How to move 200 pounds 12 miles on foot
The short answer is to do it slowly and carefully. (I actually typed “car-fully” first, but that’s just blatant cheating, using a car). The long answer is to get lucky with the weather, plan ahead, drink a lot of water, and mess up your watch.
Allow me to explain how I define workout lengths for myself. These may seem shorter or longer than your definitions depending on your running experience or lack thereof, your fitness level, your local terrain and environment, and your approximate level of sanity.
Short: less than 4 miles. I can’t believe that any run I used to be able to finish in under 30 minutes is not short, even if it takes much more time now.
Medium: 4-6 miles. This is a length I can still run without worrying about taking fluids during the run, and can do it two or three times per week when necessary.
Long: 6-9 miles. Planning ahead is needed. Eight or nine miles without a water break means extraordinary hydration before and after the run. Also, my blood sugar can be a factor in long runs for me. This can be done just once a week for now. All medium and short runs are planned around the long run especially when it’s-
Superlong: 9 miles or more. Same as above except that the longer the run, the more concerns there are about hydration and blood sugar levels. A superlong run cannot occur much more than every 14 days and, even then, only in place of a plain ol’ long run.
(Again, your mileage may vary. Consult your doctor before starting any exercise program. Do not attempt anything you read about here. Unless you feel you hafta.)
My previous long run in the past year or so was 10 miles, including one in December. 12 miles would be a good push, but not impossible. Even 8 or 10 miles would be a good effort. The day was unseasonably warm, in the upper 40s. I started running and started my watch. Or did I?
I wouldn’t even bother with timing my runs if I didn’t reeeeeeeeeally want to know how I’m doing, and that I take regular walking breaks during runs from medium on up. It’s a bargain I struck with my skeleton to avoid grinding up my bones until I wind up looking like the late Cotton Hill with his ankle-knees. Every fifth minute is a minute of walking, a crutch to keep me off crutches. As I get lighter and stronger those breaks will move further apart, then disappear from medium runs, then from long runs. For now, though, I check my beat-up Ironman watch (it doesn’t beep and is on its third battery) every five minutes. Imagine my surprise to find that it stopped 14 hundredths of a second after I started it.
All I can figure is that I double-pumped the start button. So I slowed to a walk at the spot where I usually slow to a walk the first time and restarted the timer from zero. I’d just add 5 minutes to whatever the final time appeared to be. This goof turned out to be a help in getting through the run. Every time I checked the time to see if it was time for a little walk, I was amazed at what great time I was making, then embarrassed that (AGAIN!) I forgot about the extra five minutes waiting for me at the end. It was enough to trick myself into going slower and easier because I thought I was going faster. I never hit the wall as I expected. I wasn’t sucking down too much water. My blood sugar never felt bottomed out and my energy level stayed constant. Only in the last half-mile or so did I get the Frito feeling, the sudden queasy “ruh-roh” sensation that 11 miles should have been the end, not 12 miles.
(The “Frito feeling” is based on a small study conducted amongst my friends. It states that no one ever eats precisely enough Fritos. One either downs a rinky-dink little bag which is not enough or starts working one’s way through a large bag only to be stopped short by the “Frito feeling” as in “I now feel *urp* as if I reeeeally *urgggh* should have stopped eating Fritos four handfuls ago.” This feeling may occur in other aspects of human behavior, but is described, by me, as the “Frito feeling” or “that Frito feeling.”)
So I finished 12 miles in 2:31:07, a 12:36 pace, with a solid sense of accomplishment, some Adam-Ant-style sweatsalt/warpaint on my face, and the hunger of a man who burned 1,800 calories in one run, though not a hunger for Fritos.
Tags: endurance, Fritos, health, Ironman, jogging, long run, mileage, running, superlong
You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.