26 RUNNING FITNESS APRIL 2015

TRAINING } FINAL MARATHON PREP

FINAL PARTMARATHONRUN YOUR FIRST

There’s only four weeks left until the marathon, luckily we’re on hand to help! FOLLOW OUR PLAN and you’ll breeze through the final month WORDS Sarah Russell

With only four weeks to go, it’s natural to feel nervous as race day draws closer. You’ve spent months preparing and you

don’t want anything to go wrong now, so it’s normal to feel anxious. Our final top tips will help you hit the start-line well, prepared and raring to go.

MARATHON DREAMS It’s not unusual to start having ‘marathon’ dreams, where something has gone wrong! I usually dream that I arrive at the start either late, at the wrong place, have forgotten my trainers or my race number, or I get lost and go the wrong way. There’s not much you can do to avoid these dreams, apart from get organised. It’s really helpful to get your travel planned, organise your race kit, read the race instructions and familiarise yourself with the route, start location etc. Try using Rescue Night Melts (see page 30) to get a restful sleep and help relax your mind.

KEEP ON TOP OF NIGGLES The last month before the marathon is the key time for niggles and injuries to appear. The accumulation of months of training and long runs will build up and leave you at more risk of picking up an injury. Be fastidious about protecting yourself from niggles. Get a weekly massage with a sports therapist, use a foam roller every day and avoid anything where you might turn your ankle or fall. Try using kinesiology tape, and wear

compression tights such as Skins or socks like CEP Compressions wear.

FOOT HEALTH Looking after your feet might not be high on your list, but verrucas, calluses, blisters and ingrown toenails can quickly put a dent in your training plans. Check your feet regularly, keep your toenails short and get treatment from a chiropodist if you notice anything. Compeed Blister Plasters are a runner’s best friend, so keep some in stock at home for emergencies. Finally, remember to trim your toenails two to three days before the big day.

DON’T PANIC “The main mistake people make, is to have run their marathon before race day,” says former London Marathon winner and Olympian Liz McColgan. “What I mean by that is they do far too much prior to the race then they either get injured or have a poor performance in the event itself.” 2.50 marathoner Duncan Collins agrees: “Trying to make up for ‘lost’ training by logging big mileage in the final weeks is a big mistake. Just rely on what you have achieved in

training and rethink your finish time goal.” There can be a difference between what you’d ‘like’ to run, and what is a realistic time for you, especially given your preparation and training. So if your training hasn’t really gone that well, revise your finish time to something achievable.

Marathon training rarely goes to plan and most of us stand on the start-line feeling a little underprepared. But it’s better to get there a bit ‘under trained’ and injury free, rather than sat at home nursing an injury and watching the race on TV.

Getting yourself as prepared as possible

will help anxiety

Compression tights will help your legs recover

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FINAL MARATHON PREP } TRAINING

YOUR FINAL FOUR- WEEK COUNTDOWNYou’ll see that you have your longest run (3-3.5 hours depending on where you’re at) with four weeks to go – remember to keep the pace easy, drink and fuel well and have plenty of walk breaks. This run will be a great confidence booster, so do everything you can to make sure it goes well. Plan ahead, hydrate the day before and fuel up with a good dinner. Plot your route and get organised.

If you’ve missed some long runs earlier back in the programme, then with three weeks to go you can do another long run instead of the wind up 777. If you’ve done three or more three-hour plus runs, then do the wind up 777 instead.

Other than that, just stick with the plan. Remember to keep the pace ‘easy’ on your long and recovery runs. Keep with the cross-training and Pilates, and spend time on your feet walking and mixing things up.

Weeks to go… Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat Sun

4 Pilates or S&C

EASY RUN30 minswith drills

RestCross30-45 mins

Easy run 30 mins

Walk 30 mins

Long run3-3.5 hours

3 Pilates or S&C

EASY RUN30 mins with drillsfinal mile strong pace

RestCross30-45 mins

Easy run 45 mins

Easy run 30 mins

Wind up 777 or long run 3 hours

2 Pilates or S&C

EASY RUN30 mins final mile strong pace

RestCross30-45 mins

Easy run 45 mins

Walk 30 mins

Long run 2.5 hours

1 Pilates or S&C

EASY RUN30 mins with drillsfinal mile strong pace

Rest Easy run 30 mins Rest

Easy run 15 mins

Marathon day

THE WIND UP 777Start with your usual warm up, then do five x 30-second bursts to get your heart rate up. Jog between each burst. Then run for seven minutes at a nice strong pace (around 7/10), then pick up the pace for the next seven minutes, so your effort level is 8/10, then continue to build (without resting between each section) so the final seven minutes are run at 9/10 and you’ll finish at pretty much flat out pace. You’ll have done 21 minutes of hard but steady quality work. Cool down for five to 10 minutes afterwards.

