This is the third time I've trained for a half marathon, so I'm no stranger to the long run, but my view of it has changed. I never fully understood the purpose of a long run, and viewed it more as an opportunity to go as fast as I could for a certain number of miles. Now, I'm learning that the purpose is to build up your aerobic system and get your body used to the time it'll take to cover 13.1 miles. I really appreciate my training plan's approach to the long run, it's measured by time rather than distance. Somehow that slight difference has changed my way of thinking about the long run. It's no longer "ok, I've got to get 6 miles in today, I have to finish as soon as fast as possible!" Instead it's "ok, 1 hour on the schedule today, doesn't matter how far or fast I go, as long as I go for an hour. That's easy." It's turned into something more enjoyable because I'm putting less pressure on myself. That being said, I ran 1 hour on the treadmill yesterday (too much snow!), plus warm up and cool down.
I'm actually really pleased with the result! Ok, the crazy part of me hates that I finished at 3.8 miles rather than 4, but other than that I'm happy! When I first started training by heart rate about 4 weeks ago, my average pace was in the 22 min/mile range. Which felt agonizingly slow. I feel like my body is finally getting in gear now though! It's still a bit slower than my long runs used to be, but it's a huge pace improvement, and I felt great afterwards. Hungry, but great ;) I'm really excited to see where this training takes me!
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