The key component of marathon training. An excerpt from Running a Marathon For Dummies.

the different types of workouts you do, the long run most closely simulates

the marathon. So runners tend to pay a lot of attention to the long run—and for good reason. Doing so goes a long way toward effecting the physical changes you need to go the distance.

You can make the most out of long runs with the help of the guidelines in this article. Pacing, hydrating, fueling before and during, your mental approach, what you wear, and when and how often you take long runs are all things you need to address.

I often get asked if it’s OK to break up the long run into two runs on the same day, either because of lack of time or to reduce fatigue. The short answer is no, it’s not OK. Make time in your schedule to always complete your long runs all at once. Their specific endurance and metabolic aspects can be obtained only by continuous running. If you break up your long run, you won’t deplete your glycogen fuel tank so you’ll miss the opportunity to make all of the great body and mind adaptations mentioned above. You’ll also miss the opportunity to callus your mind for the distance. Unless you plan on running the first 13.1 miles of the marathon, stop for a frappuccino break and read the newspaper at Starbucks for a few hours, and then hop back on the course and complete the next 13.1 miles, breaking up your long run isn’t going to help you come race day.

Try to do your long runs in the morning, just like the marathon itself. Use the long run as a marathon dress rehearsal. Wear the same shoes, socks, and clothes (yes, even underwear and sports bra) you plan to wear in the race. Practice the same hydrating and fueling strategies, using the same drink and carbohydrate products that you’ll use for the race. Practice drinking out of the paper cups they hand out on the racecourse. (It’s harder than it looks!)

Te long run is, unsurprisingly, the key component of marathon training. Of all

Preparing yourself to run long

It sounds obvious, but the only way to prepare yourself to run long is to run long. Running long gives beginner runners the confidence to complete the marathon.

Running long gives advanced runners the chance to get creative and add fasterpaced running so they can learn to run hard when fatigued and improve their marathon time. The following sections explain the physical and mental effects of running long and provide some useful preparation tips.

Understanding how running long changes your body and mind

When you run for a long time, a lot of interesting adaptations occur in your body, including:

° Greater fuel storage. When you run long enough, you deplete (or severely lower) muscle glycogen, your stored form of carbohydrate. Carbohydrate is your muscles’ preferred source of fuel, so getting low on glycogen is bad for muscle function. However, your muscles respond rather elegantly to situations that threaten or deplete their supply of fuel. They synthesize and store more glycogen than was previously present, which increases your endurance. Empty a glass and you get a larger refill in its place (much like at cocktail parties). The more glycogen you have packed into your muscles, the greater your ability to hold your marathon pace to the finish line.

¢ Greater reliance on fat. When your muscles run out of carbohydrate, they’re forced to rely on fat and become more effective at using fat for energy. Because the marathon is longer than you can run on the amount of carbohydrate in your muscles, forcing your muscles to “learn” how to use fat more effectively helps you maintain your pace in the marathon.

¢ Increased capacity to make more glucose. Your liver, sensing your low fuel tank, takes things that are not carbohydrate—namely, amino acids and lactate—and converts them into carbohydrate, in the form of glucose, so you have more quick fuel and can sustain your marathon pace. That’s called gluconeogenesis—tiiterally, the formation of new glucose from noncarbohydrate sources. This process is a very cool aspect of metabolism. Imagine if your car did that when it starts to run out of fuel. Imagine if one part of your car—say, the battery—senses when the car’s fuel tank gets low and takes another part of your car—say, the back seat—and converts it into gasoline so you can keep driving on the highway. This process keeps blood-glucose levels from dropping too low. Thanks, liver!

¢ Stronger muscles, bones, tendons, and ligaments. Running for long periods is tough on your muscles and joints, so they adapt by becoming stronger to handle the stress of pounding the pavement for 26.2 miles.

¢ Greater psychological strength. When you run for a long time, your legs

aren’t the only body parts that get tired. Your mind does, too. This psychological aspect of long runs may be just as important as the physiological

Energy, Endorphins, and Flow

Long runs don’t just improve your fitness. They can be emotional and spiritual endeavors. Scientists have talked for a long time about endorphins, those hormones that the brain releases in response to moderate-intensity exercise. Endorphins are supposed to make you feel euphoric, but I know something more complex than that is happening because in all my years of running, I don’t ever recall feeling euphoric. I’ve never had that “runner’s high.”

Scientists, and even some runners, often make it seem as if there’s an instant in time during the run that this euphoric feeling kicks in. Maybe I’m endorphin deficient. At times, however, the movements of my run have felt easier and my energy has been higher. I’ve felt in those moments that my body knows, ahead of my brain, how to perform.

