Back to basics
First, let’s strip away some of the mystique and set out a few basics of the marathon itself, to help with specific preparation for the event.
1. Its duration, for the majority of readers, will be somewhere between about 2hr 30min and 4hr 30min.
2. It will be carried out with at least 99% of the energy provided aerobically.
Depending on your level of performance, you are likely to operate during a marathon at about 75-80% of your VO2 max and at about 80-90% of your lactate threshold. Your training should not lose sight of this.
3. It is likely to be longer than any other sustained aerobic sport or exercise you have done – with cycling and Ironman triathlons the possible exception for a few.
4. It will usually take place entirely on tarmac/asphalt.
5. Unlike all shorter running events, you are unlikely to cover the full marathon distance in a single training run.
6. The gruelling nature of the event means that if your target race goes worse than you had planned, you will need numerous weeks before you have another chance to race the distance again effectively – unlike other races further down the endurance spectrum. This certainly affects the mental side of a marathon, both the training and the running of it on the big day.
7. Unlike all shorter endurance events, including 20-mile races, your body cannot store enough glycogen to enable you to race the distance using only energy derived from carbohydrates. You have to train the body to run at a pace using fatty acids (of which we have an immense supply). The conversion of fatty acids to usable energy in the muscles has four times as many chemical processes as the production of the same amount of energy from carbohydrate.
Making plans
Your long run needs to become longer – but it will also assume a greater significance in your overall training plan, which will have an impact on training in the couple of days leading into and coming out of the long run.
When putting together the remainder of your training plan, think about optimising the following:
1. Once you have built up distance, start building up pace on those long runs. In the last eight weeks, doing long runs slower than roughly your planned marathon pace plus 30/40 seconds a mile will not have much performance benefit. Indeed, most weeks your long run should be completed at fairly close to marathon pace.
2. Do allow recovery from the long run, and don’t feel enslaved to group sessions on a given day if you honestly feel that another day and night of recovery will enable you to better tackle the next hard session.
3. Do include some faster running in each week’s training. It doesn’t have to be a mammoth interval session, but you should do something to recruit your fast twitch muscle fibres, which will improve your running efficiency.
4. On long runs and threshold/tempo efforts, if you aren’t using a heart rate monitor or Garmin, do try and assess accurately – “Could I keep this pace up for a 10-mile race, or a marathon?” – as appropriate. Bear in mind that, at ‘mid-pack’ level, a pacing guideline of ‘double the race distance, add 20-25 seconds a mile’ will be relevant. Indeed, you won’t be able to ‘beat’ this physiological guideline by much, so don’t try to!
To interval or not to interval?
At this stage, classic interval training is less critical – in terms of marathon specificity – than the longer runs and the sustained tempo efforts. So do keep in regular (weekly to fortnightly) touch with your fast twitchers and VO2 max, but don’t agonise if the 400m or 800m reps aren’t making massive progress at this stage.
Nutrition
Without obsessing, do refuel sensibly and promptly with complex carbs and adequate protein. Be aware that running extra miles doesn’t give you carte blanche to hoover up the grocery shelves. Conversely, if you think that a slightly lower weight will, all things being equal, help your running, be very cautious about the level of restriction you go for. If you really trim back on your calorie intake you won’t have the available glycogen supplies to manage your training at the required level, plus your immune system will be vulnerable at just the time when you don’t want to be missing training.
• How is your marathon training going? Got any specific worries, niggles or doubts? Share below, please.
Source: Read Full Article