When 2 miles Seem Like 20

This week, I spent Friday night and Saturday with my family down at my sister's farm in Boone, CO, east of Pueblo. I wasn't quite sure how it was going to work out, because my training plan called for 22 miles on Saturday. And generally after a long run, I'm not very interactive - I stretch, shower, do my nutritional recovery routine, take a brief nap, then I start to come back around.

I think it is hard to understand what it is like to recover from a 20 mile run unless you've done it. I know I certainly didn't understand. But there were no worries on that account. Diane and the girls already know what I'm like after my long runs and my sister and her husband were very accommodating. All I needed to do was to figure out where I was going to run.

My initial thought was to run on the side roads. Once you get off the state highway out there all the roads are dirt - which is good for legs. In fact, according to Google Maps, the street they live on, crossed the highway and then went on uninterrupted for miles. Many more miles than I needed. And there didn't appear to be any significant hills or grades. But on the drive down there I began to reconsider.

We had some snow this week. Generally, in any given storm, Colorado Springs gets much more snow than Pueblo (and by extension, Boone). But it turns out this week was an odd exception. There was still a good 4 inches of snow on the side roads as we drove east out of Pueblo. Except of course where vehicles had driven and left behind two ruts of mud. Ruts might be an exaggeration. Let's just say where ever truck and / or cars had driven the road was showing and it was muddy.

That left me with three options:

1. Run 22 miles in mud.
2. Run 22 miles in 4 inches of snow, avoiding the mud.
3. Run 22 miles on the shoulder of the state highway.

Honestly, none of these options seemed like great ones. But when I stopped to think about it, there was really only one option. I didn't think I could actually do option 1 or 2, since running in either mud or snow takes more energy than running on dry ground. That left me with the highway. I decided to start out running west, as generally elevation increases as you approach the Rockies. That would give me 11 miles of gradual uphill to start and 11 miles of gradual downhill to finish. That sounded good to me.

It was around 20 F with a light breeze blowing when I started and I was quite cold. My hands were very cold under two layers of gloves and my face was feeling a bit stiff from the icy breeze. But both hands and face started to warm after 2 miles. It wasn't until about 6.5 miles that my toes began to thaw out. Then after 8 miles, the water line on my hydration pack was fully thawed, and I was happily on my way.

I was running by heart rate, but noticing that my half mile split times seemed rather fast. I attributed it to the 2000 elevation difference between Boone at 4200 feet and home at 6200 feet. Still I wasn't expecting it to make that much of a difference. At the turn around point, my lower legs were unusually tired. I crossed the highway, then stopped to make some clothing adjustments. I swapped my hat for a head band, and took off the inner pair of gloves. I consumed a Clif Shot energy gel, took and quick drink and started back up.

About a half mile later, I was really feeling good and by 12 miles I was almost euphoric - feeling like I could do this forever. I'm sure it was the sudden injection of carbs. I was curious to see how long it would last. The answer was 5 miles. By 16.5 miles I started to feel fatigued again. It didn't help that most of the first 11 miles was a gradual downhill. That combined with the lower elevation explained the unusually fast split times. But I took that in stride. Not only was I going to run 22 miles today, but the second 11 were a gradual uphill. That should be a major confidence builder.

I considered consuming another gel as I was carrying four, but then decided not too. Greg McMillan has found that for the majority of the athletes he coaches, they benefit from doing their long runs on little or no carbs - training the body to efficiently generate energy from stores of fat. Then on race day, you consume the gels and you get the boost from the carbs as well as the benefit of a body trained to convert fat stores. You can read about it here in the post script at the bottom of the page.

In any case, by 18 miles I really needed to focus. I mentally broke up the remaining four miles in two pieces. I told myself I had 2 more miles before the work out really began. I've run twenty miles before. What I was doing today was extending my long run by 2 miles. And running through the 20 mile barrier. If you're like me and never run a marathon, but you have read about them, then you know about hitting the wall at 20 miles. From what you read, it sounds like you could do all of your preparation correctly, then on race day just fall apart at 20 miles (usually as a result of a tactical error rather than random chance). But I figured one of the best ways to remove the specter of having my marathon dreams end at 20 miles was to run more than 20 miles in training.

It's kind of like turning on the light in a child's room to show them there is really nothing to be afraid of. Run 22 miles and then you'll see that you didn't need to fear falling apart from exhaustion at 20 miles. The mental game worked pretty well to get me to 20 miles. Then it got harder. I kept telling myself that all I needed to do to be successful today was to keep running. Don't slow down. Don't stop. Just keep running. That's all there was to it. I reminded myself that I wasn't really breathing hard. I also checked my heart rate and noted that it was pretty reasonable as long run workouts go. In other words, I was showing myself that there wasn't a physical reason I couldn't make it.

That last two miles seemed to last as long as the rest of the run. I checked my watch about every 30 seconds. Even after telling myself to wait a bit before checking again. And then the mind games started. When I hit 21.5 miles, this idea popped into my head that I could stop now. After all, 21.5 miles was a great run. The last half mile wasn't really going to matter. I shook that off and refocused. And then before I knew it, my watch was beeping to signal the half mile split and it hit me - I'm done!

I have to admit it felt great to stop. But if felt even better knowing that I finished what I started. I ran 22 miles. The second half mostly up a gradual incline. I didn't mysteriously run out of gas at 20 miles. And more than ever, I'm beginning to believe I can do this.

My total running time was about 13 minutes less than my target marathon time. I see that as another accomplishment. After a week of good training, I ran about the same amount of time I'm going to run at Napa after two weeks of taper. I'll be well rested then. I suppose I won't really know until I've run one, but I feel like I'm beginning to understand the mental component to the marathon. I really didn't think there was a major mental component in the half marathon. But it seems in preparing for the marathon that training your mind to keep going is critical. To teach it that the results of persevering far out weigh any perceived benefit (or relief) to stopping early (aka quitting).

Any way I look at it, this week's long run was a success. I'm ready for a day off, and looking forward to another week of training.