Renowned psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls this experience “flow,” a relaxed state in which you forget about time and feel confident and in control. I can’t explain it, but I don’t need to. It’s as if my body is breaking the first law of thermodynamics and is actually creating energy. I use this energy to formulate ideas that I usually don’t have time for. I crystallize my thoughts for the day, sometimes writing some of them in my head. The thoughts don’t necessarily have to be profound, although sometimes they are. The energy creates nothing less than a learning experience, a moment during which I can learn about my body and its world in a unique way, a way that’s hampered by the rest of my day. I spend the precious time learning about such things as thinking and being, association and solitude, and reality and fiction. What is fiction to everyone else now becomes my reality, just like the characters on the novel’s page are real to its author. I’m the author of my body, feeling like I’ve just created and discovered movement as if for the first time.

The moment of flow, like most great moments in life, is fleeting, lasting only a mile or two during my run. Then I return to feeling normal, and the running once again becomes a conscious endeavor. The scientist in me wants to know what causes this feeling, this ease of movement, and why it happens only on certain occasions. Maybe it has something to do with the alignment of the moons. Maybe my Jupiter is not aligned with my Saturn this month. However, the philosopher and the athlete in me doesn’t care at all why this happens and cares only about the moment and the feeling. Maybe someday the science will catch up to the anecdotal evidence. Maybe I have endorphins after all.

reasons for doing them. If the farthest you’ve ever run is five miles, running 10 miles, much less 26.2 miles, may seem overwhelming. But when you add stress a little at a time, you prepare yourself to handle longer and longer runs.

Adapting physically to long runs

To prevent shocking your legs once a week and to decrease the risk of injury, the long run shouldn’t make up more than about a third of your weekly mileage. For example, if you’re planning to run longer than 20 miles to prepare for the marathon, ideally, you should run at least 60 miles per week. But unless you’re an advanced, competitive runner, you’re probably not going to run that much. If you’re a beginner or intermediate runner, keeping the long run to no more than a third of your weekly mileage may not be possible if you run low mileage and you run only a few times per week. If your long run is 18 to 22 miles and your peak weekly mileage is 35, you need to be very careful about how you plan the rest of your training so you don’t shock your legs each week by running a distance that’s much longer than anything else you run during the week. In this case, try running one medium-distance run during the week that’s at least half to two-thirds the distance of your long run. (See the later section “Easy long runs” for more information.)

Because most marathons take place on asphalt roads (unless you run a trail marathon), do all your long runs on the road to get your legs used to the pounding of the pavement.

Managing the mental side Long runs can be pleasurable and invigorating if you’re mentally prepared. Try some tricks to get you through long runs:

¢ Divide the long run into sections. Don’t think of your long run as 20 miles. Think of it as one mile that you repeat 20 times or a five-mile run that you repeat four times. Focus only on the current mile.

¢ Listen to music. Dissociating from the physical work by listening to music makes the time go by much faster. Before you know it, you’re at mile 18 of a 20-mile run and you’re still waiting for Bruce Springsteen to sing “Born to Run” on your iPod.

¢ Run someplace interesting. If you run for three hours, choose someplace that captures your interest. Don’t run through busy city streets (unless you like that kind of thing). Run on park paths, on country roads, along a canal (all on asphalt), through scenic neighborhoods, or on roads along the ocean. Stay away from power plants, landfills, and the New Jersey Turnpike.

Jason R. Karp | THE LONG RUN | 85.

¢ Think positive. Long runs give you a lot of time to think. When they start to get physically uncomfortable, it’s easy to think negatively and doubt whether you can hold the pace. But that kind of thinking isn’t going to help you. The things you say to yourself on long runs can be very powerful in determining your success. Any time a negative thought enters your mind during a long run, say, “Stop!” and replace it with a positive thought. Say to yourself, “I’m strong,” or, “I’m fast,” or, “I can hold this pace.” Focus on a specific landmark, like a park or Lincoln Street, and say to yourself, “Just hold the pace until Lincoln Street.”

¢ Use other runners. If you run in a group, the other runners can help you maintain the pace. Don’t be timid or afraid to ask them for encouragement if you’re not having a good day. Say to yourself, J can do this. Just stay with Jason for one more mile. If you don’t have a group, find a friend to run with.

Considering pace, time, and distance of your long runs

Runners ask me all the time at what pace they should do their long runs. The answer depends on your level of experience.

