 pace, and another mile easy. I got some exciting family news this morning that caused me to head out a little fast, and my warm up mile was under 10 minute pace… but I still managed to keep every mile under my target pace, by about 10 seconds. (I just kept settling in around 9:25 pace.)

I’m feeling relieved – I knew if I had trouble completing my third tempo run, it’d mean I would have to start thinking seriously about adjusting my training plan. I didn’t really want to do that since I’m enjoying my intervals and long runs, and wouldn’t really know where to start to make it more manageable without sacrificing training. I don’t know how to make a training plan that hits that sweet spot where it’s challenging enough for maximum improvement without injury or failure. That’s why I picked up the book in the first place!

Looks like I am still in this.

Now, I just have to make it through 10 miles easy on Friday!

I’m less worried about that than I am about getting my runs completed once I return home from Maine. Here I have two amazing grandmothers helping with my boys so I can go run. Once I’m home, I’ll need to run and get back in time for Greg to get ready for work. That means up early, and it means I’ll need to go to bed early and sacrifice time with Greg after the boys go to sleep, and subject him to my 5 a.m. alarms… neither of which seems really fair to him. On Wednesdays for two weeks they’re in camp from 9-12 so I could treadmill it then… or run outside if it’s not hot… but that’s only one day out of three running days.

I hope we can make it work in a way that WORKS… rather than feeling like we’re both exhausted or sacrificing way too much time.

I’ve put a lot of heart into the pavement up here in Maine… I want to build on it and make it through this training for a fantastic race in October!

In the meantime, I’ve got some more beautiful Maine runs left!

I stole Will’s headphones to distract me from my effort during the tempo miles.

Training Plan for my 4th Half Marathon

10 years ago • 4 Comments • 13.1 Training

My 3rd Half Marathon was not very satisfying. I trained for about 5 weeks when I should have trained for 12-16, and I crashed at mile 7 and walked the entirety of heartbreak hill. I’m glad I finished, but I’m not interested in doing that again. The point of races for me is getting the chance to feel proud of the hard training I did to improve! (See my post To Feel Proud, You Have to Train Hard.) I’d like my next half marathon to feel more like my first and second, which were the result of months of training and reflected enormous progress as a result.

Goal: Train adequately for my next half marathon. I know that I want to run two half marathons in the fall, the Maine Half Marathon in October and the Chilly Half Marathon in November. I like the idea of training and running for two, because the Maine Half Marathon will ensure that I prepare in time for Chilly, the race I enjoyed so much last year.

The Training Plan:I’ve pulled out Run Less, Run Faster, a book Greg gave me over a year ago that I’ve under-utilized. It has a 16 week half marathon training plan. I printed out our monthly google calendars and counted the weeks backwards from the Maine Half Marathon. I have 15 weeks starting Sunday. The plan has you do three key runs, an Interval workout, a Tempo workout, and a Long Run. Two days a week you’re supposed to aerobically cross train (bike, swim or row) – something I can actually do easily because rowing is one of the options and I’ll be spending a month this summer on a lake with a row boat that I can toss the kids in.

Challenges: I want to train well for these half marathons, but I don’t want to do it at the cost of having a great summer. I’ll be up in Maine for four weeks with Greg joining me on weekends, and it will be hot, so I’ll want to run in the early morning. That means asking grandparents to watch the boys early in the morning three days a week, or twice a week and sacrificing time with Greg on the weekend in order to run.

Solution: I’m going to put in my best effort to get those runs in on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I’ll ask family for help, and give them the option of having me drop the kids off for breakfast and then going for a run, having them come up in the morning so I can go, or having them spend the night at the house on the lake and I’ll wake up at 5 and go, getting back not too long after breakfast! If it works, awesome, if it doesn’t, I can always go for a run on Saturday or Sunday when Greg is up for the weekend, so regardless I will get my long run in. If the morning is hard, I can slow it down and tackle the workouts in the heat… but I’m hopeful that with two sets of grandparents around I can find coverage 2-3 times a week to run.

Ideally it’d be in the early morning so it’s not as hot… but it doesn’t HAVE to be. Ideally it’d be three times so that I don’t have to give up time with Greg on the weekends for my long run… but it doesn’t HAVE to be. Ideally I won’t miss a workout… but I’ll still have 11 weeks left when I get back to Wellesley. It’ll be ok.

Once I’m back in Wellesley, I can work out a schedule with Greg so I can go early in the morning on days when HE’S not running early in the morning. If we both get in the habit of waking up early to run because of the heat, we’ll hopefully both go to bed earlier, and it won’t be a big deal. I also have some time with the boys in camps for a few hours in the morning here or there, when I can run outside if it’s cool or on the treadmill if it’s way too hot.

Targeted workouts: I’ve never used an official training plan before – when I trained for my first half marathon, I made up my own based on how many days and miles I was able to run, focusing on gradually adding distance to my long runs until I could make it the 13.1 miles. Now that I’ve completed 3 half marathons, I think it’s time to train smarter and actually have time goals for some of my runs to target an intensity that’s do-able but hard enough so I make progress. The “Run Less, Run Faster” book has a very specific formula for determining what your interval speeds, tempo speeds, and long run speeds should be based on your 5k race time. This is great, because the one time I ran intervals, I ran way too fast for my ability and haven’t done one since. That was 9 months ago. No wonder my pace has stayed so steady!

If I have trouble completing the workouts, I’ll tone back to a slower 5k time to get my numbers until the workouts are challenging but manageable. I don’t want to get injured OR demoralized.

My first long run was today – 8 miles at 10:32 pace was the target, and I completed 8 miles at 10:33 pace. Yay me! Except I stopped the clock whenever I drank water, which was five times, which probably was enough to add a minute onto my pace per mile. Still, a few minute long breaks but maintaining the desired pace during the portions when I was running doesn’t seem as bad as if I’d run that much slower without a break. Right? RIGHT? (This type of rationalization is why I’m so slow.)

But… I had a beautiful run, I felt great all morning from it, and I’m optimistic and excited about this upcoming half marathon in October… and the fact that the training will carry over to my favorite half marathon, the Chilly Half Marathon in November that I’m excited to run for the second time this year.

What’s on your race schedule for the fall? Anything?

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The DO and DO NOTs of Long Runs