Three weeks before goal race

1. Reduce weekly mileage to 85-90% of you maximum.

a. It’s actually not too difficult to reduce your mileage by 15%. For example, if you’re running 50 miles per week, you only need to cut out 7 miles from your weekly running routine. This can be done by giving yourself an extra rest day or by simply cutting out 2 or 3 miles from your regular recovery runs.

2. Maintain intensity

a. Some training plans begin to drastically cut workout volumes starting three weeks out from the race. I think this is a mistake to avoid if you’ve been training diligently for 16 to 20 weeks. Physiologically, your body takes 10 days to realize the benefits from a workout and completely recover. As an insurance policy, I suggest performing your last workout 13 days prior to the marathon; starting the taper too early robs you of another potentially great workout.
b. Make sure that your workout is specific to the marathon – you don’t need any V02max workouts or speed sessions at this point. The workout should be similar to what you’ve been doing the rest of your training plan (i.e. no need to get nervous and think you need to blast the best workout of your life).

3. Reduce long run volume by 10 to 20%

a. You don’t need to completely eliminate the long run yet, but you do want to avoid making yourself too tired. If your longest run so far was 20 miles, I suggest a run anywhere from 16 to 18 miles. However, listen to your body. If you feel sluggish and tired, have the confidence to cut the long run back.

Two weeks before goal race

1. Reduce weekly mileage to 70 to 75% of maximum.

a. Reducing the mileage this week is actually easier than last week. Your long run will be shorter and your intense workouts, which should be your biggest volume days, will also be reduced. For example, a 50-mile week will be reduced to 35 to 38 miles. With no long run and less intense workouts, your easy recovery miles should remain relatively stable or minus only a mile or two.

2. One medium intensity workout.

a. Your last workout of any real difficulty should be on Monday or Tuesday. The volume of this workout should be reduced by 60-70% of your normal hard day. For example, if your tempo intervals usually total 9 miles, this workout should be about 6 miles in total distance. Again, make sure the workout is marathon specific, so no VO2max workouts. This is a good opportunity for you to practice marathon pace.

3. Reduce long run by 50 to 60%

a. At this point in your training the “hay is in the barn”. You can’t gain any more fitness, but you can certainly tire yourself out. The distance of this run is more a psychological boost to keep you in a routine and to prevent you from feeling like you’re doing nothing. If you’re feeling fatigued, don’t hesitate to back off the mileage and opt for a shorter distance.

The week of the race

1. Significantly reduce mileage.

a. If you thought training was tough, wait until you try to reduce your mileage the week before a marathon. It takes discipline and confidence to give your body the rest it needs. You should consider giving yourself an extra rest day while reducing your daily runs by 50 to 60% of their normal volume. So, if you’re used to running 8 miles on your easy recovery days, you should target 5-6 miles instead.

2. One mini fartlek session

a. I advise doing one very easy fartlek session to help alleviate nerves and to remind your body what marathon pace feels like. I suggest performing a workout like: 15-20 minute warm-up, 6-8 x 2 minutes at marathon pace with 2 minutes easy running between, 10-15 minute cool down. This workout won’t leave you fatigued, but it will give you a little bit of confidence and nice pop in your step.

3. Run the day before the marathon

a. I advocate running the day before the marathon. I suggest running anywhere from 1 to 3 miles very easy. Running will help promote blood flow your legs and will make you less nervous. Running the day before a race also stimulates the central nervous system, which will enable your legs to respond better the following morning.

Tapering for the marathon is a very difficult task. Whether you’re an experienced veteran looking to set a new personal best or a beginner running the marathon for the first time, the marathon taper is filled with anxiety and nerves. Just remember that you’ve put in the training and don’t go overboard on the taper. If the taper portion of the marathon has you really worried and confused, don’t hesitate to contact me for a custom schedule and answers to all of your questions. Stay tuned for the rest of my articles on the marathon taper – What to eat during the marathon taper, packing for race day, what to do the day before a marathon, pre-race tips and tricks, and race strategy.

Related posts:

1. Marathon Fueling – How Not to Bonk
2. How To Eat And Drink During a Marathon
3. Pre Race Marathon Nutrition

Developing and executing a strategy for ingesting fluids and energy during the marathon is a crucial step towards success on race day. You can’t expect to just wing it and drink and eat when feel like it if you want to run your best. Developing a race fueling strategy takes practice and intelligent planning.

