Back running long

Everyone that runs long distances knows the long run is the staple for building endurance and preparing for marathons and ultras. Without the long run the body won’t adapt to the long distances when we race. Without an immediate race goal it can be easy to forget the long run and focus on shorter runs, yesterday I chose to put in a long run just for the fun of it. My family already had plans so I was home alone and decided to go for a run.

I threw a few gels in my running belt and a bottle of water and off we went. Decided to run to the small town Lake Cathie near where I live, plan was to run there on the road and back along the beach. Was feeling good when I got there after about 50 min so I decided to keep going a bit longer and went to the next town Bonny Hills. Was just over 20km before I hit Rainbow Beach at Bonny Hills and turned for home which would be about 17km all along the beach with a slight detour to get around a water crossing that was too deep to pass. The first 20km was great down the road and a few walking trails, averaged about 4:30min/km and was running nicely. The return leg on the beach was beautiful, it was a magic day to be at the beach but running it for 17km was tough. there was a moderate head wind and some soft sand made it tough. I was happy to reach the end and make the short run to home from there.

Overall 39.6km at 4:42min/km was a long run I am happy with. This is now my longest run in sandals and my legs and feet felt fine for most of the run. Last 5km was hard going after such a long time on the beach but thats to be expected when you run long.

Keeping running my long runs is going to keep my endurance for when I do decide on a new race goal. A few of the races I had hoped to do don’t mix with my work schedule so I haven’t found one I really want to do in the near future yet. Enjoying running for fun and continuing to challenge myself to get out and run without the motivation of  goal race to push me. I managed six runs and just under 80km last week so this is working currently.