Training - Tips Archives - Marathon Training

The most important concept you can grasp as you get into the running lifestyle is that you are captain of your ship. Youāll get a lot of advice about how you should run and what you should do next. Pick a good, conservative program, and learn to have fun following it. When you take too many elements from too many different types of programs, you can decrease your chance of success and enjoyment.

You Can Still Improve Your Performance During the Last 48 Hours

While the physical training has been done, you can significantly enhance 1) the way you feel afterward and 2) the quality of your performance by choosing certain behaviors and avoiding others during the final two days. Graduation day is near; don't let your vision get cloudy.

Focus
Because of nervousness, the excitement of the expo and distractions of another city, the marathon, friends, etc., it's easy to lose concentration on a few key items.

You're In Conrol
You need to be in charge of your behaviors during the crucial 48 hours before the marathon. In this way you can control your attitude, your eating, your schedule, etc. This doesn't mean that you should be sitting in your hotel room eating salt-free pretzels and PowerBars and drinking water. Being with friends is positive. You have veto power over what goes into your mouth, where you go, and how late you stay out. Being in control of your destiny is the primary step in running faster without training.

Be Positive
Have a list of statements that you can repeat as necessary. You're going to have negative thoughts slip out from the left brain so we'll work on a way to bypass them and move into the world of the positive:

I have no pressure on myself
I'm going to enjoy this
I'll start very slowly
The people are great
Because I started slowly, I'm finishing strong
The satisfaction of doing this is un-equaled
I've developed a great respect for myself

Marathon Day

Wake Up
Set your wake up call so that you have plenty of time to get moving, gather your gear together, and go through your usual eating and drinking timetable which worked for you during the long runs.Drink until you hear sloshing From the time you awaken, drink 4-6 oz. of water, every hour, until you hear sloshing in your stomach. Whenever the sloshing stops, start the drinking again. It's always better to have water in your stomach, or in your system, than to suffer to devastating effects of severe dehydration and heat disease. During the race itself, drink at every water station- unless you hear the sloshing.

Eat
To hold your blood sugar up for the first half One of the reasons I advocate eating before all your long runs is to discover the foods and pattern of eating which will work out best for you in the marathon itself. While about 70% of those in our various training groups find that PowerBar digests most quickly and provides the best blood sugar stabilizing effect, you should use what has worked for you in your long runs. Eating about 200-250 calories of high quality carbohydrate about an hour before the long one has helped many runners to stabilize their blood sugar level for the first half of the marathon.

Go Slowly in the Beginning
Almost everyone who performs a personal record in the marathon runs the second half faster than the first. Slow down by 10-20 seconds per mile (from your projected marathon pace) during the first 3-5 miles. Many marathoners report that by starting out 15 seconds per mile slower, they have the resiliency to run 20-30 seconds per mile faster at the end of the marathon.

Take Walk Breaks
A high percentage of those who didn't achieve the time goal they desired in the marathon by running continuously, have been able to significantly lower their finishing times by walking for one minute each mile- from the beginning of the marathon.

Eat During the Second Half of the Marathon
Eating small carbohydrate snacks during the second half of the marathon has helped marathoners improve time goals by boosting the blood sugar level. This will enhance your feeling of well being, maintain mental concentration, and sustain a positive mental attitude.

Starting slowly can make almost any run an enjoyable experience

This past year has been my best year of running and my slowest. More than three years ago, I shifted from an every-other-day running program to running two days out of three. To minimize overtraining injury, I slowed down all of my runs. During this period, I've had almost no need to take time off for repair of aches, pains or worse.

Prior to this slowdown, I had been starting my runs on slow days at 7-7:30 minutes per mile. When I shifted into "slow" gear, the pace became about 9-10 minutes per mile. Yes, even though I still run some 10K races at 5:30 pace, I start virtually all of my daily runs at about 10 minutes per mile and feel great because of it.

The unexpected benefit of this extra slow start has been an early shift into the right brain. Much sooner than usual, I found my mind wandering into creative journeys of all types. When the body is not under the usual stress of starting exercise at "normal" pace, it will relax, and your left brain doesn't have to respond to stress with its usual stream of negative messages.

