This weekend is the London Marathon.
The London Marathon is an iconic race I feel everyone should do.
The atmosphere, the support along the route and the achievement make it a very special day.
To get to the start line in great shape is an achievement in itself. At this stage the training is done (or not!) and the best thing you can do is rest, eat and taper.
If you have followed a plan and this is your first marathon you will most likely feel pretty anxious at the moment - this is normal. You will question if you have done enough, your mind will start to play tricks on you and you will start to be concerned over imaginary aches and pains - this is normal. You will be tiptoeing around, walking on egg shells for fear of injury or illness. Don’t despair - this is normal too.
At this stage you will not get any fitter by training, in fact quite the opposite. Your time will be best used relaxing, eating, stretching and confirming your race strategy.
The final point is the one I feel is most relevant to many.
If you have done the long runs (up to 20 miles), depending on your goals (i.e. A time goal or a just finish goal) for the day, you will have an idea about roughly what time you will be expecting yourself to do. You can work out roughly where you should be at what stage and this will tell you if you are going to fast or too slow.
I feel hypocritical because although I start each race with an idea of a finishing time I have been known to self-destruct on occasion and end up running far to quick. Over twenty-six miles for a novice this can be a major problem. It is an awfully long way to travel and pacing yourself is crucial. My first tip is to have a plan and stick to it.
My next tip is around eating and drinking. In the days leading up to the marathon you will be well advised to eat more. Often this is called carb loading, but I kinda have an aversion to pasta and bread and tend to make do on potatoes, rice and chocolate. You must fuel your body and your muscles for the day. Therefore my next tip is to just eat more the day or two before the race.
One of my recommendations is to stick to food that you know, I tend to chow down the night before a race on bangers and mash. I’m pretty sure a sports nutritionist would have a field day with this stating ‘it doesn’t have the right amount of...’ The truth of the matter is only you know you. Eat energy-dense food that digest well, avoid fibrous stuff and just relax.
On the day get up early and have your breakfast. I prefer to eat three-hours before a race that way it is digested and then I have a snack an hour before the off. I stick to foods I know and that I have eaten before training runs, normally porridge and boiled eggs for breakfast. I snack on fruit and chocolate milk.
You must start drinking from the moment you wake. I drink lots of water, a cup of coffee (or two) and chocolate milk. This is very important.
You should of practiced your race day nutrition in training, but if you are like most people you probably haven’t. Race nutrition is very individual - but seeing as you have no plan I figured I’d give you mine. Therefore the following is what I do...
The marathon itself can be likened to an eating competition. My best advice is to eat and drink everything on offer. There are drink stations every mile or so and even if you don’t feel thirsty take it. Have a sip or two and throw it. You will be given jelly babies, gels and even bananas on route. Eating regularly will help you on the day.
Failure to do so will lead to a scene likened to the end of the film Gladiator...
You will burn up blood sugar, your vision will narrow and all your hard work in training will be wasted. Your body depends on the steady stream of energy, so make sure you get it in.
You don’t have to eat all of this there and then. Take a little bit if you want, but just staying on top of it is the name of the game. I also take 4-6 energy gels with me from the start. I typically start taking energy gels from the first hour, and then every 30 minutes thereafter until I finish.
There are a couple of very important things to understand about this.
If you leave it too late it is very difficult to recover. This means if you wait until two hours in and decide ‘oh yeah, I haven’t had a gel yet and I feel f**ked’, it might be too late. Eat before you need to and you will be ace.
Once you’ve started you cannot stop. Once you have spiked your blood sugar you need to continually do it. Hence the reason you need to have a gel every thirty minutes thereafter.
It will get to the stage when you don’t want anymore sweet stuff. Persevere. You need it.
Take your gels with a big slug of water (or two) to ease the burden on your stomach and you will be rewarded with a killer performance on race day.
I have tried various types of gels in all types of fancy flavors. My personal favourites are Power Bar gels. Too be honest they all taste pretty minging eventually and make your hands sticky but needs must.
I also use blocs. These are like little blocks of jelly. They are basically the same (two blocks are the same amount of energy) but feel different. I kinda use them on top of gels as a reward for hitting certain mile markers. Please don’t make the same mistake I made on an ironman training camp last year and get bored and eat one whole pack in one go. It only ends in tears! That was not a good day...
This is pretty much it. My post race strategy is not very scientific but running this distance is a huge achievement and after all the training you will thoroughly deserve a beer and a curry!
This Sunday is going to be a fantastic day if you pace it right and eat well.
If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask - head over to my Facebook page and fire away!
Good luck to all the runners and I’ll see you on the start line!!
Steve
Please feel free to share this with any runner - in the marathon or not!
No comments:
Post a Comment