It’s the end of September and I’m deep in marathon training for Verona in November.
The hardest thing about doing a marathon is not the race itself, but the training. And arguably the hardest thing about training is the long run. Juggling increased mileage with all the other demands of life is always a challenge, and sometimes the idea of going out and running for hours on my own, on legs that feel fatigued from the increased training volume, doesn’t fill my heart with joy.
I’ll admit I had a bit of a wobble at the beginning of the month.
I’d decided to get in a bit of distance racing and test my fitness at the Bridgwater half marathon. I have a bit of a mental block about this event. Maybe it’s the long straight country roads with little variety to break up the monotony. Or the nasty not-so-little out-and-back loop just at the point where you’re starting to feel the miles. But a race that’s billed as ‘fast and flat’ always seems like hard work. It didn’t help that last year, the weather on race weekend turned freakishly hot, and transformed 13.1 miles into a death march. Third time lucky, my only goal this year was to enjoy it a little more.
‘Enjoy’ is possibly not the best way to describe the experience. I made it to the end. It wasn’t quite as painful as last year. But from 8 miles onwards, I made heavy weather of it. The thought of doing the same twice over suddenly felt like an impossible goal.
I had a 14+ miler scheduled for the following week, and I was asking myself some hard questions about whether I really wanted to do this. Work was busy. Life was busy. And finding time and energy to train for a marathon felt like extra stress I didn’t need. The prospect of ditching the full distance and dropping down to the half for Verona suddenly seemed very appealing.
I decided to do the run, give myself the option to bail after 9 miles if I really wasn’t feeling it, and re-assess afterwards.
So, what happened? I loved it! That run turned out to be the best long effort I’d done in a while. Suddenly a November marathon felt doable again.
A couple of weeks later, I had the chance to prove to myself this wasn’t a fluke. The distance was 15.5 miles, and I started the run feeling a little heavy-legged and fatigued from a tough speed session.
Again, what I was anticipating would be a hard slog was anything but. Yes, it was a long way. Yes, I was properly tired at the end. But it felt enjoyable from start to finish.
Now, instead of dreading my last few long runs, I’m looking forward to them, and the marathon feels very much on. What changed? I realised I’d been slipping into a few bad habits and forgetting to use some of the tools in my toolbox. All of which added up to an LSD run that felt a whole lot harder than it needed to.
I wrote a post a while ago about how to make long runs feel more effortless, which focused on how to maintain form and run more efficiently. And form focuses and visualisations are great tools to use, especially getting your arms to share the workload. But just a few simple tweaks to my training have transformed my long runs from a slog into something far more enjoyable.
Engage your brain
It’s said that running is 90% mental, and that’s even more true for a marathon. Running a long way can seem overwhelming, and leave you feeling defeated before you’ve started. Engaging your brain to help you can really make a difference to the experience.
Self-talk is one habit I’ve developed. On a long run, it’s really easy to get sucked into a negative frame of mind, worrying whether you can go the distance or fretting about minor niggles. Reminding myself that I’m ‘feeling good, feeling strong’ or that I’m ‘breathing easy, calm and relaxed’ may feel cheesy, but has a surprisingly powerful effect.
One of my other favourite tricks is ‘chunking,’ or breaking the distance into bitesize mini-runs.
I chunk my runs in different ways to make them feel more manageable. For example, breaking up a long run into quarter miles or 5-minute blocks, depending on whether it’s distance- or time-based. Yes, you end up with a big number, but it gets smaller really quickly. Thinking of the distance in terms of parkruns is another game I like to play with myself. ‘Just one more parkrun to go’ somehow feels much more do-able and motivating.
For all my long runs since Bridgwater, I’ve just focused on completing the next mile, and nothing else. Each small chunk on its own feels totally achievable, and slowly but steadily, those miles stack up. Until there’s only a parkun to go. 😊
Don’t work too hard
As I’ve mentioned before on my blog, I’m a big fan of Matt Fitzgerald’s 80/20 way of training. Which means doing 80% of your training at an easy effort, and 20% at a moderate or high intensity. Many of us train somewhere in the middle – too hard on our ‘easy’ runs, and not hard enough on our speed sessions. The result is that we don’t get the adaptations we’re looking for, we don’t recover optimally, and we turn up for our long runs feeling overly tired before we start.
I took a long hard look at how I was running my base building runs. I’m a competitive soul, and I noticed I was starting to push the limits on what could be described as easy. Like many runners, I want to see that I’m improving week-to-week, but that was causing me to work just a little too hard.
I could always find a reason for pushing the effort a little. I was running into a headwind…I was still tired from the previous day’s run…the run was hilly… But I had to be honest with myself. And even though the increase was small, I was feeling the impact.
I started winding back the effort level on my midweek easy runs, focusing on feeling as relaxed as possible, letting go of tension, and not worrying about speed. The effect was immediate. I finished my runs feeling more refreshed and ready to go again.
So when it came to my long runs, I started with fresher legs and more energy.
With distance runs, the challenge is to pace them well. Go just a little too fast early on, and you risk running out of steam and fading in the later stages. So I deliberately held myself back to begin with, finding a pace that felt easy and allowing my speed to drift up as I settled into my rhythm. With both easy and long runs, I’ve also started relying less on my gadgets to tell me whether I’m working at the right level, and focusing more on body sensing to guide me.
The result is a training session that feels more steady and enjoyable, from the early miles to the end.
Fuel for the distance
The final piece that’s helped to bring back my enjoyment of running longer is fuelling properly. For runs shorter than 10-12 miles, I find I don’t need anything - food or hydration. But when you’re running for several hours, you burn through your glycogen stores, and topping up with carbs as you go helps maintain energy levels and avoid a late run crash.
Finding the type and quantity of nutrition that works for you takes trial and error. Too little and you run out of energy. Too much and you risk the dreaded ‘gastrointestinal distress.’ Over the years, I’ve tried all sorts of endurance nutrition, from gels to jelly beans, but I find even the so-called ‘natural’ ones difficult to stomach by the end. Tailwind is the one that suits me.
Start early, and take on fuel little and often throughout your run, to keep energy and enjoyment levels high.
Of course, visualisations and form focuses are also great tools to use to make your long runs feel more effortless. You can find some of my favourites here, here and here.
Now, with the help of a few mind games, smarter pacing, and proper fuelling, I’m looking forward to my last few long training runs. Bring on the Verona marathon! 😊