✓ Old long sleeve t-shirt/jacket/bin bag – wear at the start and then throw away✓ Watch/Garmin/heart-rate monitor✓ Blister plasters ✓ Lube or Vaseline✓ Waist belt

or bag✓ Safety pins✓ Race number and timing chip✓ Gels (and method to carry them) ✓ Pacing band or printed wrist band✓ Mobile phone and iPod if you

plan to use one

✓ Water or sports drink –

for use before the race✓ Sports drink

for the race – if you intend to

carry something✓ Post-race

recovery drink in

your kit bag (For Goodness Shakes make a great recovery drink)

✓ Change of clothes post-

race – compression

recovery tights

✓ Dry shoes and socks to

wear afterwards

RACE PLANFUEL AND HYDRATEYou still have time to practise your nutrition strategy for the race during your last few long runs. Find out what’s available at the water stations in the race and then either train with that, or if you don’t like it, work out your own plan; how are you going to carry your drink? How many gels or chews will you use? How will you carry them? Try the brilliant Spi Belt to carry your phone and gels on the day, or the Nathan Waist Pak with an ergonomic quick-draw bottle for your drink (see page 30). Try them out in training first though.

SET THE RIGHT TARGETOne of the single most common mistakes is to set an unrealistically fast goal time. You can project your supposed ‘goal time’ from a 10k race or a half marathon, and many web-based calculators will come up with some impressive targets. But you have to take this with a pinch of salt and look at the raw facts. You’ll get a better picture of what you’re capable of from your long runs in training. There are many reasons to set a goal time for your race, one of which is to keep you on track and give you some structure to your race plan. But you have to be brutally honest with yourself, and set a realistic goal.

Think carefully about your training and races. Have you really done enough long runs? How did the pace feel? Do you think you could sustain it for 26 miles? Don’t get sucked into thinking you can run faster than you really can and that you might just have the ‘race of your life’. Aim too high and you’ll end up demoralised. Be realistic with your target time and you’ll have a great race. There’s a world of difference between what you might like to run and what you’re capable of.

PACE IT! Going off too fast is a classic mistake made not only by first timers, but also by experienced marathon runners who get carried away with the atmosphere. No

matter how much you tell yourself not to, it’s difficult not to let adrenaline get the better of you. You convince yourself that you feel fine, you CAN do this and you’re way ahead of goal time, then at around 18-20 miles the wheels fall off and your new PB disappears faster than you can say ‘I was going really well until…’.

“10 seconds a mile too fast in the first half equals one-minute a mile slower in the second half,” claims veteran runner John Johnson, and finisher of over 10 marathons. Have the courage to set your goal pace and stick to it, regardless of what your friend is doing, or how good you can ‘convince yourself’ you feel. Work out your splits for an achievable goal and put them on your wrist, then stick to them. If you still feel fantastic at mile 20 then by all means push on then.

GET ORGANISEDRunning a marathon is both a physical and mental challenge. You need to be prepared, both in body and in mind, and any sort of pre-race stress can really affect your performance. As Benjamin Franklin famously said: “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail”. Get yourself organised with the logistics of getting to the start (give yourself much more time than you think you’ll need – around two hours

before the start time), making sure you have everything ready, and then all you need to worry about it the race itself.

Leaving things to chance or the last minute to get organised will cause stress, which leads to fatigue. And fatigue will lead to a below par performance.

“Once the training is done it’s time to relax and taper, but that also applies to your mind as well as your body,” says Marc Laithwaite, a marathon runner with a PB of 2:32 and elite coach (www.theendurancecoach.com). “If you spend the three days prior to the marathon worrying about the event and what may go wrong, you will be worn out before you start. The perfect solution is to ask your partner or someone you trust to take care of travel arrangements, accommodation and transportation to the start. If you aren’t lucky enough to have that support, make sure it’s all sorted in advance. Once that’s all taken care of, relax and switch off, don’t think about the logistics, you need to save your energy for the 26 miles of running.”

Get organised in advance. Do you need to book a hotel or accommodation? How are you going to get to the start? What is the weather forecast? What are you going to wear? How do you plan to carry drinks or energy gels? Is there a baggage store? How do you plan to get home? Get all of this sorted well in advance, which will allow you to concentrate your energies into the race.

Now you have nothing more to do, but get prepared, tune in mentally and get ready for one of the best days of your life! Good luck!

}And when you’re done, don’t forget to send us your marathon stories and photos, along with your top tips! Email rf.ed@kelsey.co.uk or tweet us

@runfitmag @runfitsarah

Make sure you set a realistic target goal time

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Give yourself enough time on race day for that last minute preparation

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