¢ Fora beginner or even intermediate runner, the pace of your long runs isn’t as important as the time you spend running. So if there is any time when slower is better, the long run is it. Run at a comfortable, conversational pace (about two minutes per mile slower than 5K race pace, or about 70 to 75 percent of max heart rate). Your breathing, though elevated, should be very comfortable and rhythmic, and you should be able to hold a conversation the entire time, although toward the end of the long run, when it gets very difficult, you may not want to talk to anyone at all!

¢ If you’re an advanced runner who wants to improve your marathon time, perhaps even qualify for the Boston Marathon, you need to include some faster-paced running during the long run. Try running a portion of your long run at marathon pace or tempo pace.

In the following sections, I explain how to include easy long runs and long, accelerating runs in your training program.

Easy long runs

Easy long runs are just that—easy. (At least until they get hard, that is.) Their purpose is for all the reasons outlined above, all of which prepare you to complete the marathon. Beginners do only this type of long run, but intermediate and advanced runners also need easy long runs in their training programs.

Run from 75 minutes to about 3 1/2 hours over flat or rolling terrain. Do one easy long run each week. The goal is to go longer and longer, so don’t worry about

Becoming Tough

One of the runners I used to coach, commenting on why many of the best college distance-running teams in the country are in cold climates, used to say that running in cold, icy, snowy weather makes runners tougher. There may be something to that. Distance running is a demanding sport. It’s not a sport for high-maintenance or soft people. You have to be willing to be physically uncomfortable. And you have to know how to handle that discomfort. You have to find your inner strength.

Marathon running is often used as a metaphor for life because, just as there are moments in life that are difficult and test your resolve, there are moments in the marathon and in training that are difficult and test your resolve. It’s a very clear parallel. When the effort becomes uncomfortable, do you back off the pace or stop, or do you push through that discomfort for the self-discovery that lies on the other side?

Successful runners have a certain toughness about them, a willingness to be uncomfortable, a willingness to train despite less than ideal climatic conditions. While that toughness is partially genetic, you can acquire toughness through training, as you become more capable of tolerating high degrees of physical discomfort. While running easy every day is easy, don’t shy away from very long runs and difficult workouts, as they help you develop the toughness you need to run the marathon.

your pace; focus on distance. Lengthen your long run by one mile each week for three or four weeks before backing off by a few miles for a recovery week.

If you run more than about 40 miles per week or faster than a roughly eightminute-mile pace, you can add two miles at a time to your long run. If you’re a beginner or older runner, you may need to run the same distance for two or three weeks so your legs can fully adapt before increasing the length of the long run.

Because your legs have little concept of distance, only of intensity and time, the amount of time you spend on your feet is actually more important than the number of miles you cover. I recommend capping your long run at about 3 1/2 hours, even if you expect your marathon to take more than four hours, because any run longer than about 3 1/2 hours can make your legs so tired that it can impair your training for the following week.

As the runs get very long, your legs can get pretty trashed, so you have to experiment with how long you can go and still adequately recover for the next

week’s training. If you want to run longer so you can acquire the confidence that comes from running close to the time you expect to run your marathon, I recommend doing so only every two weeks or so. Give yourself plenty of time to recover from the effort before trying to do other high-quality workouts.

Most marathon-training groups, because of their short time frame to train for the marathon, increase the length of the long run every week, which can increase your chance of injury if your bones and tendons aren’t strong enough to handle it. Keep adding miles until you reach 21 to 23 (or about 3 1/2 hours, whichever comes first), and do your longest run two to three weeks before the marathon.

During your training program, your weekly long-run progression will look something like one of the following plans, depending on your running experience (the plans below only go up to 12 weeks on the long-run progression).

Beginner For the beginning runner, the long run progresses slowly for the first three weeks of each four-week cycle, with the same distance repeated twice before increasing the distance and then backing off for one recovery week.

¢ Weeks 1-4: 5-5-6-4 miles

¢ Weeks 5-8: 6-7-7-5 miles

¢ Weeks 9-12: 8-8-9-6 miles

Intermediate For the intermediate runner, the long run increases by one mile for the first three weeks of each four-week cycle before backing off for a recovery week. The longest run of each cycle repeats in the first week of the next four-week cycle.

° Weeks 1-4: 8-9-10-7 miles

¢ Weeks 5-8: 10-11-12-8 miles

° Weeks 9-12: 12-13-14-9 miles

Advanced For the advanced runner, the long run starts off much longer and increases by one mile for the first three weeks of each four-week cycle before backing off for a recovery week. Each long run is done once before increasing the distance. ¢ Weeks 1-4: 12-13-14-9 miles ¢ Weeks 5-8: 15-16-17-11 miles ¢ Weeks 9-12: 18-19-20-13 miles

If you’re an advanced runner who has done a number of marathons before and you have a history of long runs on your legs, going on more long runs isn’t

going to do much for you; some of your long runs need to be of a higher quality. I recommend alternating a long run (16-plus miles) with a medium-long run (12 to 16 miles) that you run a portion of at a faster pace.

