Final Long Run

Today's long run marks the final and longest run in this training program - the peak of a summit, in one sense, from which I will now begin to descend into a three-week paper.  But as with "Yassos," formerly a staple of my marathon training in the past, I have been re-thinking the purpose of the long run.  My training program is more flexible this year, and takes into account my age.

Jeff Gaudette, founder and CEO of the website RunnersConnect, argues convincingly that there is little purpose in running a long run of 20 miles, which I was scheduled to complete today.  He cites recent studies that indicate that runs of up to three hours do all those wonderful things we seek in a long run: capillary and mitochondrial development, more efficiency in burning glycogen, and the hard-earned discipline of simply staying on your feet for those long, long miles.  But after three hours, the risk of injury and the increasing muscle damage begins to have a detrimental effect.  Moreover, a run of 20 or 22 miles (which I have peaked to in the past) tears the body up so much that it interferes with more useful tempo-mile workouts mid-week.  These arguments convinced me to replace the 20-miler with "only" 18 miles today, and despite having already run this distance two weeks ago, I was glad I did, because it seemed surprisingly difficult despite a glorious, cool fall day in Highlands.  I found myself struggling during the middle of the run, but picked it up in the last 2 or 3 miles, finally finishing strong and relatively unscathed.

So I will remember this lesson on Race Day:  the going might get tough in the middle, but that's the time to dig deep and persevere and trust in your training in order to finish strong.