The long run

I've been doing some longer runs recently and looking to run longer still. I fancy cracking 30 miles. For no other reason than I have a 30 mile route mapped out. Anyway Saturday morning I'll be out for 3 hours+.My last few runs were up to 2.5 hours and at times it was tough, not necessarily physically, but more mentally. So ... strategies I've used that at times have helped.

• Talking to myself - when it gets tough promise yourself a drink after a certain distance or land mark. Not a good thing to do when there are people around!
• Breaking up the run into chunks. A twenty mile run is 4 lots of five mile chunks. 5 miles is a quarter, 10 miles and I'm half way there, 15 miles virtually done! - That's the plan anyway.
• Remember its not easy to run a long way. There will be times when it gets tough. Work through it.
• I like the idea of a post run plan. When I get home I'm going to ..., tomorrow,  I'll .........
• Count / Guess how far. How many steps, how long to a place in the distance?
• Relax. The more relaxed you are the easier the run is. Concentrating on relaxing definitely makes the run go quicker.
• Smile. Smiling makes you relax and so we go to the point above.

These are strategies I've used - hope they help others.