Road to Richmond: Conquering the Ghost of Long Runs Past (Week Seven)

Another humid, but good training week. I hit my mileage targets overall, and think my three major work outs for the week went well. The splits for my 800 repeats fell within a few seconds of another and my tempo run added a mile and the splits stayed in the upper end of my target range.

The big question mark for me this week was the long run. Part of the Hanson philosophy is that long runs shouldn’t account for more than 25-30% of your weekly mileage total. Based on this, neither their basic and advanced plans call for long runs of more than 16 miles.  In marathon training that is scary as the 18-20 mile run is a foundation of most plans. This builds strength in your legs but also marks an important psychological barrier for most runners; if you can do these in training, you know you at least should be able to make it to the finish of your race.

My plan called for 15 miles but I decided to do 17. Based on percentages, the max for my long runs could be up to 18 miles so I don’t feel like this was crazy. I wanted to test myself mentally more than anything else and see if I can still manage my mind for a run lasting longer than two hours.

And so I headed out to the American Tobacco Trail yesterday. This is a “rails-to-trails” mostly paved trail that follows a former railroad that used to carry tobacco from the fields of Wake and Chatham Counties to the factories of Durham. It’s straight and features long inclines and declines with very few flat stretches.

In the spring I ran here for many of my long runs, but I struggled with the hills and came the closest to breaking down mentally on any of my training runs here. I distinctly remember one run where I almost broke down in tears after asking aloud: “Will this hill ever end?” It seemed like a good challenge. I set an out and back route, packed a hydration pack with probably too much water and my gels then hit the trail earlier than was comfortable for a Saturday.

The run went better that I expected. My pace felt stronger on the uphills than the downhills, and I ran negative splits that lead to a pace close to what my plan called for. I didn’t mentally breakdown or get frustrated, though I can’t exactly remember any mantras or mental games I played to get through it. I know disassociation (where you purposefully think about other things) is a common one, but that really doesn’t work well for me. I seem to do better when I either go blank mixed with spurts thinking about adjusting my form or pace.

I did see more runners on the trail than I had during the winter. Every few minutes I passed someone or a small bunch. The Raleigh Galloway group was out in the force on the trail, and I saw the Florida State cross country team getting in a run as well (they were in town for a meet hosted by NC State). This probably helped me zone out more than I might have otherwise and avoid some tough patches. I finished the run strong and sore, but functional for the remainder of my day.

It felt good to get that first really long run out of the way. I have been worried about it and lost a little sleep Friday night in anticipation. My legs held up, though, and hopefully I can carry that confidence into next week.

Goal Mileage 57
Actual Mileage 59.9

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