Long, accelerating runs

A long, accelerating run is one that starts slowly and gets progressively faster every few miles. This run, which is meant for intermediate and advanced runners, prepares your legs to handle fatigue and teaches you how to pick up the pace when you’re fatigued.

Run about 75 percent of the distance of your easy long run (eight to 15 miles), with the first quarter at an easy pace, the second quarter at slightly slower than acidosis- (lactate-) threshold pace, the third quarter at acidosis-threshold pace, and the fourth quarter at faster than acidosis-threshold pace. Because this run is pretty demanding, you do it every other week throughout your training program, alternating with the easy long run.

Staying hydrated and fueled when running long

Keep your runs short and you never have to worry about replenishing fluids and fuel. But the marathon demands quite a bit more: more miles, more time on your

feet, more chances of becoming dehydrated or running out of fuel. The following sections explain how to hydrate and fuel your long runs.

Hydrating your long runs

If you run for more than an hour, hydration is very important. Sweating for a three-hour run can easily make you dehydrated. Your ability to run declines with only a 2 to 3 percent loss of body weight from fluid loss. If you lose more than 3 percent of your body weight on your run, you’re officially dehydrated, so you need to drink during your long runs to stay as hydrated as you can.

Because you lose body water more quickly than you can replace it by drinking during your run, you can expect to lose some weight after long runs. That’s OK—-you can get it back by drinking fluids the rest of the day. If you weigh the same after your long run as you did when you started, you’re probably drinking too much.

Drink fluid before your long run as well so you’re well hydrated before you head out the door. To know how much to drink, follow these guidelines:

¢ Before long runs: Drink 16 ounces (473 milliliters) two hours before you Tun.

¢ During long runs: Drink about 8 ounces (237 milliliters) every 15 to 20 minutes. If you sweat heavily, drink more.

¢ After long runs: Drink 15 ounces per pound of body weight (or a liter per kilogram) lost during your run.

You probably need to experiment to find out how much fluid you can tolerate without feeling bloated. Drinking fluids with sodium, like sports drinks, stimulates your kidneys to retain water to maintain hydration. Carry fluids on you so you don’t have to rely on water fountains; a fuel belt is a great piece of gear to use for this task.

Focusing on fueling

The long runs are the best chance to practice your premarathon meal. As your runs get long (over 15 miles), practice getting up and eating breakfast before you run just as you’ll do on marathon race day. Try different foods to see what works and what your stomach can handle.

Once you’re out the door running, what you eat gets a little trickier. With the popularity of marathon running has also come the popularity of carbohydrate drinks, gels, and bars to replenish blood glucose while running. It seems that everyone now does Saturday or Sunday long runs with a fuel belt around his waist. But do you really need to fuel during your long runs?

The Deeper Meaning of Long Runs

Physical adaptations aside, running long enough has the power to direct your energy and focus inward. It gives you a chance to think and reflect on things, events, and people in your life. If you’re the religious type, you can even have a conversation with God. It can be an emotional experience.

Long runs change how I perceive what I’m doing. Initially, I see and hear everything. My senses are heightened as I follow the white line of the road through neighborhood streets, a nearby park, a bike path. I can hear a single car—even a quiet one—approaching from behind me. I feel the gentle breeze on my face, evaporating my sweat and cooling me. I smell the fresh fabric softener of someone’s laundry as I pass by a house. If I run with someone, I listen to my running partner and contribute to the conversation, perhaps even laughing at his dirty jokes. As I begin to fatigue, I go from being aware of my environment and my running partner to being intimately connected to my body. I no longer hear the car approaching or notice the pothole in the street. I feel the effort of each fatiguing muscle, low on fuel, trying to make yet another contraction. I begin to feel alone and vulnerable, each stride drawing me deeper into myself, farther from civilization, closer to discovery. I don’t want to talk to anyone.

Through my hours on the road, I become anything or anyone I want. And what I want, more than anything else, is to become a better version of myself. I am a creator, an imaginer, an intellectual, a philosopher, a child, an athlete, an artist. Long runs allow me to become all of these, to become my idealized self. During long runs, I become my own hero—not a bad way to spend a Sunday morning.

Through attaining a better physical self, I attain a more spiritual self. Running has taught me that. Most people are unaware of this whole life effect of physical training. Running has taught me how to succeed, how to fail, how to win, and how to lose. It has taught me discipline. It has taught me how to strive for the things I want. It has taught me to be patient. It can teach you those things, too.

