Many people are starting to train for a fall marathon and may be coming in with some ideas – and some questions – about how to prepare for the big day. While it’s hard to give prescriptive advice that applies to everyone, I can share a few tips that should be broadly applicable across the spectrum of runners, from first-timers to the more experienced and/or competitive runners.
Run your pace. There are multiple meanings to this tip. 1) During training as well as the marathon, don’t get caught up in doing what someone else is doing. Having training partners is great, but if they are going too fast or too slow for you, you will be sacrificing your training. Too fast, and you will struggle later in the run. Too slow, and you won’t be getting the fitness benefits that you could be. 2) Practice running your goal (or expected) marathon pace. During extended parts of some of your long runs, you should run as close as you can to your goal pace. This will help you improve your running economy at that specific pace, which will translate into a better outcome on marathon day. 3) On your recovery run days, let your body dictate the pace, rather than being a slave to your GPS watch. The long runs can be very taxing on your body, and it is okay and even necessary to take it nice and easy on your recovery run days.
Practice your nutrition and hydration. Rule number one of running is “don’t try anything new on race day.” This definitely applies to what you put in your stomach during the marathon. Practice drinking with the same products, frequency, and amounts that you intend to use during the marathon. If you are going to rely on the aid stations on the course, find out what will be available and practice with the same thing…right down to the flavor. Fruit punch flavor sports drink may sit well with you, whereas lemon-lime induces debilitating cramps – not a good thing to find out on marathon day. The other important thing to note is that the gut is actually trainable – it becomes better at absorbing fluid and digesting fuel during exercise with practice. So don’t leave it to just your last couple of long runs to start taking in fuel - do it throughout your training cycle.
Prepare mentally. The marathon will not be easy. There will be some tough stretches, and you need to be prepared for that. Have some positive phrases or “mantras” prepared in advance to help you focus and get through the tough times. Just as you did with your fluids and fuel, you should practice using this positive self-talk during training. You can’t turn on a switch and become mentally tough on race day – it is a skill that has to be practiced throughout your training. You may even want to rehearse your responses to challenges that could arise, such as a blister or the urge to go to the bathroom. While we want to avoid these types of problems if possible, they can still occur, and practicing a response that deals with the issue can help you from spiraling into catastrophic thinking on race day.
Assemble a strong team. Both training for and running the marathon can feel like a long, lonely road at times. People tend to be much more successful if they have a good system of support around them. This can include family and friends who are understanding of those long weekend runs (and perhaps your subsequent desire to sit on the couch the rest of the day). Your team might include training partners who support and encourage you, and the list goes on: the local running shop workers who talk you through what you will need, the massage therapist or physical therapist who help you through the aches and pains, the neighbor who thinks you are amazing for even attempting a marathon.
Train hard…but not too hard. It is important to get in the work to prepare you for the marathon. The long runs, tempo runs, hill repeats, etc. are necessary to physically prepare you for the 26.2 miles ahead of you. However, you need plenty of recovery time between these efforts in order to continue to make gains from the workouts. Too many people give their best efforts during training only to find that they are exhausted by the time the marathon rolls around. More is not always better. Particularly in the last 2-3 weeks of the training, be careful not to overextend yourself. You don’t want to go into the marathon feeling like you have just “survived” the training; you should be fit, rested, and feeling like a racehorse in the starting gate, ready to bust out and run your race.
This article originally appeared in the The Connection, TCM's weekly e-newsletter. Subscribe here. Find more Motion Expert content here.
Photo by Ben Garvin.
Chris Lundstrom, PhD, is a running coach and exercise scientist who specializes in endurance exercise performance. He is one of the team of Motion Experts TCM has gathered to help its subscribers and participants get the most out of their running. He coaches the Minnesota Distance Elite team and their squad of national class runners, including Olympian Dakotah Lindwurm. He teaches in the School of Kinesiology at the University of Minnesota, and also works with novice and high school runners. Follow and support MDE on their website: minnesotadistanceelite.com and on Instagram: @minnesotadistanceelite.