Frequency

Start drinking fluids early. Don’t wait until you are thirsty or you’re getting hot or dehydrated. If you wait until you’re thirsty, dehydration or glycogen depletion may already be starting. Furthermore, as I discussed in my article on preparing your body for the marathon, the more distressed your body becomes, the more difficult it is for your digestive system to process all the fluids and energy you take in. By taking in fluids early in the race – when you’re not yet fatigued or stressed – you give your digestive system optimal conditions to get the electrolytes and sugars distributed to the muscles that need them.

Begin by taking fluids at the first aid station available. Usually the first station comes right around the 5k mark. I suggest ingesting an electrolyte drink with sugar so you can keep your fuel levels topped off. Unless you’re taking a GU, I think water is better on you than in you during hot days, so opt for the Gatorade at the first few aid stations.

You should aim to take in 6-10 oz of fluid every 2 to 3 miles. If it is a hot day you’ll need to take in a bit more. So, take a look at the race website of the marathon your running and plot out where each aid station is. This way, you’ll know ahead of time which stations will provide you with the Gatorade, water, or GU’s you will need. Remember, you don’t have to gulp everything down in 5 seconds; you can take your time and carry the cup with you. If you hear or feel sloshing in your stomach, you don’t have to drink for the next 30 minutes since this usually signals that your stomach is full.

What about Energy Gels or other solid Energy Sources?

I suggest waiting until the first 45 minutes to an hour to begin ingesting solid/gel fuels. This will usually occur between 5k and 10k depending on how fast you are running. Waiting 45 minutes to an hour gives your body time to get in a rhythm, get comfortable, and efficiently process the simple sugars you’re ingesting.

When ingesting a gel/gummy/bar make sure you always take it with water, not Gatorade. Both Gatorade and GU’s contain high amounts of simple sugars. Combining the two at the same time means you’re ingesting too much simple sugar at once. Your digestive system can’t process all that sugar efficiently, which may lead to cramps and side stitches.

Following this same logic, you should aim to consume a Gel every 45 minutes to an hour. If you consume them too frequently, your digestive system might react negatively towards the high amount of sugar.

Tips

Walk through the aid stations if you plan on running over 3:45 for the marathon or over 2 hours for the half marathon. If you’re planning on being faster or very close to these times you can run through the water stations, but make sure you take the time to get as close to 8oz as possible. If you do plan on running through them you need to practice drinking while running during you training.

If you follow these tips and the information from my other articles you’ll go a long way towards ensuring success on race day. No matter what strategy you decide to implement, make sure that you practice your nutrition plan as often and as specifically as possible during your training. Be creative and have fun, training and racing a marathon is a great experience.

Related posts:

1. Marathon Nutrition
2. Pre Race Marathon Nutrition
3. Marathon Fueling – How Not to Bonk

Some interesting findings from the USATF study include: (1) mileage and level of competition do not affect injury rates; (2) gender does not affect injury rates; but (3) body mass index, how much someone weighs, has a significant affect on injury frequency. I’m not surprised with the findings on body mass index, but I am very surprised about the results regarding mileage and competition. It would seem that the more you run, the more likely you are to get injured; however, this doesn’t seem to be the case. As with all studies, it will take further  analysis to examine the scientific method to determine if the results are statistically significant and the variables properly isolated and operationalized.

One topic the study did not cover was the affect of post run stretching. It is my belief that post run stretching significantly reduces injuries when done right. You can read my article on post run stretching to learn more. I would have liked to see a comparison study to post run stretching or included it in the variables.

As with any scientific study, sometimes science doesn’t match-up with what an athlete feels. While I believe in the merits of science, coaching is about relating science to what an athlete feels and experiences during their training. Scientific studies can tell us that stretching doesn’t help, but I know that when I go for a run and I have a tight quad or my legs are feeling extra lethargic on the day, a quick stop for 2 or 3 minutes to stretch makes me feel more limber and ready to run fast. So, don’t throw out all your stretching routines yet, do what works best for you.

If you would like to read the full study, you can read the recap here or view the actual study here. Leave comments or send me an email if you have any questions.

Related posts:

1. To Stretch or Not to Stretch

"Finishing that 5K was the hardest thing I ever had to do. I ate more fettuccini alfredo, and drank less water than I have in my entire life. People always talk about triumphs of the human spirit. Well today I had a triumph of the human body. That's why everybody was applauding for me at the end. My guts, my heart and well I eventually puked my guts out. I never puked my heart out, and I am very proud of that." - Michael Scott

The most common question I get from both beginner and veteran marathoners alike is: “What should I eat during the week and the morning of the Marathon race?” It’s a great question and a very important part of success on race day. Since I covered  how to practice your marathon nutrition strategy in training in last weeks post, this week I will cover an ideal nutrition plan starting 5 days out from the race so you can start planning your pre-race nutrition strategy now.

