The ORC Top Ten Marathon Tips
Training:
1. Your mantra should be Consistency, Moderation and Recovery. You will need to follow a consistent, disciplined approach to your marathon training. Remember that the key to gaining fitness is to allow your body to recover from workouts and to adapt to a gradually increasing training load.
2. Listen closely to your body, and take care of minor issues right away. That achiness in your hamstring that won’t go away after a couple runs? Deal with it right away with stretching, ice, rest, massage or perhaps a professional assessment before you are completely sidelined from your training.
3. Make your easy days easy; and your hard days hard. Follow the hard-easy principle. Your long runs should be at conversational pace, your tempo runs hard but sustainable. Avoid two hard days in a row. It takes from 24 to 72 hours to recover from a hard workout.
4. Know the course of your goal race. Research the route, examine the profile, know where the aid stations are. If the course is hilly, make sure you train on hills. If it is flat, train your body and mind to sustain a constant effort over long periods of time.
5. Your post-race recovery is as important as the weeks leading up to the race. Be aware that although you may feel pretty good after a couple days, your musculoskeletal system has been beaten up. Allow time for micro-damage to heal, eat well, get lots of sleep and return to your training cautiously.
6. Most important, celebrate the journey! We tend to focus heavily on our race day and its outcome. Remember to take pleasure in your long runs with friends, and the exhilaration that comes from completing a hard workout.
Race Day:
7. Set three goals for your race: first, your A-goal, or “the best you can be” on that day when everything goes according to plan.
Second, your B-goal, one that will leave you satisfied and motivated to return. Finally, have a goal in your back-pocket that will motivate you to continue if the wheels come off during the race. Think about what brought you to this race day, and how much fitness you gained during training.
8. Hold back in the first half; the pace should feel too easy. The tough part of a marathon does not begin until after 30 – 32 km. Don’t go out too fast thinking you can “bank” time; you’ll pay it all back and much more in the latter portions of the race.
9. Pay attention to race-day conditions and how they may affect your hydration and fueling requirements. Adjust these if necessary. Hot and humid on race day? Better increase your fluid intake and keep your body cool with ice or by pouring water over yourself.
10. Get some race experience in build-up races. This will provide you with a test-run for your fueling, pacing, mental preparations, etc. and give you confidence going into your goal race.
By Dave Harding, Head Coach, Ottawa Running Club