Focus on the Long Run

I've always had problems with longruns. Not so much with the execution of them, although I have had my fair share of struggles during my longruns. No, the main problem for me anytime I have ever had a run scheduled for more than say 13 miles is just getting out the door to do it. For some reason, from a motivational standpoint, there have always been the toughest runs for me to get out and do. As I've discussed before, I really felt going into this year that overall endurance was the biggest limiting factor for me in my running, so I really wanted to make that a focus as I built up for Chicago in October.

So far this year, I have done 34 runs over 17 miles in distance. That is probably about 5 years worth of longruns if I was still training how I used to train. The majority of those longruns have been 17 milers (23), however I have gone over 20 miles 9 times so far. I like the 17 mile distance. I do them in just under 2 hours if I run them right and I think that is probably long enough for the body to start figuring out that I need to burn fat instead of glycogen if I want to survive. Plus, for me, the recovery between a 17 miler and 23 miler is pretty significant. I can bounce back pretty quickly from the 17 milers.

So today was a 17 miler and it was in pretty stifling humidity. The dewpoint was in the 70's by 7AM which made running pretty uncomfortable. Overall it was a pretty good run though. I averaged 6:55 for the run and finished feeling pretty good. Every year I run a relay race in Michigan called Dances with Dirt, and I saw one of my teammates near the end of this run. We were going in opposite directions so it was just a quick hello and a hand slap, but it was still a nice diversion for a few minutes. I'm pretty pleased with how this week has shaped up. I've gotten two quality workouts in so far and two longruns. I hope to get something done at marathon pace on Sunday to finish out the week.