I must admit that I have grossly underestimated the importance of strategy in long distance running. I've also now come to more greatly appreciate training and running with Jeff and James who have previous marathon experience.
Today found me doing our long training run by myself for the first time. This turned out to be a lot harder than any of my previous long runs. Here is what I did wrong: I ate too much before running (which caused some bad, nasty hiccups). I greatly over estimated my abilities and started off way too fast. Then, to compensate, I drank water...way too much water which left me feeling too bloated to run. I suppose that is one advantage of running outside, you don't get many chances to drink too much water.
Lastly, one should not underestimate the encouragement and motivation you get from running with others. That makes it hard to slack off even when your body is screaming at you to stop. This is espacially true for the long runs which give you many hours to contemplate the sheer lunacy of running these distances. Not wanting to disappoint others and having someone make you go, is a big part of what I wrote about back in my One Year of Weight Loss post.
Lastly, doing this distance inside on the treadmill certainly has one last drawback: You are already home. If you are running outside and you make it halfway thru your course than your only option is to complete the course. When you are running inside, you know that the shower and the couch are mere feet away and after several hours of running and a few more to go, they call out with their Siren song.
In short, next week, I will definitely be running outside with James and Jeff if I know what's best for me.
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Comments (1)
Well, running outside with others isn't a magic cure. My run on the sameday was horrible. Jeff and I did the route through Mariemont, then downtown along 50, then up through Eden Park. We stopped at the water fountain in Friendship Park (12-13 mile point??). There I ate a powerbar, and drank a bunch of water. When we started, I was unable to find my rhythm, and couldn't seem to catch my breathe. I'm not sure if I did the first half too fast, if the water / power bar was too much, or if the weather (first warm and humid day) got to me. But I ended up having to walk significant parts of the way back. No amount of encouragement from Jeff was going to help. The a bit about being half way did give me a chance to rally for couple segments, to include going up through Eden Park, but overall, it was miserable training day.
# Posted by James | March 21, 2006 1:22 PM