Five things I don't love about long runs

To follow up my post on why I run stupidly long distances, here are five things I don’t enjoy about long distance running...

1. No excuses to skip your Sunday long runs. You can run any time, anywhere, and in any weather. Rain hail or shine. You can run. I know one may argue that you will be silly to run in 50 degree Celsius heat etc. But you can change your running schedule around to avoid the hot time of the day, right? Unless you are injured or sick, there is absolutely no excuse to miss the Sunday long runs.

2. Test of patience. Long runs are a test of patience. You are essentially testing your brain and body’s patience. It takes....geez, lots of time and dedication. Time. No amount of Tabata/HIIT/interval training can change the fact that it will take time to reduce your long run pace by a smidgen, unless you want to risk serious injury. It sucks. But you know, life is a long, arduous journey and training your mind and body to be patient will make that journey a lot more pleasant and successful.

3. You will smell and look bad after a long run. Don’t bother with deodorants or make-up. Nothing will mask that pimple on your forehead or the putrid stench of sweat after a 30km run. Nothing. On the flip side, it is the perfect time to hug your foe...

4. You will be knackered after a long run. You will be tired. Dog tired. Even the best and fittest of runners will be tired. You will need to rest your body to restore your hand and brain coordination, so you will be excused of doing your weekend chores…

5. You realise you don’t have much of a social life any more. Knowing you have to do a stupidly long run the next day at 5am, you can no longer stay out late, drink till you pass out, and eat dodgy kebabs at 4am. Slowly, those drinking buddies will forget you and you no longer gets invited to anything....you lose your status quo social life.

However, as per point 1 in my previous post, you will suddenly meet and be greeted by a new group of people who are just as mad as you. In fact, you will suddenly find yourself prefer to hang around this new group of people, because, for one, you actually remember the conversation you had, you see and comment on the sunrise together, you comment on how dodgy the bush run was. You will actually remember what the person said for once!

I wonder if this post belongs in the previous post of positives…