Five things I love about long runs...

Happy Chinese New Year folks! It’s the year of the Horse and what’s better than a post on the positives of long runs! (Horse, running – get it? haha!)

1. Socialise. Running is a social sport. Come again? Yes, running is a social sport. Through the sheer tediousness and toughness of long runs, naturally brings out the best (and worst) in a person. This is how each of us in our running group got to know each other quite well...in the shortest possible time too. What you see in someone only after 3 years of knowing that person....will surface after only 3 hours over a long 20-30K run. Now that’s efficiency!

Plus, you are encouraged to chat while you are on the road (so you are training at the correct “zone”), 1 to 3 hours at a time, and week after week. Through our long runs we bond over sweat, tears, pain, chatter, and the coffee after.

2. It’s a form of meditation. There was an article in the newspaper yesterday on Oprah (yes – it was her 60^th birthday!) that mentioned about how Oprah swears by meditation. If Oprah prioritises meditation every day, it has to be good right?

I use running as a form of meditation. When you run, you...just run – you don’t need to think (paddling by contrast, you need to be alert and aware of currents and waves and…creatures that are lurking next and/or under your boat…). In fact, you don’t really think then you run. What’s a more perfect time to meditate?

3.1 Long runs can give you a (trim) waistline. Yes. There is no denial that running long distances has a vanity aspect to it. It keeps you lean. One can argue that HIIT style workout with weights and cardio (e.g. crossfit, zuu) also keeps you lean, but nothing beats running.

Reason? I won’t dwell on the "how running burns the most calories burnt per hour" fact, because I don’t think that’s the main reason why long distance runners stay trim.

I think it’s a little more complicated than that. Firstly, I find running suppresses my appetite. Apart from a coffee/protein choc drink and banana, I find it difficult to consume anything else after my long runs, whereas after paddling or gym, I am ravenous! And I will probably consume more calories than I have burnt in that one hour gym session.

Secondly, the lighter/leaner you are, the less weight you have to carry on your run, so the faster you can run (loss of fat that is, not muscle). As a runner you want to be as fast as possible, right? So, naturally, you will gradually become very careful what you eat. Yes, I do indulge on ice cream and chocolates, but the thought of the added pounds you will put on beats any appetite suppressant on the market.

So by you become more aware of what you eat, you will naturally stay trim.

3.2. Relating to 3.1 is the sudden drop on monies spent on alcohol. When you know you will embark on a long run the next day you really need to be 100% - like, no more than one glass of good quality wine or similar. Over indulgence on alcohol makes you less than 50%. Drink lots of alcohol the night before means no running the next day (well, either you won’t be able to perform well or you simply cannot run because you are so sick. If you do run you will probably vomit somewhere along the way….

Less alcohol means less calories consumed. Hence not only your waistline stays trim, your alcohol bill also stays trim.

4. An excuse to wear split short shorts. Ok this one applies to both gender (I’m aware men cops it big time for wearing split shorts…). There are alternatives, but man, nothing compares to the comfort of those super light shorts. The air that goes between the fabric and your skin – sublime! They are somewhat unfashionable and revealing, so really, doing long runs are the only time one is allowed to wear them.

5. You become a human GPS.

A long run is an awesome way to explore a neighbourhood, a town - whether it is around your home, several suburbs away or on a holiday in Hawaii. Because you spend so much time on the road, you will start paying attention to your surroundings. You are also forced to remember where you are/have been running so you can run back to your start point. So much rememberings later you will inadvertently remember all the places that you have ran past.

So if you ever lost, or need an alternate route to escape the traffic jam ahead, and you also happened to ran past that section of the road a couple of weeks/months ago, suddenly, you know all these routes without the aid of Google navigation. You are the human GPS.

Happy running this year folks!