Sixteen Miles and Counting

This past weekend, we completed what I consider our first long run of marathon training (anything over a half marathon is “long” to me). I would have loved to get the run out of the way on Saturday, but the temperatures were in the 40s, matched by 40 mile-per-hour winds. We waited until Sunday, and I am glad we did! It was absolutely beautiful – a nice breeze, coupled with temperatures between 65 and 70 degrees during our run. Our goal was 11:00 minute pace, and we finished close to that, at 11:07 pace. We finished the run in 2:58:03.

I've heard this called “long, slow distance,” or “LSD” for short. When I first started running, I ran every run at all-out effort. However, this is counterproductive, especially for a recreational runner like myself. The long weekend runs are made to train your body and your mind to complete the distance, and my goal is always to run 60 to 90 seconds per mile slower than race pace (I would like to run 10:00 pace at San Diego, so 11:00 is great for me). The tempo runs, hill work and speedwork during the week (at much shorter distances) are what improve speed. Running a long run at race pace just breaks you down and can possibly slow you down for a race. This never made sense to me until I actually started racing. Although I only run “race pace” or faster one time (or sometimes no times) during the week, I can still maintain my race pace during an actual race. I’m sure it is the adrenaline coupled with the other runners that help this happen, but it is interesting phenonmenon nonetheless. For more information on long runs, check out this article, and take all my advice with a grain of salt, keeping in mind that I am not an elite or even trying to qualify for Boston.

It is crunch time now. I have always thought that marathon training isn’t that grueling until about the last 6-8 weeks when the mileage really picks up. From here on out, no weekend long run will be less than 9 miles, and many of them are much longer. These longer distances are coupled with our typical weekday mileage. All of this together gets pretty tough to maintain, and makes me really tired. Here’s our long run schedule leading up to the San Diego Marathon:

Sunday, April 5th: 9 miles (Redbud 10K + 3 miles)
Sunday, April 12th: 18 miles
Sunday, April 19th: 20 miles
Sunday, April 26th: D - sprint triathlon; C - OKC Half Marathon
Sunday, May 3rd: D - 9 miles; C - “Heels & Hills” Half Marathon

Sunday, May 10th: 22 miles
Sunday, May 17th: 12 miles
Sunday, May 24th: 9 miles
Sunday, May 31st: San Diego Marathon

By the way, this was David’s longest run EVER! He was in much better shape at the end of the 16-mile run than me, as always. I can’t wait to see what he can do in the marathon. I love that he's training for this race with me. It makes the long runs much more enjoyable, and pushes me to put in my best effort on every run.