Marathon Rule #1: Never try anything new on Race Day

In addition to clothing, pacing, and training, this rule also applies to your nutrition strategy in the five days leading up to the race. You should not experiment with any new foods or venture too far from your normal diet. It’s easy to get nervous in the last few days of your taper and be persuaded by a new product a friend recommends or something you see at the race expo. However, if you haven’t tried it before, especially at marathon pace or during a long run, don’t be tempted.

It’s also important that you experiment with the types, quantity, and timing of the food you eat before you run. Some runners have very weak stomachs and need up to three hours to digest food before they can run comfortably. Other runners can eat within an hour of a hard run with no adverse side effects. It is important to figure out which type of runner you are during training and to take this information into account when you plan for the race morning.

Experiment with your pre-race meal before race day. Your last two long runs or difficult marathon paced workouts should be similar to race simulations. Try wearing the clothes you think you’ll wear on race day, the shoes, socks, and everything you can think of. Eat the same pre-race meal you’re planning for the night before the race and when you wake up in the morning, eat the same breakfast you plan on having. This will give you time to change things up before race day if you find it doesn’t work for you.

5 days from the race

Begin to increase your total carbohydrate intake by adding in more pastas and starches (low glycemic index foods) to your diet throughout the week. The old idea of depleting your carbohydrate stores the week before the race and binging on carbohydrates the last few days in an attempt to trick your body into overcompensating and storing more fuel is outdated. Ensuring that you consume a higher percentage of your total daily calories as carbohydrates is sufficient.

Remember, you’re not running as much as you have been, so eating too much more than you normally do will make you feel bloated and lethargic. At this point in the nutrition cycle, relax and don’t go overboard.

48 Hours before the race

Your last big meal should be two nights before the race. It will give your body ample time to digest anything you eat so you won’t feel bloated on the morning of the race. I’ve seen too many people gorge on pasta the night before the race only to reach the starting line the next day stuffed and lethargic. Have you ever tried to run the morning after Thanksgiving? If you have, you know the bloated feeling I’m talking about, and if you haven’t, I don’t recommend scheduling a tough workout.

24 hours and before

Eat normal balanced meals like you would normally do on any training day. Make sure you drink plenty of liquids all day long, especially electrolyte fluids such as Gatorade or use electrolyte tabs such as Nuun. It helps if you carry a water bottle along with you throughout the day to remind yourself to drink.

Your main meals should still be in the form of low glycemic to medium glycemic index foods. Ideally, you won’t be too active on the day before the race, so you may feel full quickly. That is fine, you shouldn’t try to stuff yourself.

18 hours before the race

Start eating small meals every 2-3 hours, but after lunch, cut out red meat, fried foods, dairy products, fats, nuts, and roughage. You should only be consuming light, digestible foods like energy bars, bread, and small sandwiches. Keep drinking water and electrolyte beverages and avoid salty foods.

4 hours and less

You should be up early enough before the race to eat a small breakfast with plenty of time to start digestion before the gun goes off. If you need 3 hours to eat a small meal before running, then you need to get up at least three hours before the race to get in a light breakfast. You’ll want to drink mostly water (unless you know temperatures at the race are going to be warm), with some electrolyte fluid. Don’t try to get all your fluids down by chugging your water bottle. Drink small, regular sized amounts. Room temperature water is absorbed quicker than warm or cold water. I estimate that you’ll need 6 oz. every hour or 8 oz. every hour on hot days.

Lots of runners will take a GU or energy gel right before the gun goes off. I only recommend this if you have a weak stomach and you haven’t eaten in 3 hours. If you’re able to stomach more solid foods 60-90 minutes before the race, this is preferable. Basically, energy gels are mostly simple sugars and you’ll be consuming another 2 or 3 gels before the race is over. Even for the biggest sweet tooth this is a lot of sugar.

I hope this article was a practical and informative nutrition plan you can implement for race day. In the last article of the series, I will cover the nutrition plan during the actual race, so stay tuned!

