1. Focus on getting ready for your long run, not on the distance to come. All you need is your shoes, your gear and a watch. And you're done. Ready to go.
By telling yourself it's just another run, you are removing the mental obstacle of 18 miles or 35 kms or whatever your distance is. I have lost track of the number of times people have awed at the distance I cover on Sundays, to which I shrug and downplay. I do really try to make it seem like nothing, to others and, more importantly, to myself.
So as you get your mind around your long run being nothing special, you're out the door, and running.
2. Drink lots of water. There is nothing you can do to prevent it, your body will be dehydrated after a long run. When you are dehydrated you blood is like syrup and your heart is working extra hard to pump that through your body. Furthermore, I have found that my heart, and the fatigue associated with dehydrated pumping, ends up having a horrible time in the next training session. I feel I am working twice as hard for little distance gained.
So drink lots and lots. Go way beyond thirst. I constantly replenish in the park and drink constantly on the run. And when I get home, I down 2 2-liter bottles of water. I don't even like talking about my run until I've had at least one bottle of water. I stay away from Gatorade or sports drinks, and stick close to water. Many books carry a good rule: Drink one quart of fluid for every half-hour of running.
3. Push Yourself Hard! A hard workout exposes your body to fatigue in ways that are similar to what a marathon will do to you. So teach your body how fast and how far you can go before fatigue will occur.
I have a high threshold for pain and fatigue, and I am constantly challenging that limit. You need to know what your body can do and will do on game day. Test it on your long runs.
4. 90 Percent Rule. I follow the 90 percent rule. When I am doing workouts (hill repeats, tempo runs, intervals, long runs), I push myself, but always leave something back. Think about pushing yourself up to about 90 percent of your maximum effort, but never give push it to maximum effort.
You should feel tired at the end of a workout. I do. Everytime. You should feel like you’ve worked hard, but you should also feel like, ‘Hmmm, I could do a little more.’ This is an important and good feeling not something to feel bad about. I have to admit to occasionally coming down on myself and come back to the next workout too hard because it. 90 percent rule is a tough rule.
But knowing that you’ve worked hard but are not crawling away from the workout to die. Or in may case sleep for 5 hours. This is important. Important to your continued evolution as a distance runner. Doing every workout at maximum effort is an injury waiting to happen. Just knowing that you have that “extra” in you can really help you beat mental and physical fatigue later...in the next day's workout or a race or whatever.
5. Schedule Your Long Runs. It's a good idea to use Saturdays and Sundays for your long runs. Those two days are the most popular marathon race days, so it's good for you to accustom yourself to them.
I have gotten used to dealing with the Monday work day after a Sunday long run. There's nothing like the fatigue of a Monday morning after a 30k Sunday. But you adapt. And slowly your body adjust to the strain your putting on it. Furthermore it's able to "bounce back" for the normal schedule events of work and life and family.
Postscripts -
a. Bodyglide! Bodyglide! Bodyglide!
b. There will always be someone who has not just finished 25k and so fresher than you on your last 10k.
c. Gel deodorant works better on nipples than anything yet tested by me, and not as unsightly as band aids. Plus you smell nice for a few kms.
d. Music, once relegated only to newbies, has taken on a much needed place among my long run gear as "natural" pain suppressant.
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