Welcome back! The final installment in our running challenge is the long slow distance run. (If you see “LSD” on a fellow runner’s calendar, they are not talking about psychedelic drugs. Probably.)
If you’re new to running, and find yourself totally in awe of people who can run marathons or even 10-milers, know that they didn’t get that way by doing long runs every day. Instead, a typical schedule for a distance runner includes a bunch of short runs during the week, and then a single long run on the weekend.
For example, when I trained for my first marathon, the first week of the program had me doing 3-mile runs during the week and a 5-miler on Saturday. Over time, the Saturday run got longer and longer, until the peak week had me running 5-milers on weekdays and a whopping 20 mile run that weekend. (That said, some weeks had shorter long runs to allow extra recovery: after you’ve done 15, a 12-miler feels like a vacation.)
A few things that distance runners know about long runs:
They take a lot out of you, even if they don’t feel very hard.
You have to run them much slower than you would a race. You need to find a pace so slow that it feels like you can keep going forever.
You can probably run a lot farther than you think you can.
If you’ve only ever run two or three miles at a time, a five-miler probably sounds ambitious. It’s not; you could probably go out and run one today, if you wanted.
Even if you’re an experienced runner, and you’re not training for a marathon, you’ll still benefit from including a long run in your schedule. You’ll get more mitochondria in your muscles, and more capillaries supplying blood. You’re running slow, but you’re building up endurance that will help you at shorter distances too.
So, this weekend, go out for a long run. Take a distance you’re comfortable with, and go a little farther, up to double. So if you run a lot of three-milers, try for five. If you run a lot of fives, go out for eight or 10. (If you truly doubt whether you can make it, find a short route that loops back to your home or car. That lets you bail early if you have to.) Put a good podcast on the ol’ headphones, and slow down and enjoy the run.