The final few weeks
First of all, well done on getting this far with your training! Most of you will now be hitting your peak weeks with the longest runs and overall weekly mileage. It is a critical time in your training block where many of the specific adaptations you need for a successful marathon are fully bedded.
But, there is no question this is where it can start to feel tough. Accept this and focus on the process. Why am I doing this hard rep session? What’s the purpose of this long run? And most importantly, how do these relate to my goals? Remember your WHY.
I have always found that it really helps to share how you are feeling – with friends and family and with other members of the club. This will reassure you that you are amazing and add to your confidence that you are going to get that goal.
Talking of goals, now is a good time to check in with them. Have they changed (e.g. a time goal), have you added new elements to it through the process of training? Have an honest conversation with yourself or with a trusted other person. Solidify that accountability and take motivation from sharing how far you’ve come and where you’re going to get to. Remember the tip of having ABC goals. Having those back-up goals can save your race. Decide them, write them down and share them if you feel comfortable doing so.
Being open in this way also helps raise your own awareness, as these peak weeks do run the risk of over-fatiguing and injury. While you do need to work hard, never push past a point where you will do yourself damage.
Now is the time to practice race day logistics including kit and fuelling.
In terms of kit, go for a few runs, including a longer one, in the kit you plan to wear on race day. And I mean all the kit – underwear, socks, vest (especially if you are wearing a charity one), base layer (if you think you’ll wear one) shorts and of course shoes (the actual ones, not just the same brand). If there’s a warm day in the build up, choose that to test your kit – additional sweat can have a huge impact on comfort and it may well be warm on the day. If you are going to use anti-chafe cream (which I strongly recommend), test it. Wearing sunglasses or a hat – test them. The golden rule is nothing new on race day.
This includes fuelling. I imagine most of you will have already trialled some form of in-race fuelling, be that gels or whatever. Now is the time to nail it down and practice taking at the frequency you plan to take them on race day. Ideally you want to aim for at least 60g of carbohydrate per hour – that might mean a gel every 30 mins. Can you tolerate that? If not, try and discover the maximum you can tolerate. As well as testing on long runs, try and take some gels during rep sessions or hard Thursday runs to check you can tolerate them when the intensity is upped as well. Finally, test your preferred carrying method for fuel. If it’s a gel belt make sure it’s comfortable and works (the first I tested many years ago didn’t hold the gels securely, so I changed it), if it’s shorts with an inbuilt pocket, go out with the number of gels you aim to take on race day (even if you’re not going to use them all on that run) to check it’s comfortable. I hope you get the idea by now! Remember that race day fuelling starts from the start of the race – don’t wait until halfway in to take on fuel – it will be too late. If you are using a gel that requires water with it, find out where the water stations are on route and plan your fueling around that.
In terms of fuel, practice what you are going to eat for breakfast on race day too (& when) and the night before. If you’re in a hotel the night before, know what they’re breakfast options are and also plan where you’ll be eating dinner the night before and treat yourself one night before a long run and order what you’ll order the night before your marathon. You definitely want no stomach related surprises!
Another few things you might want to look to try during these weeks:
Running at your target marathon pace – this might be a few miles during a long run, or a few miles towards the end of an easy run – but dialling in that pace helps your body recognise it and be comfortable with it. Just bear in mind that you will be fatigued, so it might feel harder than it will come race day – this is fine and will help physiologically too!
Visualisation – picture yourself running strongly in the race, crossing the finish line or absorbing the energy of the crowd, or overcoming a challenging moment. The mind plays a huge part in a successful marathon and you can train it through visualisation techniques.
Plan your overall nutrition strategy for the final week. You will have heard of carb loading, but this does not mean eating a massive bowl of pasta the night before – all this will do is muck up your digestion! Successful carb loading means a steady increase in our carb intake in the 5-7 days leading up to the marathon. This might be as simple as having an extra portion of rice with a meal, or having a few more flapjacks in the daytime, or having two medium size meals with carbohydrate in a day. What you are looking to do is make sure your glycogen stores are as full as they can be without overloading your gut.
Finally, plan your race day logistics, if you’ve not already. How are you getting there? When are you eating breakfast? What kit do you need? Likewise, if you have to go to an expo to collect your number and kit bag, plan when and how you are getting there.
Start to think about your race plan. Each marathon route has its own landmarks and challenges. I’ve got my own guide to London which I’ll share online, but there are also loads of resources online from YouTubers and others which can give you insight of your marathon. It’s well worth investing some time into looking at these – the fewer surprises on race day the better.