Related posts:

1. Marathon Nutrition
2. How To Eat And Drink During a Marathon
3. How to Warm-Up for a Race

In my last article, I discussed the specific training workouts you can implement to ensure that you don’t bonk during the marathon. However, this article will discuss the exact skills you need to practice during training to maximize your ability to consume and process energy gels and fluids.

Getting Your Stomach Accustomed to Eating and Drinking on the Run

One of the main problems with eating and drinking on the run is that it is difficult for your body to process the nutrition you consume. As you run farther and harder, your body becomes increasingly distressed. As you effort continues to increase, your body diverts energy from non-essential functions, such as digestion, to your muscles and brain to keep you going at the pace you’re running. So, when you consume those energy gels and jelly beans, it takes much longer for them to get processed into the blood stream where they can be used by the muscles for energy. Sometimes, if the digestive system isn’t working well at all, your body will actually reject the fuel or fluid you put in, which is why many marathoners often experience stomach issues.

To train your body to become more efficient at processing nutrition while running, you need to practice during your training runs. However, this doesn’t mean practicing taking energy while running at an easy pace – it’s not specific to what you’re doing in the race. You need to practice eating and drinking when your body is under duress, like during a marathon paced run, tempo run, or even during fast portions of your long run. This will specifically train your body to become more efficient at processing nutrition while running hard, which is exactly what you want to accomplish on race day.

Get Even More Specific

The running industry is filled with nutritional products that are designed to help you fuel during a marathon. You have gels, jelly beans, shot blocks, bars and of course a myriad of drinks such as Powerade and Gatorade. Therefore, it is important you find out which type of product you like best. For some, the consistency of gels will make them gag while others love the taste of gels and their stomachs can’t handle anything more solid. Each person reacts differently, so it is essential that you start practicing early in your training with different products to find the one you like best. Waiting until race day is a sure fire way to fail.

If you think finding the right type or brand of energy product is difficult, you’ll be sad to hear that you also need to find the right flavor. I can’t count the number of flavors available for energy gels and nutrition products; however, each one can react with your stomach in a different way. Also, don’t just blindly trust what you think you normally like. I had a teammate who was a very good marathoner (sub 2:15 pr) and he loved chocolate; yet, when he tried a chocolate energy gel during a marathon paced run, he nearly puked the whole thing up. For a professed chocolate lover, it was near blasphemy, but it was an important lesson he learned in training.

While I think that most of the products and brands are roughly equal in terms of quality, avoid those that contain protein. Your body can’t digest it easily when running, and while it’s been proven to help with recovery, I haven’t seen any convincing science that proves it helps with fueling.

If you’re going to rely on what products are available on the course, you must practice using them before race day. Do some research on the official race website and find out what will be offered on the course. Go to the store and get the same exact flavors and brands available on race day. I know this seems like overkill, but the slightest change in routine can leave you in for a rough day of racing. For example, in the 2008 Olympics, race favorite and 2:04 marathoner Paul Tergat finished a disappointing 10^th place due to cramps caused by drinking cold water supplied by the race. Tergat had practiced drinking fluids that were room temperature. In the marathon, you cannot over plan.

Develop a Strategy

Finally, it’s important that you develop a nutrition strategy in advance of race day. This will include exactly when you’ll plan on taking fluids and nutrition and how you plan on taking them. Will you bring you own water bottles or will you use the water stations available on the course? Will you walk through the stations or will you attempt to run through them?

Running or walking through the station is an individual choice, but I suggest that if you’re attempting to run sub 3:45 for the marathon or sub 2 hours for the half marathon that you run through them. However, slowing your pace a bit to ensure you maximize consumption is fine. If you’re planning on a finish slower than 4 hours, you will benefit more from walking through the station and getting in as much fluid or fuel as possible.

If you’re using your own water bottles, make sure you’ve practiced with them beforehand. You don’t want any unnecessary chafing from wearing a water pack you didn’t try first. If you’re going to use the aid stations available on the course and plan on running through the water stops, I suggest heading to the store and picking up some paper cups. Take them to the track and fill them with water and set up a table to put them on (or if you have young kids who love helping, you can have them hold the cups for you). Practice running at a little faster than marathon pace, grabbing a cup, and taking a drink. I guarantee that the first couple of times you run through your makeshift water stop, more water will end up on the ground or up your nose. Here is a hint, grab the cup and pinch it at the top on one end. This will make one end more of a funnel and also prevent the water from splashing out as easily. Also, remember that you don’t need to get all the water down in 5 seconds; you can take your time while drinking and remember to breathe.

