Week 19 Marathon Training Thoughts
Found my name on the marathon wall!
Week of the marathon!
Sorry I’ve been a little bit rubbish at posting a blog recently – the past 3 weeks have been a bit chaotic in life and unfortunately writing the blog fell down my list of priorities! However, here is my latest update, and I am updating you from the rooftop terrace of our hotel in Rome, the day before the marathon!
Yep, the marathon is here! Despite the fact that my training has not gone to plan, I am feeling excited and looking forward to seeing what the day brings. My last 3 weeks of training have been pretty good! I have not only managed to build the volume up on my long runs, but I have increased my runs from 2 to 3 a week. My body definitely was aware of the increase, and I started to notice niggles in other areas as it worked hard to try and keep up but I have managed them and listened to my body. I am feeling quite proud of how I have listened too, for example, last Sunday I went for a run with a target distance in mind, but my body was telling me it was tired not even 2.5km into the run. I very nearly ran home then, but backed off the pace a little, did a bit of stretching and then ran-walked where needed and I managed to get a lot more volume than I initially thought I would, meaning that although I was 4km less than I had planned, I was actually proud of myself for adjusting and being sensible. So here are my thoughts from recently!
Race Week Build up
I LOVE race week build up. I feel like I’m more nervous earlier in the training, and when it gets to race week I feel excited by all the lists I’m making of things to take, things to buy, things to remember. I love planning the logistics, such as my nutrition, what to wear, what time we need to be where and when. I love the buzz when you go to collect your race pack, and all the people there who are feeling like you are. You’ve done your training by this point, there’s not much else you can do now so you may as well just enjoy the moments and the nerves/excitement/energy and regardless of whether your training has gone well or not to plan – you may as well enjoy what you signed up for, otherwise, what’s the point?!
Taper Tantrums
I read this term a couple of weeks back when planning one of my client’s taper and I absolutely love it. Taper on paper sounds great, it’s like “FINALLY, the hard part of training is done and now I can sit back a bit, let my body recover and get ready and refreshed for the race”. But no, our bodies and brains have other ideas! Our brain will question “have I done enough”, (yes, with what time you had, and how your body felt, yes), “I’m not doing very much training, maybe I need to squeeze a bit more in?” (you don’t, you will ruin the effects of taper if you squeeze some more in and won’t feel as good on race day), “what if I lose fitness?” (you won’t, this is where your body gets chance to heal from all the intense mileage you’ve done, and it needs to in order to be strong on race day). Your body will also feel weird, you might feel pains where you didn’t before (this is most often psychological and your brain over-analysing how you’re feeling), you might get twitches and random muscle pulses (this is your body getting ready to go, and your muscles are so used to going on long training runs that your muscles are priming feeling like they’re missing something but this is all in preparation for the race). All of these things are “taper tantrums”! Your body and mind being silly. Taper should begin 2-3 weeks out from your event, and you should gradually reduce your mileage. It is a science, different for everyone, and that is why it’s good to have a coach who knows you, knows how your body reacts and knows how to taper for you. With all of my clients taper might be slightly different depending on how their training has gone. For example, I am running Rome marathon with Emma and I have programmed her training for her. Her training has gone really well so her taper is different to mine, as I have still been trying to build volume up in the last couple of weeks. But hopefully it will have worked for each of us!
After our longest runs - her’s a lot longer than mine!
Nerves means adrenaline!
One of the things I often tell my clients is that nerves are a good thing. We often think “oh no, I’m nervous! How can I stay calm and composed?”, but being nervous is good. Nerves means adrenaline, and adrenaline is needed to help your muscles do what they need to do. Nerves and adrenaline means increased blood flow to the heart and the muscles and the organs, all of which you need to do a marathon (or any sports event). Obviously being TOO nervous isn’t ideal, as this will use up a lot of energy and might make you feel too shaky, or too overwhelmed. So being able to control our nerves is important. We don’t want to get rid of them, we want to reframe them as excitement. Instead of thinking “I am nervous” think “I am excited!” or “I am ready!”. We want the adrenaline, and we want our muscles to be receiving more blood, to help us achieve what we want to achieve. Reframing how we feel about nerves is important to use them to our advantage.
This is your victory lap!
Remember – the training is the hard part, the marathon is your victory lap! This is your chance to do what you’ve trained to do! Obviously running a marathon is going to be hard too, I’m not suggesting that it’s not, but the race is where we enjoy what our body is prepared to do, enjoy the atmosphere, the opportunity, the chance to do this, the support people are giving you, who are often just strangers willing you to do well and keep going. This is an amazing experience and soak it all up, the great moments and the not so great moments. There are likely to be a few of each but you’ll learn and grow from the not great ones and you’ll remember and appreciate the good ones. You’ve got this!
So now I’ve written this pre-marathon blog, I’m going to close my laptop, enjoy a chilled afternoon in Rome with my best friend, where we plan all the logistics for getting there in the morning, carb-load in arguably the best place for carb-loading, and get a nice early night ready for race day tomorrow. My mantra is “what will be, will be” but I am going to do my absolute best and that’s all that matters. I have a plan, I will be breaking it up into a run-walk from the start, to hopefully ensure my body can keep going. At Christmas I couldn’t run 1km due to my achilles. Tomorrow I’m going to attempt 42.2km. Keep your fingers crossed for me! See you in the post-race update blog!
Also, one last thing - good luck to Em who is running Rome tomorrow too - you are going to smash it and I am excited to do an event with you in this city!
Good luck Em!