This morning was my first long run post LA Marathon and last long run before Boston! TWO WEEKS TO GO!

I wonder if I’ll miss these LR’s when I take a break for shorter races for a few months after Boston? Na, probably not. I do plan on trying to stay in fairly decent marathon shape though so that my ramp up for Chicago in October is not so bad. I’ll probably cap out weekend LR’s around 16, doing them every few weeks or so, giving my body a bit of a break but ensuring this distance is still manageable for the upswing again. I’m also planning on incorporating more speed/track workouts and hills into my training.

Anyway, so – Last LR pre-Boston. Thankfully on Friday I read this article on Active about how to stay motivated on a long run and have highlighted some of it below.

Running long isn’t always as fun and as sexy as the commercials might make it out to be. But nothing beats the feeling of having done a particularly challenging run and being just that much closer to your race. Use the tips above to get your juices flowing and it’ll be race day before you know it.

1. Get Started. Gear.Garmin.Gu. Check. Route was mapped in my head and I knew my final destination. I went in with the attitude that this was ‘just another run.’ Going in prepped and with an easy casual attitude took the ‘”Holy freak out I’m running 22″ out of it.
2. Get Halfway There. Focusing on the parts in the case of running 22 is far easier than thinking of the whole. Once I got to 11, I could then focus on running 11, and getting to the final destination vs. the overwhelming task of counting down the miles from 22 to 0.
   
3. Be Social. I coordinated this run with a BONUS at mile 14. a Runterruption if you will. My friend was supposed to join me for the final haul but last minute changes left me solo. Oh well. Running with friends is way.more.fun and way.more.motivating than running solo but I just turned on my music and made that my friend.
4. Get Creative: Map a New Route. DONE-ZO. Instead of turning around at the half way mark and heading back home, I mixed it up today and headed further on down the path to Manhattan Beach where the Mr. plays Volleyball on Sunday mornings. FUUUUUN! He had my bikini packed, SPF, my Nuun Hydration and some extra clothes for after my “ice bath” in the frigid Pacific Ocean.

Then I figured it must be Beer-thirty somewhere..right?

What did you do on Sunday morning?

22 Done. Hope you don’t mind I’ll be sand-napping and beer-ing for the remainder of the day.

{MF Dre}