Training Tips

Shoes

If you’ve been doing all your training in the same pair of shoes, you might want to consider a new pair for the marathon. Studies have shown that the mid-sole (padding) of most running shoes loses 50% of its effectiveness after only 600k. The average runner probably clocks something close to 1000k in a 12-week marathon build up, so by the time race day comes around their shoes are probably past the use-by date. And there’s nothing quite like a new pair of shoes to give you that extra lift for race day. Of course you never wear a brand new pair of shoes on any long run, let alone a marathon. Get a new pair a few weeks before race day and do every second run in them. And don’t buy something different, your feet are used to what you’ve been wearing and race day isn’t the time to introduce them to something unfamiliar.

Long Runs

All runners should be getting a long run in each week - building up to 2 hours by the end of January and at least a 2 1/2 hour run before the marathon.
The long run should be about time on your feet - distance and pace are not as important. Runners should try to do the same route each week and notice their improvement in where they reach each time.

Pace

Marathon running is all about pace judgment. Even for the fastest runners the marathon is essentially an aerobic event, which depending on your fitness means 70 to 80% of your maximum heart rate. For those who don’t use heart rate monitors, if you’re having trouble chatting then it’s time to slow down! The best way to ensure you stick to pace is to write your three mile splits up your arm to remind you as you pass through the drink stations or time checks on race day.

Try using the five varied pace rule. Example:

• Long slow run
• Recovery run
• Tempo run (faster than marathon pace over a set distance such as 6 miles)
• Timed faster pace
• Short fast runs on track or set distance say 8 x 400 metres with a minute recovery
   

Water

As a runner you burn more food for energy and burn more fluid through sweat, so replacing what you lose is crucial. Lack of food and fluids means not only lack of energy but also inadequate vital vitamins and minerals that aid recovery and general health. Follow this guide: 

1. Drink up to one litre within 20 minutes of exercising. 
    
2. Maintain fluid levels during the day by drinking around 500ml (2 big glasses) at breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner. 
    
3. In runs of longer than one hour try to consume around 500ml an hour so hydration levels don’t drop too low.

Food

Aerobic exercise burns approximately 1,000 calories an hour and high intensity exercise burns even more. You need approximately 2,000 calories a day just to function in life, so if you run an hour a day you need to be getting close to 3,000 calories otherwise you’ll come up short on energy. This is the most common problem for marathon runners. The race itself empties the tank, but the day-to-day training preceding the actual race can have you constantly walking an energy redline. The best way to avoid depleting energy stores is to add small, high carbohydrate snacks between your daily meals. This is better than eating bigger meals because it spreads the load on your digestive system and allows better absorption of the energy and nutritional value of your food.

Get a training buddy

Training with someone of similar fitness to yourself can help to boost your motivation. It also gives you a great opportunity to support each other towards your goal.

Get a Plan

Find a plan to suit your fitness level then stick to it. Keep a daily account of your progress and you will find it easier to focus on your target and build you confidence.

Do Some Road Running

To maximize the specificity of your training you need to do a certain amount of this running on the actual surface the race will be held on – i.e. the road.
Road running has a bad rap for being the fast way to injury. But in fact, well-planned regular road sessions will condition your body to handling the impact of road running. For marathon running this is crucial because at around 800 strides per mile impact is definitely a factor in muscle fatigue. Doing a certain amount of road running creates a sort of hardness to your muscular makeup that you don’t
get from off-road running. Running off road is great for recovery running and essential if you’re training for a trail run. But if you want to run a marathon, then you need to do some road running. Women should avoid running alone in potentially quiet areas such as tow paths.

Taper your training

The secret to feeling good on marathon day is to line-up fit and fresh at the start line. That means instead of trying to stuff in a few last minute long runs, you should actually be backing-off in the last few weeks. Your last long run should be at least two weeks – preferably three weeks – before race day. In the final two weeks no running should exceed 60 minutes. In the final week there should be no hard or hilly runs and in the final few days you should really just be jogging a few kilometres on grass.

Prepare for The Wall

In marathon running, the “Wall” is the nickname given for when your energy stores dry up. As in, you’ve hit the brick wall. This phenomenon is typically characterised by an empty feeling where all energy is gone and eventually you are forced to walk or even withdraw. However, if you train correctly you can develop an ability to battle the wall.

The body fuels its existence by breaking down food into glycogen, which is its chief source of fuel.
Carbohydrates are the most easily accessible food source for this energy breakdown, followed by fats and then proteins. The body can only store enough carbohydrate-based fuel for approximately two and a half hours of aerobic exercise. However, it naturally stores enough fat-based fuel to last several hours. The secret then is to train the body to access fats as well as carbohydrates for energy.

This isn’t an easy thing to do. Carbohydrate food products dominate modern society, so utilising carbohydrates for energy is increasingly becoming part of our genetic makeup. Now no one is suggesting we should all start eating fatty foods. What we’re talking about is training in a way that utilises our natural fat stores.

Studies have shown that training at low to medium aerobic efforts (65 to 70% of maximum heart rate) helps promote fat as an energy source.

This coincides well with marathon training because: 

• Aerobic endurance is essential for lasting the distance 
   
• Low to medium aerobic efforts is the very effort we need to do our long runs at. By training at easy to medium aerobic efforts you are training your body to tap into fat stores, which when combined with carbohydrate stores will help deliver enough fuel to get you through a marathon.

Always Warm Up

There are two main reasons for a warm up.

• Firstly, to gradually prepare the muscles and tendons for the specific stress you are about to apply.
   
• Secondly, to gradually lift the heart rate to the level required.
   

Warming-up is to avoid injury. Easy jogging followed by stretching floods the working muscles with oxygen-rich blood and raises the body temperature. This makes the body more flexible and allows blood vessels open up, allowing more oxygen-rich blood to flow into the working muscles. If on top of this you apply some mild stretching, you increase the range of movement, which will help avoid
injury by the increased stride length and other exertions on your body when you race. Light exercise like this also releases synovial fluid from small sacs in your joints, allowing lubrication an even wider range of movement.