4 Biggest Challenges of Long Distance Joggling

I don’t usually write about my workouts but this weekend was special because I did a 16+miler yesterday and a 15+miler today. I’ve never done back-to-back 2-hour plus runs and you might be interested in the experience.

The challenges of long distance running and juggling

Motivation: The hardest part about doing long runs is just working up the motivation to do it. If you go out to a Cubs game, have a couple of beers, and then do a 3-bar pub crawl featuring games of flippy cup and a$$hole, you’ll find it incredibly hard to run the next morning. But we’ve talked about how to get motivated to run before. For me, I just got up at 5:15am and put on my running clothes. Didn’t leave until 7:15am but putting on my running clothes helped.

Pain during workout: Don’t let anyone kid you, running hurts. At least, running for a couple hours hurts. This is what you can expect. The first half mile or so you’ll feel ok. Then you’ll start to feel worse for the next 2 miles. By mile 3 however, you’ll start to feel better. I can’t tell you how long this will last as it varies. Today, for example, I could’ve run for another 30 minutes. Yesterday, I had nothing left at the end.

Pain after the workout: Yes, you’ll experience this too. The sources of pain are varied and include…

1. Muscle pain
2. Joint pain
3. Headaches
4. Chaffing

I took some ibuprofen yesterday but I can never really tell if that works. Today, I soaked my legs in cold water immediately after my workout. They feel good considering they’ve done over 31 miles in the last 24 hours.

Boredom: This isn’t one I experience often, but occasionally joggling around the city for hours can get a bit dull. I listen to great podcasts like The Skeptics Guide to the Universe and This American Life which helps immensely. Running where other people are also helps fight boredom. So too does running along different paths and attempting different juggling tricks.

Joggling streak update

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted any kind of training stats or updates to the joggling streak. Indeed the streak is alive and well and 168 days old with today’s joggle. It’s been a challenge to get a run in everyday, but somehow I’ve managed. Often, it requires a 5am wakeup run before work. There have even been workouts as late at 10:30 pm. This is just what you have to do to keep up a joggling streak.