Figured it out all by myself

ORN: What a way to spend a Saturday: running 12 miles in 2:01'51". I felt good throughout, although I was ready to stop running when I stopped. My body was fine -- no pain at all. My greatest issue was boredom. Plodding along the road for two hours with no iPod and no companionship got boring. But I did it. And the rest of my Saturday was pretty good, too. The rest of the day I took great satisfaction in telling people, yeah, I ran 12 miles this morning while you were still in bed.

I think I may have figured out the mind-hack needed for me to get through these long-ass runs on Saturdays. I'm in this running group, right? It starts at 8:00. Most of the runners in the group are either training for the triple crown [5K, 10K, and 10 miler] or are running the Derby Festival half marathon. Only a couple of us are running the full marathon. [Actually, Fearless Leader Tracy is training for Boston, but that's her story to tell.] So I asked Tracy a while ago, what I should do. Everybody else is running 6-7 miles; I am running 8-9 miles and more. Brilliant coach that she is, she suggested running 4-5 miles before the group starts running, and then run 4-5 miles with the group.

Duh.

So that's how I run with the group. This time around, I ran 7.5 miles before the group showed up. Then at 8:00, I was prepared to run the balance of my 12 with my comrades. Sadly, I didn't end up running with anyone because by that point in the day, I was becoming exhausted; they were fresh. They sped off while I did the ass-end of my Long Slow Distance. Still, we started together; several of us finished together, more or less.

But apart from being able to enjoy the social aspect of my group, this is a great way to run long distances. Break it up into chunks. I'd heard of people saying to themselves that they think of the marathon as two ten milers and a 10K or something. But I never made the connection that this is a really clever hack for making any long run less intimidating. Rather than running 13 miles next weekend, which is nearly the most I've ever run, I will be running seven and six. And the bonus is a brief intermission between them to hook up with my peeps and drink some water. Two distinct workouts. Not one monolithic 13 miler: a seven and a six. Looking ahead:

Not 14: seven and seven.
Not 16: ten and six.
Not 18: ten and eight.
Not 20: ten and ten.

So long as I keep the segments [mentally] under ten, then I know the workout will not be impossible. I can do seven to ten miles. No problem. Call it swallowing the elephant one bite at a time.

I'm sure you all have heard of this before, and I am late to the insight. But I'm pretty pleased with myself and my own cleverness, so please don't ruin the moment for me.