The following article was written by a Run For Kids friend and veteran marathoner, Don Leeman.

The Long Run

This will be by far the most important article that I can probably write in this entire series. Without following the advice given herein, the chances of successfully finishing the Marathon will diminish greatly.

Many people wonder: “What is the key to being able to run 26.2 miles?” Certainly, proper diet will be helpful. An excess of fatty foods will slow you down by adding unnecessary pounds. Yes, speedwork and hill workouts are necessary in order to develop both strength in the legs and speed to achieve any goal that you might have. Good running shoes are important in order to protect your feet. Stretching is important in order to reduce the chance of injuries and also to reduce the amount of tightness after a tough run. All of these are important parts of the overall training program. However, none of them are anywhere near as important as The Long Run.

All of the sprinting in the world will not get you to the Finish Line at the MCM or any other marathon. You can have the leg power of a world-class body-builder and still not get anywhere near the Finish Line! Nothing will do more to prepare you to run long…than running long!

The real question is: How do you do it? By this stage, your weekend Long Run should be up to at least 10 miles. Hopefully, a bit more than that. Without changing anything else, you should be up to 20 miles at least a month before the MCM. One of the secrets to being able to stretttccchhhhh out your Long Run is to do two things: Run slower than normal, and take periodic walking breaks. Let’s look at these two ideas.

First, you must presume that you will never be able to maintain the same pace for 26.2 miles as you can for 5K. Simply put, the 5K is almost a sprint race in comparison to the Marathon. It’s short, sweet, and finished in relatively short order. You might even have lots of energy left over afterwards…to go out for a nice jog in the park!

Before heading out for the Long Run, make sure that you are properly hydrated. You should be drinking enough water so that, when it comes through, it is clear and not yellow. Start hydrating the day before. This will become more and more critical in warmer weather, and as the length of the run increases.

After that, “secure your supply lines”. If you are going out alone, make sure that there will be water along the way. Nothing can ruin a nice run more than to find that you are no longer sweating…on a hot day! (dehydration!)

When building up the length of your Long Run, you have to think S-L-O-W! For example, suppose you run a 10K in about 50 minutes. In that case, you’re running at about 8 minutes per mile. When you go for the Long Run, slow it down to about 9, 9:30, or even 10 minutes per mile! You’ll feel as if you’re crawling! Yet, by running anywhere from 1-2 minutes per mile slower than your normal 10K pace, you are conserving valuable stores of energy that you will need later.

Think of it like your car. If you drive 100 MPH (DON’T, PLEASE!), your tank will run dry quickly, and you’ll be stuck somewhere, a million miles from everywhere. Yet, a steady pace of 55MPH, which will seem SLOWWWWWWWWW, will add distance to your tank. They call it “range”. Your own “Range” will be limited by how well you conserve your energy.

Yet, there is more than just running slow. You need to take breaks along the way. Thus, every couple of miles you should slow down to a walking pace for a minute or two. This will allow your body to get some badly needed oxygen, and permit you to run your next “leg” far more easily than if you had kept going without any “rests periods”. Those rest breaks every 15-20 minutes will do you a world of good. However, keep moving for those breaks, walking at a steady pace.

In running terminology, we call the Long Run by the term “LSD”, meaning Long Slow Distance. However, since the authorities might wonder why you “love” that “LSD” so much, and how much good “LSD” is doing for you, I suggest that you simply call it “The Long Run” when talking with your non-running friends! They will understand it, and you won’t have anyone turning their heads in your direction when you talk about your “next dose of LSD this coming weekend”.

One thing that the rest breaks will do for you is to “simulate” the water stops at the MCM, which come about every 2 miles. Since drinking water at EVERY water stop is virtually mandatory, you should slow down for those in order to actually drink the water. Many people (myself included) have trouble drinking while maintaining their running pace. Thus, walking through the water stops will assure that more of the water gets inside of you, instead of ON you! (More on hydration in a later article). Yet, the same walking breaks that you take during your Long Runs will do much to simulate the water stop breaks at the Marathon.