The marathon is a long event with the potential for many things to go wrong. However, the more you can practice during your training, the greater your chances of success. By developing a comprehensive fueling strategy that includes practicing the specifics outlined in this article, you’ll be on your way to a great run on race day.

Related posts:

1. Pre Race Marathon Nutrition
2. How To Eat And Drink During a Marathon
3. Marathon Fueling – How Not to Bonk

Let’s Jump in the Car

Close your eyes and imagine your body is a car. Corvette, Beatle, semi-truck, it doesn’t matter as long as it uses gas. Whichever car you’ve envisioned yourself to be, let’s assume that your gas tank is large enough to hold about 2 hours of fuel at cruising speed (Note: 2 hours is actually about the amount of fuel your body can hold while running at marathon effort). Now, if you were to run a marathon, how many miles would you get before you ran out of fuel? Here’s a hint – it’s your pace in minutes per mile.

Let’s say you plan on running the marathon at 6 minutes per mile. Given our example, you’ll hit the 20 mile mark just as you begin to run out fuel. The problem quickly becomes apparent – you’ve still got 6.2 miles to go. However, the solution seems simple doesn’t it? Stop for gas at 13 miles and you’ll be good to go for the rest of the race, right? Not so fast. Stopping for fuel isn’t going to help you set a new personal best. Furthermore, your body doesn’t always digest the carbohydrates you take in while running. As your body becomes increasingly stressed, it begins to shut down non-essential functions such as the digestive system. So, while you could be consuming enough energy gels to keep a small nation alive, they may not be getting processed by your body – it’s kind of like putting leaded fuel into your automobile.

Moreover, the problem of fuel during the marathon gets further complicated because, just like an actual car, the faster you drive the faster you burn through your fuel.  If you’ve ever sped along the highway and compared your miles per gallon at 55 mph and 80 mph you’ll understand this concept. Burning fuel while running is very similar to what you would experience in a car. The faster you attempt to run, the faster your burn through your available fuel. Similarly, if you run slow enough, your body will use its available fat stores as an energy source instead of glycogen, which means you can chug along for quite a long time, but at a very slow pace.

Now you can easily see the conundrum we’re in when trying to train for a race like the marathon. Run fast and you’ll burn out of fuel quickly and bonk in the process. Attempt to refuel the tank when too stressed or without practicing and your body will reject energy. So, what is a runner to do?

Enough about Driving

The two best ways to address the problem of fuel during a marathon are: (1) to practice taking in small amounts of fuel while running fast and (2) to train your body to burn more fat and less glycogen at higher speeds. Fueling during the race will be covered in the third article in this series as this article will focus primarily on how to train your body to burn a greater percentage of fat while running at marathon pace.

If you want to set a new personal best, it’s not enough to run just long and slow miles. Sure, you’ll get used to the fatigued feeling in your legs and you’ll gain the mental confidence from cracking the 20 mile barrier. However, long and slow miles aren’t the best way to make you faster, which is why I don’t believe that slogging through multiple 20 or 22 milers is the best idea for marathoners with a goal of over 3:30. I believe it’s too much time spent running slow and thereby not teaching your body how to burn fat at marathon pace. Instead, you need to (1) practice running fast while tired and (2) teach your body to become more efficient at marathon pace.

Breaking up your long runs

One of the best ways to get in the volume similar to that of a 20 or 22 miler, yet also maintain a faster pace is to break up your long run into two moderately fast long runs. For example, instead of running 22 miles on a Saturday, try running 10 miles on Saturday at a steady pace and follow it up with a 16 miler on Sunday with surges throughout the run or with the last few miles at or near marathon pace. You’ll carry the fatigue of Saturday’s run into Sunday, which will simulate the latter stages of the marathon. However, you won’t be so fatigued that you can’t run fast at the end of the 16-miler.

In this plan, you’ve now run 26 miles for the weekend as opposed to 22 and you’ve completed a good 60% of the run at or near marathon pace, compared to almost none during the 20 miler. That’s 60% more time teaching your body to burn fat at marathon pace as opposed to just slow and easy running. Furthermore, running 22 miles at once will require a significant increase in recovery time, resulting in 4 to 5 days of nothing but slow, easy running. By breaking your run into 10 and 16 mile efforts, you’ll recover within 2 or 3 days, which means returning to more marathon paced work sooner than you otherwise would have been able to.