Most folks to too fast in the beginning of a run because their pacing instincts take over. It's easy to go too fast before the body is warmed up because the biomechanics of running form allow us to move along very efficiently at a pace that is too fast for the muscles, the energy resources, and the cardiovascular system. A gentle warm-up will gradually instroduce the muscles and all of your systems to exercise at the same time.

When in doubt, run slower at the beginning. You'll increase your enjoyment without significantly lowering the training effect or the fat-burning.

Training interruptions

You can come back to your normal weekly mileage in two to three weeks.
But every run must be done slowly: follow the "two-minute rule."

Bring back the long run

You may increase the length more rapidly than usual by slowing down and taking more walking breaks. *
The longer your layoff from exercise, the more conservative your "comeback."

Starting long run when on the "comeback trail" To designate your long run starting distance after a layoff from exercise, start from your longest run, three weeks before the day you plan to re-start the long ones and

Take off 20 percent per week if you did no exercise at all
Take off 10 percent per week if you did 30 minutes of alternative exercise, three times a week, or
Take off five percent per week if you did alternative exercise which simulated marathon schedule.

Long Runs Can Improve Marathon Speed

By increasing beyond 26 miles, you'll build reserve endurance which will boost performance in many ways:

You'll push your "wall" past 26 miles.
You'll have the strength and stamina to maintain a hard pace during the last three to six miles when most competitive folks slow down.
With reserve endurance, you can often get away with a few small pacing mistakes.

Signs that You're Running Too Fast
(on your long runs)

1) You slow down during the last 3-6 miles
2) You feel very tired at the end and all evening long
3) The long ones take four days or more to recover from
4) An increase in nausea and irritation at the end of a run
5) Not being able to maintain the pace at the end of the run without struggling

Keep those long runs slow!

Speed and Endurance... Simultaneously

Running faster in the marathon requires that you develop a special type of speed-endurance. This means that the actual pace of the speed segments is only slightly faster than marathon goal pace. You're developing the capacity to maintain a moderate pace over a long distance. Compared with speed sessions for shorter distance racing goals, those for the marathon emphasize building endurance by

running longer repetitions (usually mile repeats)
increasing the number of repetitions: up to 8,10, or 12 mile repeats (faster marathons require more repetitions)

Speedplay for Time Goal Marathoners?

Those who have completed a marathon before may be interested in joining a group of speedplayers who will meet about every other week to do timed mile repeats. Each of these fast miles is run about 20 seconds faster than you want to run in the race itself. Between each of the fast miles, a walking break of three to six minutes is taken.

Why Do I Need to Run 26 Miles Before the Marathon?

"You don't, but our experience tells us that you will have a good experience in the marathon if you do and a negative marathon experience if you don't. You can't expect your body to cover a distance that is significantly longer than it has trained to go without complaining loudly and/or breaking down. By gradually increasing your long one up to 26 miles, you train the body and mind for the specific challenge needed."

"But I've Heard That Going Beyond 20 Miles Breaks You Down?"

"Only if you do the long one too fast. By going slowly and taking walk breaks, you do no more damage in an increase from 23 to 26 miles than increasing from 18 to 20 miles (or even 12 to 14 miles). Indeed, most whom I've interviewed over the years who train for the marathon using other programs run the long ones too fast and take longer to recover from an 18 to 20-miler than our folks do from their 23 to 26-milers. The slow pace makes all the difference. This gentle increase of two to three miles usually produces only a subtle tiredness as long as you're running those long ones at least two minutes per mile slower than you could run them.

The wonderful advantage which the 26-miler bestows is that by the time you've started the marathon itself, you know that you can cover the distance because you have! Time goal folks in our program have a reserve endurance because they go up to 28 to 30 miles. Again, the secret in recovering from the long ones, especially when the distance goes beyond 20, is running at least two minutes per mile slower than you could cover the course on that day AND taking the walk breaks early and often."