In It For The Long Run

This weekend I completed the longest run of my current marathon training programme - 22 miles. I love a long run, but 22 miles really is a very long run, and it also has a very big impact on you and your life. Some may assume a long training run would just be whacking on some trainers and putting one foot in front of the other for a few hours. But, as you will see, its definitely not!

Evening before a Long Run

1. Trip to my local food store to ensure I have some jelly beans ready for mid run fueling - it must be these exact jelly beans, which have been tested countless times and may as well have 'Alice's Running Fuel'  written on the packet  
2. Plan a route, which often makes me truly realise just how flipping far I have to run tomorrow
3. Eat a tea I know will not upset my stomach, whilst also seeing this as a perfect opportunity to justify cooking a family sized meal for just one person
4. Find it surprisingly easy to ignore the social media updates from friends going out and partying on a weekend - we all know running on a hangover is no fun whatsoever, let alone running numerous miles whilst feeling a little worse for wear... 
5. Get into bed as early as possible in the hope that every extra minute sleep I get will help me tomorrow 

Morning of a Long Run

1. Get woken by an alarm even on a weekend - what even is a 'lie in'
2. Eat porridge for breakfast and panic about having it exactly 2 hours before I plan to run - a few minutes out will obviously spell total disaster...
3. Sit and wait for my breakfast to digest whilst scrolling through Twitter and getting inspired by other runners out there already clocking up the miles
4. Start doing lots of other random jobs, which really could wait, in a form of run procrastination 
5. Check my iPhone weather app at least five times trying to plan what running gear to wear, knowing full well I will probably still get it totally wrong 
6. Get into my running gear and have about three nervous toilet trips during the process
7. Step out the door, armed with my jelly beans, feeling determined but also slightly mad 
8. Wait for what feels like an eternity for my Garmin to get location

The Run

1. Run
2. Run some more
3. Run further still

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Post Run

1. Arrive home in a delirious state of almighty accomplishment
2. Collapse on the sofa, even though I know that sitting down straight away is not really the best option
3. Post a running related status/photo to some form of social media, again knowing full well this should not be the priority right now
4. Try and eat something in the magic '30 min post run' window
5. Shower - by now my sweaty running gear is starting to make me shiver, so a hot shower is both needed and welcome by my tired muscles
6. Reluctantly drag out my exercise mat and foam roller ready for some self inflicted pain
7. Force myself to eat something that I am positive will magically restore all my muscles back to a completely normal state...
8. Spend the rest of what is left of the day trying to rest my legs, whilst also fight the restless legs feeling I have - an interesting and difficult battle to win 
9. Eat Maltesers - they may as well sponsor my long runs/marathon training the number of packets of these I get through (top nutritional tip right there)
10. Wish it was acceptable to go to bed at 7pm

Repeat next weekend. Not quite as easy as juts whacking on some trainers, but you have got to love long runs!