What qualifies as a LSD Run!?

I vividly remember riding the light rail back to our hotel after the Arizona Rock N Roll half marathon, listening to this girl talk about how much she loved her "LSD" runs, because she would take off with  a group of friends, they would chat etc and she felt like she could run forever.  I remember thinking to myself, "I've honestly never had that feeling."  For me, the concept of a long, slow distance run was never part of my training {or so I thought, because I wasn't running enough miles} until I trained for my first marathon.  To me, a run only qualified as a LSD run if it was at least 15 miles.  {As with many running terms, even being a "runner," I develop my own definitions}. I've changed matured in my thinking, and realized {as with many things} a LSD run, is a relative term....if someone is averaging 2-3 miles for their runs, then a 6 mile run would be a LSD run for them. It so easy to compare ourselves to other runners, how fast they are, how many miles they put in etc., and get discouraged because we don't live up to the pressure we put on ourselves.  It's really important we focus on our own training, goals, improvements etc and not get caught up in focusing on everyone else.  Yes, my "speed work" is some people's marathon pace....but it still is SPEED WORK for ME! 

Last saturday was perhaps one of my best LSD runs {which I have now named "Sherpa Saturdays}. I had invited a couple of friends, a friend of a friend, and then asked my friend to sherpa for us; there ended up being 4 of us...one girl did 8 miles, 2 did 13, and then I did 18.  No matter what the distance was, it was a long run for the person who ran it, and we all enjoyed each others' company while we had it, & had fun every mile.  Kaylee has taken on her role as sherpa quite seriously....she carries our water, nuun, gels, beans, extra layers of clothing, etc...but most importantly, she provides the music! We are quite the scene running down the bike path with our personal sherpa jammin our tunes {and dancing along; I told Kaylee she needs to start a Sherpa business and we can hand out her business cards on our runs}

Sherpa Kaylee

#sherpaproblems

I challenge you to NOT limit yourself by self defined definitions of running terms.  Yes, I AM A RUNNER, even though I have yet to run a sub 2 hr half marathon and my dad beats me at every race.