Deciding whether to fuel your long runs Ingesting carbohydrates during long runs maintains your blood-glucose level and makes you feel better. However, doing so has the potential to defeat one of the

main purposes of the long run, which is to deplete your muscles of carbohydrates. Ingesting carbohydrates during your long runs provides muscles with an accessible fuel, thereby blunting the three adaptations you want to achieve: the depletion and subsequent resynthesis of more glycogen, the muscles’ reliance on fat, and the liver’s ability to make new glucose. If you consume carbs during the long run, your liver doesn’t have to make new glucose; it can go on vacation, sitting back and watching as glucose enters your blood from what you ingest.

Not consuming carbs during your long runs, though effective for forcing adaptations, isn’t for beginner runners or the faint of heart. Running until you’ve depleted your fuel tank doesn’t feel good. Beginner runners just need to get through the long runs, which already provide a stress. If you’re a beginner runner and your goal is to finish the marathon without any concern for the time you run it in, feel free to consume carbs during your long runs so you can get through the runs. The carbs can give you both a physical and a psychological boost. Ingest simple carbs, preferably glucose, so the sugar can quickly pass through your stomach and get into your small intestine, from where it’s absorbed into the blood. Gels, Gummi Bears, jelly beans, and sports drinks are all good, easily digestible sources of simple carbs.

If you’re an intermediate or advanced runner who has run a few marathons before and your goal is to run your next marathon faster, try to go without carbs on some of your long runs so you maximize your physiological adaptations. However, be prepared for the sluggish feeling you’re likely to experience toward the end of the run.

Although not fueling your long training runs can help your marathon performance, the marathon itself is another story. In the marathon, you definitely want to consume carbs because maintaining blood-glucose levels for as long as you can is important so you can maintain your pace.

Even though you use a different strategy for the marathon than you do for training, you don’t ever want to do something in the marathon that you haven’t done in training. So don’t consume carbohydrates in the marathon if you’ve never done so during your long training runs. Otherwise, you may end up with some gastrointestinal distress in the race and have to take some trips to the porta-potties along the racecourse! Try to balance the physiological purpose of the long runs with the practical gastrointestinal issue of consuming carbohydrates while running. To attend to both problems, I recommend alternating your long training runs during which you consume and don’t consume carbohydrates.

Knowing how much fuel you need Fueling your long runs is an important part of marathon training, especially if you’re a beginner or intermediate runner. Follow these recommendations for how

much to fuel before, during, and after your long runs. Advanced runners should follow the advice for before and after long runs but try the strategy of not fueling during the long runs, as I explain in the preceding section.

¢ Before long runs: Eat 200 to 300 calories 1 1/2 to two hours before you run. Your prerun meal should include carbohydrates and protein, like a bagel with peanut butter. If you run soon after getting out of bed and don’t have two hours before your run, consume 100 to 200 calories, like a nutrition bar, a banana, or a sports drink. Stay away from fat and fiber. Fat takes longer to digest, so the carbohydrates and protein in your meal take longer to be absorbed into your blood. Fiber makes you go to the bathroom, which can make your long run very uncomfortable if you have no place to stop.

¢ During long runs: Consume 30 to 50 calories of simple carbohydrates every 15 to 20 minutes. Chase the carbs with water so you digest them more quickly.

¢ After long runs: To maximize the rate at which you resynthesize and store glycogen, consume about 2 calories of simple carbohydrates like glucose per pound of body weight (or one-half gram per pound, or a gram per kilogram) within 30 minutes and continue to consume the same number of calories every hour for four to six hours afterward. For a 170-pound male, that means consuming about 340 calories of carbohydrates, which equals about 3 1/2 8-ounce glasses of chocolate milk (yum!).

Cutting back on long runs before a race

I once coached a runner who, long before I met him, ran 25 miles a few days before his first marathon so he could feel confident going into the race. Crashing 20 miles into the marathon, he realized that running that long so close to the marathon was a big mistake.

Don’t go on a very long run within a couple of weeks of the marathon. All that does is trash your legs for the big day. If you’re a beginner, get in at least two long runs of 18 to 20 miles (or about 3 1/2 hours) before the marathon. If you’re a more experienced runner who wants to improve your marathon time, try to do as many runs as possible over 20 miles, and make some of your medium-long runs of greater quality by running at a faster pace for a portion of them. In the final two months before your marathon, do four or five long runs, with at least two longer than 20 miles. Although you certainly want to be confident that you can complete the marathon distance, you also need time for your muscles to recover,

so do your last long run two to three weeks before the marathon. ie