Practice Running Fast

Many beginning runners wonder why I assign them speed work during marathon training. If the race doesn’t require you to run faster than 8 minutes per mile, why would you need to run faster? Again, the more efficient your body becomes at burning fuel while running fast, the longer you can run marathon pace on race day. Workouts such as threshold intervals enable your body to maintain a marathon effort while running faster than marathon pace and thereby learning to burn fat more efficiently at race pace.

In addition, training elements such as strides and hill sprints help you improve your mechanics and form, which will make running faster feel easier. If running marathon pace becomes less of an effort, you’ll burn less carbohydrates for each mile run (remember more effort means your body utilizes a greater percentage of carbohydrate).

Sum it up already

The marathon is a unique and grueling race, but when you understand the physiological principles of the event you can start to eliminate some of the difficulties presented on race day. This article should help you better understand the basics behind marathon fueling and how to better incorporate faster paced workouts into your training schedule to prepare for the specific demands of the race. If you have any comments or questions, please don’t hesitate to include them in the comments section.

Related posts:

1. How To Eat And Drink During a Marathon
2. Marathon Nutrition
3. How to Taper For a Marathon

Let’s do the dishes

I like to visualize the body like a sponge, and your training like the water coming from a faucet. When you start training from scratch, you are a like a dry sponge; you’re ready to absorb all the training (water) that you can handle. So, you open up the faucet and let the training flow into your body and you soak it all up. However, just like when doing dishes, too much water too fast can saturate the sponge. Therefore, you need to turn on the faucet gently for best results (read: start slow and gradual with your training).

Over time, if you keep filling up the sponge (your body) with water (training) soon it won’t be able to absorb anymore no matter how careful you are with the rate of water flow. Actually, you could turn the faucet on full blast and not much would happen. This is when you need a down week in your plan. Now, I know taking a week off from hard training is one of the hardest things for a runner to do – ask my girlfriend, I hate doing the dishes (this is coming from a guy who averaged a 145 miles per week for 3 months while training for the marathon – oops)

So, what does a Down Week do exactly?

A down week is like squeezing the sponge into a bucket next to the sink. The bucket in this case represents the store of fitness you want to have available on race day to throw at your competition. After quickly ringing out the sponge (taking a down week) you can go back to training and you’re once again able to absorb all the training you put in.

Now, all you have to do is repeat and take a down week of training whenever your body isn’t responding to training (please note that it is important to always be changing your training stimulus as well. This is another topic entirely and will be covered soon).

When should I take down weeks?

The better you get to know yourself or your coach gets to know you, the more accurately you can predict when a down week is needed and should be scheduled. The exact frequency will be different for all runners and can be affected by things such as training history, age, sleep, and your life outside running. Furthermore, sometimes down weeks aren’t planned. If your coach notices a decrease in performance or a greater than normal level of fatigue, they may add an impromptu down week to get you back on track.

What about down weeks in-between seasons or training segments

Going back to the sponge analogy, imagine you’ve now done the dishes every day with the same sponge for 2 months. Picture how beat-up, nasty, and less absorbent that sponge would be. After training for a long time without a mental or physical break, your body might actually feel the same. So, you need to schedule some time off in-between training segments, especially between marathon training cycles (this is by far one of the biggest mistakes I see novice runners making – and elites too, since we can often get greedy for the next big marathon payday).  In addition, if you take a longer break between training cycles your sponge will be bigger and more absorbent when you come back now that you’ve had a solid block of training behind you. This means you’ll be able to absorb more training faster and squeeze more juice out of your running.

Granted, this is a simplified conceptualization of training and the planned super compensation process, but I have found it works pretty well to describe the complicated physiological processes at work.

Related posts:

1. Maximize Your Running with Planned Recovery Days

Implementing planned surges during a long run serves a multitude of purposes. First, you can inject speed into a training plan during what would otherwise be a “slow” running day. Second, you can learn to run fast while fatigued, which develops race specific strength and skills. Finally, surges help increase the overall quality and pace of your long run, thus enabling you to finish faster.

Speed in Disguise

Any runner I currently coach knows I love to “disguise” speed into my training programs. I believe that it is essential to insert some sort of speed development into the training plan at least four or five days per week. Speed training helps improve running mechanics, increases efficiency, and buffers the body for race pace or faster efforts.

However, speed development doesn’t have to occur all in one workout. You can spread speed training throughout the week in small doses, which enables you to maximize your time spent developing the more important physiological elements, such as threshold and aerobic strength, while also reducing the risk of injury associated with speed work. By adding surges to a long run, you can go from 0 minutes spent working on speed, mechanics, and efficiency to 10 or even 15 minutes of “disguised” speed training per week. This slight increase in speed development is all you need to start seeing dramatic results in your mechanics and overall speed.