Now, you might ask: “Does this mean that I should go out next weekend and do a 20 mile run?” At this stage, probably not! Unless, that is, your Long Run last time out was 18 miles.

The Long Run needs to be built up in gradual steps: gradual, small steps. Each week, add perhaps 2 miles to your previous Long Run until you reach 14 miles. Then, add 2 miles every OTHER weekend. For the intervening, weekend, run half of the previous weekend’s miles, but do them as Mile Repeats, run at about 10K race pace.

Think back to the idea of the quarter mile repeats mentioned earlier. They are tougher to run because of the pace and the increasing number of them that you do until you reach 16 such 1/4 mile repeats in a workout. The weekend after you run 14 miles, run 7 Mile Repeats. The next weekend, move the Long Run up to 16 miles, and then run 8 Mile Repeats the following weekend. Next weekend, go for 18 miles, followed by 9 Mile Repeats. Then go for 20 miles, followed by 10 Mile Repeats.

What you are doing here is slowly increasing the Long Run, which builds endurance better than anything else on the face of the earth. By doing the Mile Repeats, you are essentially doing a “speed workout”, although not quite the same as you are with the ¼ mile Reps.

The pause between the Mile Reps should be sufficient for your heartbeat to return to about normal. If your resting pulse is in the 60s, let it slow down to the 80s or even the 70s. The closer it returns to normal, the better.

One caution here: the day BEFORE your Long Run should ALWAYS be a rest day. That bears repeating: The day before your Long Run should ALWAYS be a rest day. Now, you might ask, “Why?”, and that’s a good question.

You’ve been slowly building up your weekly mileage (hopefully not by more than 10% from one week to the next). Your Long Run is going to become more and more taxing each time out. That one day of rest before the Long Run will give you that much more of a recovery from your previous workout, no matter what sort of run it was. So, what qualifies as “rest”? I heard one time of a guy who, on his “rest” day, went out and re-roofed his house! I don’t exactly call that “rest”! Do you? “Rest” means just that. Relax. Enjoy the day. Smile. Play with your kids. Throw a frisbee for your dog. Whatever. I think you get the idea.

Another thing to consider is your diet. You’ve all heard of Carbo-loading, and I’ll have a full article on that soon. However, let this be sufficient for now. The day before your Long Run, you should be thinking in terms of a much higher percentage of Complex Carbohydrates than you would normally consume. Carbos are the fuel of Endurance athletes, and make no mistake about this: Marathoners are endurance athletes! The night before your Long Run should see an extra helping of pasta, or an extra baked potato, or additional slices of whole grain bread, or rice. Since the body generally requires 16-24 hours to process your food and break it down, think of going to those carbos starting around mid-day on Friday if your Long Run is on Saturday. Delay it by 24 hours if your Long Run is on Sunday.

One personal thought here. All of the marathons that I’ve run, with the exception of Boston, were on Sundays. Thus, I used Sunday for my Long Run. It just seemed easier for me that way. However, I understand that the RFK program schedules group Long Runs on Saturdays. In the end, it really won’t make a huge difference which day you choose. Just try to keep it consistent throughout your training schedule. I heartily suggest that you take part with the RFK Long Run whenever possible. They generally do a great job of providing for all of the runners. Things such as providing water during the run, as well as refreshments afterwards, will go a long ways (no pun intended) towards making your training experience that much more enjoyable.

To recap all of this:

Long Runs are generally run anywhere from 1-2 minutes per mile slower than your normal 10K race pace. If in doubt, run them in the slower range. Add 2 miles per week to the Long Run, until you reach 14. After that, add 2 miles every other weekend. In the week in–between, run half as many miles, using “Mile Repeats”, with sufficient rest between each mile. Mile repeats are run at 10K race pace. Take short walking breaks during your Long Run, spacing them about 15-20 minutes apart. Make sure that the day before the Long Run day is a day of rest! Increase your carbohydrate intake the day before the Long Run.

Now, think back to where you were when you started training for the MCM, and see how far you have come so far. Smile. You’re doing great!

As usual, if anyone has any individual questions, please feel free to write to me at Don's Mail Bag. Good luck, and keep up the great work.