The most important workout each week, when training for an ultra or marathon, is a long run.
I would not recommend the long run workout I ran today to any person doing their first marathon or ultra. For first timers, the long run workout is supposed to build mental confidence. When complete, it is important to feel good about the run and themselves. In order to accomplish the good feelings, I recommend a good night sleep and not much physical activity the day before the weekly long run. Yes, you can slack off, the grass won’t grow much higher.
My typical long run day is Thursday. I work part time, at night, from Friday through Tuesday. Typically, I take Wednesday off from running and get to bed earlier.
Today was the last day in “Miles for Meaning” month. FARC is participating in this event to help the local Fairy Godmother Project organization. I ran my typical workouts the entire month until today. I advanced my Thursday long run to Wednesday.
My first two long runs in April are to be 18 miles. This is up 2 miles from last week’s run. The hard parts about the run were not taking yesterday off from running, working until midnight and only getting 5 1/2 hours of sleep. For an experienced runner, doing a long run tired, adds to the stresses on your legs. The 18 miles today could be compared to 20 or 21 miles. For the inexperienced, this workout could be demoralizing.
Before mile 7, I was starting to feet the issues. I just finished my first Heritage Trail loop. In the second loop, I started to zone out. Somehow, my legs kept moving. My time for the second loop was faster than I should have run to maintain a consistent pace.
After the second loop, it was back across the Falmouth Bridge and the Belmont Ferry Farm Trail, though Chatham to my house. This part of the run was just under 14 miles.
After getting a fresh water bottle, I headed back out to Chatham and the Belmont Ferry Farm Trail, turning around 2.3 miles from my house.
I did not give in to my urge to walk, except from the preplanned breaks every 20 minutes to drink. I guess I did OK. Those 2.3 segment times were initial 24:59 then 25:37, 26:36 and 26:08. Though, I thought I was crawling in those last two segments.
Happy I finished the workout and glad the rain held off until I was done. I was a nice day to run, overcast, no wind and high 50s.