Go Long

Sooner or later, every endurance athlete has to face the reality show of going long. No matter how fit or fast you are, you are going to have to strap on your running or biking shoes or your goggles and go for a long, long run, bike or swim. Even if you are prepared to go no further in your athletic career than 5ks or sprint tris, you gotta go the distance sooner or later of at least 3 miles on the hoof.

And once you decide to race past that distance, you are peering into the canyon of spending a lot of quality time out on the road, or in the pool. You might as well get over it now and load a lot of interesting songs on the iPod.

Science is changing daily with regard to the One Best Way To Work Out for endurance events. Used to be, you trod out the long, long miles of bike or run or swim, building up weekly (with a back off week stuck in there every 3-5 weeks) to your maximum mileage, trudging slowly but surely to that distant goal, and then during the week you also threw in a shorter and faster thingie to help your body remember that it's not totally all about slow twitching. Lately, science has cleared its throat a bit and mentioned that maybe a lot of shorter, faster, more focused workouts do almost as much good as the long slow slog. However, no one in their right mind or focus would try to run a marathon after having only run 10 miles at any one time, or do a century bike ride after only posted a 20 mile bike one Sunday afternoon. No matter how much science changes, the truth is you have to go long to well, go long.

There is also a lot of debate over how long you really should go. A great many marathon training programs take you only up to 18-20 miles and assume that on race day, your body will just deal with that extra 10K on its own. For me, when I intend to train for a full marathon (late next year), I want to train for the entire 26 first. No way am I gonna go to a 26 mile race having only trod 20 miles and then have my body tell me at mile 24 that this is not what it was expecting, thankyouverymuch.

Last weekend I ran 8 miles. This isn't a long way by any shot, and I've done a lot longer, but it's been a while. I have been concentrating on sprints and my Oly race, and the last time I shuffled out 8 miles was on Thanksgiving Day 2009, almost a year ago, during the Dallas Turkey Trot. My half marathon (originally planned for December, but because they moved the race day up two weeks, now scheduled for Jan 29) is coming up and I need to start, well, logging those miles with my feetsies.

Last weekend was hot, humid, and very windy. It was a perfect day to run if you were gonna spank out 3 miles early in the day before the heat and humidity took a toll. Unfortunately, for various reasons, I was not able to start my run until about 10:45 a.m. on Sunday. Normally, on Oct 24 this would not be an issue. This year, with the temp scheduled to hit 89 degrees, it was going to be a toasty run. For those of you in North Dakota this week, I'm sorry for you, but right now, not all that much.

For any run over five miles, I carry a fuel belt. Mine is the mini belt with a pouch; I have trouble with the multiple dangling bottle belts--tried them and they drive me nuts banging around like a set of castanets around my waist. I have a small Dannon water bottle (the smallest they sell) that I have crumpled in the middle that fits nicely inside the pouch, along with my cell phone and a gel, and if necessary, my car key. On runs over 7 miles I carry a gel with me. Normally I don't need one if I have fueled up properly beforehand until I hit about a 10 mile run, but you want to be prepared. Heat and humidity and high wind can make a run feel longer than, well, a long run.

I started out slow, with my usual contingent of nerdo gear--heart rate monitor watch, Garmin GPS watch, iPod in ears, loaded fuel belt, sunglasses, with a base layer of sunscreen. I was aiming for around a 12 to 12:30 minute mile. The training rules all say you should run your long endurance run about 1 to 2 minutes slower than your planned race pace. Truthfully, I can't figure out how that works, because you would think your body would adjust to running 12 minute miles and not 11 minute miles, but apparently added with shorter and faster interval workouts during the week, this is the ideal plan. Or it was the ideal plan, as science is now starting to rethink this, but not completely enough to change the routine...yet.

In addition, you are supposed to add more time to your long run if it's hot, humid, windy, hilly, or a full moon (okay, I made the last one up).

I did okay the first six miles. It was pretty hot and humid, and I drank up my bottle of Gatorade diluted with vitamin water by six miles, but there is a park water fountain right at six miles on my out my front door route, so I refilled and kept slogging. I was running pretty much on a 12 min mile schedule so I felt okay, but at 6.5 miles I hit the bonk pretty hard. The middle third of my long route is pretty hilly and as I was slogging uphill into the 20 mph wind and midday sun, I was not having much fun. No, not much fun at all. And running is my favorite of the three triathlon sports.

I had been taking walk breaks of 3 minutes every 12 minutes, but from 6.5 to 8 miles I went to taking 2 minutes every 8 minutes and the last half mile I took 1 minute breaks every four minutes (science, which I am tired of talking about like a person, swears the best and most efficient walk run program is 4 minutes run/1 minute walk, but I have tried that and it just wears me out immediately. One minute is NOT enough time for me to catch my breath, drink water, rezip my pouch, and convince my legs that they are not going to fall off ).

I finished the run about a mile from home, having stupidly calculated my distance out incorrectly, so I had a long walk to cool down and recover, and then I fell right into our swimming pool when I got home (I did take off my shoes and socks). It was a bit chilly, but icing is good for you post workout, and I was pretty sweaty and hot. If you had told me that I would be immersed in my pool on October 24, I would have said you were nuts. Then again, if you had told me my Rangers would be playing in the World Series tonight, I would have also said you were nuts. It's been a strange fall. I averaged a 12:30 min mile, having lost lots of time, as well as sweat, on the last 1.5 miles of the run.

I have a 9 mile run coming up this weekend, but the weather is fortunately supposed to be a bit more tolerable, so hopefully it won't be as much of a grind. In the meantime, I'm recharging my iPod and my Garmin and getting ready.

GO RANGERS!