Specific Strength

One of the most difficult aspects of racing is realizing that as the race goes on, you have to keep working harder to maintain the same pace. Anyone who has ever raced at any distance knows that the first mile is significantly easier than the last mile. The increase in difficulty is caused by fatigue. Therefore, anything you can do in your training to improve your ability to run faster while tired is going to lead to better race results. By injecting surges into your long run, you develop the specific physiological adaptations and mental skills necessary to increase your effort and pace as the race gets more difficult.

In addition, if you’re training for a marathon or your goal is to run a half marathon in the 2-hour range, surges late into a long run, especially when you’re low on fuel, help teach your body to burn fat more efficiently at race pace. Why is this important? Typically, the faster you attempt to run, the greater percentage of carbohydrates you burn (since carbohydrates are converted to energy quickly). Therefore, if you can increase the percentage of fat burned for energy while at race pace, you’ll have more carbohydrates to burn late in the race.

Quality

When doing surges during the middle of the run, you will typically notice two things: (1) the first surge is always the hardest and (2) once you slow back down to your normal long run pace, you will find that your “easy” pace is now faster than before the surge.

The first surge is always the hardest because you have to wake your body up. As runners, we’ve been conditioned to think of long runs as slow and leisurely Sunday strolls. (Granted, running slow for your long runs is appropriate at times, especially after a hard week of workouts or following an increase in volume). Therefore, the body and mind aren’t ready for the hard interval you’re about to throw in. Luckily, as your body and mind get adjusted to the speed, you’ll start to feel invigorated by the change of pace. You will also notice the pace increase bleeds into the recovery portion of the workout and you will find yourself running a faster overall long run than you normally would without surges.

How to Incorporate Surges

Long run surges should begin about half way through the intended long run distance and end about ¾’s to 8/10’s of the way through the run. This means if you have a 10-mile long run that usually takes you 1 hour and 40 minutes to complete and you’re scheduled for 5 x 1 minute surges with 5 minutes rest, you should begin the surges at mile 5, which will result in the last surge occurring at around mile 8. If you have a schedule written by me, I will designate the starting point of the surges for you.

The length of the surge itself, the rest in-between the interval, and the starting point of the surge during the run are all variables that you can adjust to make the workout harder or easier. Typically, I start most runners out with 4 x 1 minute surges with 5 minutes normal pace (normal being your average long run pace) between each. For runners at a very high level, we may progress to 6 x 2min surges with 3-4 minutes rest.

The pace of the surge should be anywhere from 5k pace to 8k pace. The exact pace will depend on the length of the surge and how much rest is given between hard efforts. Again, a schedule from me will have a goal pace included; typically, the longer the surge, the slower the pace.

While this explanation of surges was a long article, it didn’t delve into detail regarding specific physiological adaptations such as myoglobin and mitochondria development because I wanted to keep the article simple and practical. If you would like to discuss surges in the context of advanced exercise physiology, I am always available via email or the comments section.

Enjoy the new training stimulus and if you try out the surges in your own training, post back here with your experiences. Happy running!

Related posts:

1. Marathon Fueling – How Not to Bonk
2. Threshold Intervals
3. Strides – How Strides Can Help You Run Faster

To begin, I think it is important to note that the critical factor in hydration is how rapidly fluids can be absorbed into the blood stream. The absorption of fluids into the body is largely dependent upon the composition of the fluids in terms of its carbohydrate (sugar), sodium (salt) and potassium concentrations. As a general rule, the higher the carbohydrate content, the slower the absorption rate. Thus, your choice of sports beverage would depend on whether your primary aim was rehydration or the replenishment of energy (sugar or fuel) and electrolyte stores.

Before and during exercise, rehydration should be your main priority in order to maintain fluid balance, especially in the hot and humid summer months. Therefore, your best bet would be a sports drink diluted with water. Because of the high sugar content of most sports drinks, the fluid is not readily absorbed into the blood stream. By mixing half water and half sports drink, you provide your body with the best combination of electrolyte replacement and immediate absorption. Products are also available that contain pure electrolyte concentrations that you simply add to water. One of the best brands I know of, and used by many of the elite athletes I coach, is Nuun.

