Last 20 miler of the year completed! In preparation for my 2nd (lifetime) marathon next month, my training plan called for a 20 miler on Christmas Eve. Done! I walked the entire 20 miles in five hours. The taper begins now.
From all the reading I’ve done and all the folks I’ve talked to about doing greater distances, the LSD (long slow distance, long steady distance,…) is the main ingredient needed to be able to do the greater distances. The theory behind these is not so much for speed but for endurance, in other words, training your body to be out there for a long time. For me as walker/jogger, I’m slow by design and desire. So this means my 20 milers require a huge chunk of time, like 5 hour-ish.
It wasn’t that long ago when I did my first 20 miler, and even though it felt good to accomplish it, I had a head battle going on during most of it. Following are some of my thoughts during that first 20 miler:
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What did I get myself into?!!!
I’ll do this one (marathon), only because I signed up & paid my money, but that’s it, just do half marathons from now on.
What was I thinking?
This 20 mile walk is so much harder than the 13.1 mile race I just did last Sunday in 2:44.
Is this what they mean when they say “respect the distance”?
I’m not so sure I like this.
I like the half marathon distance – none of these thoughts come into my head for 13.1 miles, how weird is that – thinking a 13.1 is as easy as a walk in the park???
Is this all relative?
Vaguely remember 5Ks being hard – ha! That’s just a warm up period now.
Did I think these thoughts when I did my first 10 miler in prep for 13.1?
My legs hurt.
I’m peeing too much.
Am I eating too much?
Is doing a 20 miler really enough for the 26.2, what am I going to do for fuel from 20 to 26.2.
I hate blue Gatorade, I like orange Gatorade.
I hate when they mix the Gatorade in a race and it’s too sweet, don’t like fruit punch Gatorade, had that last week in the race and they mixed it way too sweet, I better bring my own orange Gatorade.
I’ll have to get (Gatorade) powder, how will I carry powder?
Sun is out & getting warmer, glad I got this UPF 50 brim hat, looks dorky, stupid skin cancer, 3 basal cell, one squamous cell, how many more of these stupid things am I going to get?
Another reason to only do 13.1s – out in the sun for less time.
Oh I can justify almost anything.
How many thoughts does a person have in a 20 miler, wonder if it is possible to count them all, how could we count thoughts?
I’m bored.
I don’t get bored on 13.1s, yep 13.1 is the right distance for me.
Why do people do marathons?
Why do people do 50Ks, 100Ks, 50 milers, 100 milers,…
I don’t know.
This sucks.
Why did I sign up for this?
Great song (on iPod) think I was in 7th grade when that song came out, wish I could go back.
Time for a couple more bites of Powerbar.
Drink some water, this will be like a brick in stomach if I don’t have water with it.
Great – a bathroom over there, gotta pee.
Wonder where this path goes?
Hope there are no bears out here.
Okay cool! – so this is where the trail comes out, I know where I am now, this is good.
Cross the street up here – watch for cars – they’re suppose to stop when a person is crossing, well that is what the signs says – get off your damn phone and pay attention, a-hole!
A hill, crap, not now, I hate hills…
dog, no owner around, hope it’s a friendly dog, looks friendly, sees me, wagging tail, good sign he won’t come after me, where’s your owner, good doggie, what does your tag say,… following me now, great, go home, go home,… maybe you go up this path… houses, subdivision, good, ran into that yard like it’s where you belong,
how do I get back from here…
whoa! snake on the path! Go around it.
Can’t wait til I’m done – chocolate milk and 2 sugar cookies…
time to sip some Gatorade.
Wish I had a peanut butter sandwich…
Man is this boring!
Maybe I’m AD&D after 3 hours…
13.1s only after this!
This greenway is a gem – I’m pretty lucky to have this close by.
Louis Armstrong – what a great song!
Crap another hill…
This 20 miles is going to take 5 hours.
That guy on the forum said his goal was 5:14 to walk his marathon – holy crap – how does he do that?
It’s going to take me that long to do 20 miles today…
Ha-ha! Dude’s wearing camo tech shirt, hope there are no hunters around!!!
But I want to do NYC marathon and Bataan… crap… – BUT THAT IS IT!!!
I don’t like this.
Time for some sports beans and water…
Being out here for 5 hours is crazy, 3 is the limit, well for me anyway…
Chinese tonight, Hunan chicken…
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This was only a few months ago and when I go back and read it, I’m surprised that I actually continued to do 20 milers and register for more marathons. I’m not sure I can explain this. It did feel really good to finish my first marathon – a sense of accomplishment I suppose. Also I did notice a very positive effect on my HDLs after increasing to distances like this. So I’ll continue to give it a go for awhile and see what happens.
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