However, after you are finished working out, water or a diluted sports drink isn’t the best choice for your recovery needs. Water and diluted drinks do not contain enough of the sugars and electrolytes that your body needs in order to bring itself back into balance. In addition, because water or highly diluted drinks are so rapidly absorbed, consuming high quantities results in a rise in plasma volume (in non technical terms, this means your body is now over saturated with water or diluted). This rapid absorption leads to a further imbalance of electrolytes and frequent bathroom stops, which will only increase fluid loss and decrease your desire to drink.

Your best bet post workout is a drink that contains a fair amount of sugars and electrolytes that will speed your recovery process and stay with you a little longer. In addition, after you feel hydrated and are finished sweating through your running clothes, you should start to begin your post run recovery fueling.

I hope this article put an interesting twist on your summer hydration plans and gave you a better understanding of the differences between water and sports drinks.

Related posts:

1. How To Eat And Drink During a Marathon
2. Pre Race Marathon Nutrition
3. Post workout recovery fuel

The answer to the question about rest isn’t as simple as it may seem, which is why I wanted to dedicate a blog post to the topic. In my opinion, unless otherwise indicated on your training schedule, what you do during the rest portion of your interval sessions should be based on how you feel. Since there are three things you can do during rest – stand, walk, or jog – I will cover each one specifically and demonstrate when it would be best used.

Standing

Standing, or more accurately depicted as the hunched-over, hands-on-your-knees, sucking air pose, is not a resting position of choice. However, when you’re doing some intense intervals, choice isn’t always available. I wouldn’t really call gasping for air something you should try to accomplish, but it does happen on occasion, and when the time comes, you just have to do your best to catch your breath and get back to the starting line for the next repeat.

If your rest is pitifully short, say 30 -60 seconds. Sometimes you only have a few seconds after you catch your breath before you have to get back to running hard. In this case, standing for 15-30 seconds is a fine option, especially if you’re having a tough time with the workout. You should use the brief time between intervals to take a deep breath, calm your breathing, and pump yourself up for another hard effort.

Walking

Walking is usually the best option for rest periods between 1 and 3 minutes. After the initial fatigue from finishing the previous repeat dissipates, begin to walk around slowly to help keep the blood flowing to your muscles. If you’re still gasping for air, stand-up straight and put your hands on your head. Keeping upright helps open the diaphragm, letting in precious oxygen. Walking also makes it easier to catch your breath once your up off the hands and knees position.

Slow jog

Sometimes you might have a rest that is anywhere from 3-5 minutes long, in which case a very slow jog after you’ve caught your breath is the best option. Like walking, a slow jog helps keep the blood flowing through your legs and body, which will make the start of the next repeat a little less jarring on the body.

For some intervals, you’ll find that you don’t finish all that out of breath and don’t feel that fatigued (this can be by design). If this is the case, and you have longer than 90 seconds to rest, jogging is a good way to stay moving and make the workout feel more continuous.

In terms of pace, the jog should be more like a shuffle than a run. You’re not trying to set records or prove how tough you are – your goal is to get as recovered as possible for the next repeat. I often find that a pace about 1 or 2 minutes slower than your normal easy pace is a good fit.

What if the workout isn’t going well?

If the workout isn’t going well – you’re not able to hit the paces, your feeling terrible, or you just don’t have enough time to recover between repeats – you have a few options:  (1) slow down during the hard interval; (2) lengthen the rest; or (3) quit altogether.

Unless you feel that you’re going to die if you keep going, or you really know something is off, I don’t suggest quitting on the workout. If you do have to bag it, don’t be too hard on yourself, it happens to the best of us. The important thing is to put the workout behind you and not dwell on it. Don’t try to squeeze it in later in the week or make it up on another run. If the workout went bad enough for you to have to stop, it means your body was giving you a sign. If you have a coach, tell him or her and readjust the game plan if needed.

Contrary to our intuition, in most cases, I think the best option is so slow down the repeat. Unless the sole purpose of the workout is to develop your speed or to practice running at a certain pace, slowing down the interval and keeping the rest the same will better ensure that the workout hits the proper physiological systems.

Remember, when a coach or training plan assigns a pace to a workout, it’s merely an approximation or guide for the effort you need to put in. If the effort feels too hard, adjust the pace, not the rest.

So now that you’ve got the hard part down, it’s on to the easy portion of the workout – the hard repeats…Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it.

Related posts:

1. Threshold Intervals
2. Maximize Your Running with Planned Recovery Days
3. How to Warm-Up for a Race