The Taper
The last 2-3 weeks of training are known as the taper. During this time you reduce your overall mileage and the length of your longer runs. You should still include some runs at a higher intensity, but, again,of shorter duration (the GVH plan will reflect this). The taper is there to consolidate your training and recover sufficiently to be ready for the day itself. Remember, the positive effects of training happen during recovery, not during the activity itself, and this is true over the long term – the big block you have done since January will take its full effect if you taper well and give yourself that few weeks of relative recovery before race day. Tapers are hard and you can feel sluggish and even get phantom niggles – it’s a time when talking to the coaches & fellow runners can be especially valuable. Eat well and get as much sleep as you can.
The final week
Less is more in the final week. Do a few short, easy runs to keep yourself ticking over but be aware that you will not get any fitness gains now – they can take up to a 2 or 3 weeks from training to take effect. Some people like to do a ‘shakeout’ run the day before the marathon, but I personally advise against it. If you feel you need to move, go for a gentle walk.
As I mentioned above, you should have a nutrition plan for this week – stick to it and eat healthily.
Try and prioritise sleep, especially in the early part of the week – race nerves can sometimes make sleep less easy the night before a race, so make sure you’ve banked it.
Now is the time to double check your logistics – minimising stress on the day is incredibly valuable in preserving energy!
Here’s my non exhaustive list of things to take:
- Race number & safety pins
- Race timing chip
- Warm & throw away clothes
- Gels & gel belt
- Extra toilet roll
- Bin liner or foil blanket
- Breakfast & water
- Change of shoes
- Mobile phone
- Sun screen.
- Disposable poncho or modified bin liner if rain forecast
In this last week and especially the few days before, be aware that you may well feel heavy and tired – this is normal – it’s your body storing Glycogen.
This is also the time to finalise your race plan and work out your splits. Write these down. You need to have them in analogue as GPS is not reliable, especially not in city races like London.
As everyone knows, the key to a successful marathon is good pacing. You will know what pace you need to run to hit your target time and will have planned how you are going to achieve this. One thing to bear in mind is that Garmins (& other GPS watches) can sometimes go haywire owing to the large number of users and tall buildings in cities. So, it is worth knowing your splits to check against total time on your watch as you go through mile markers. At many marathons, you can pick up pace bands at the Expo, or work it out for yourself and write it on your hands! I think it is not always useful to check every mile – some miles are quicker/slower than others. Instead, work out a schedule for every, say 3 miles, or every 5k (they have clear markers every 5k on the route). This gives you a more balanced view of your pacing and stops you endlessly checking your watch which wastes physical & mental energy! That said, I would check after mile 1 & 2 to be sure you have not gone off at too quick a pace and that you have settled into your target pace. From then on you should be able to keep that rhythm going.
Finally, take some time for yourself. There’s a lot of noise around a marathon from friends, family, charities etc, but you must make sure you have some control. Let loved ones know that the marathon is the whole weekend – don’t have lots of tasks to do the day before!! Relax, focus on what you’ve done and what you’re going to do and get your mind in the right place to enjoy the day.
Race Day
You should know your plans, so follow them through. Be organised – get in the loo queue early (don’t forget your extra toilet roll), start hydrating and having breakfast if you’ve not already. Locate everything you need such as baggage drop and start pen areas.
There’s no need to do an extensive warm-up. At most marathons you’ll be stood in a start pen for a while, so just focus on staying loose and relaxed.
Have additional layers of disposable clothing you can discard just before the start. Most marathons will collect these for charity. If the forecast says rain, have a disposable poncho or a bin liner to stay dry.
Stop drinking 30 mins before the race start. Get that hydration in early and out the other end, otherwise you’ll be visiting a portaloo en route and that is not ideal!
Once the race starts, stick to your plan. If you’ve trained and tapered well you will feel great and your pace will feel easy. This is how it should be, don’t be tempted to go faster – at all…not at halfway, not at 18 miles. Only think about a final push in the last 4-6 miles if you are feeling it.
The first miles of any marathon are usually busy and it might be hard to settle into your pace. Don’t panic and definitely don’t weave in and out of people – this will just cost you energy. Relax and tell yourself stick to the plan, you’ve got this, stay relaxed and focussed – whatever mantra works for you. If you get slightly behind pace in these early miles, don’t try and catch this up in one mile, you have plenty of time to do it, just let it happen organically.
Remember what I said above pacing and looking at watches – I can’t emphasise how important it is to be in control of this on your own terms.
Also stick to your nutrition plan – don’t suddenly grab something unplanned in the early stages of the race. That said, if you’re feeling knackered at 23 miles and someone offers you jelly babies, take them!!!
If you can get yourself into a nice group, then this can be super beneficial. This might be an official pace group or just one that forms naturally. Working together with others really does save energy.
But the main thing is to stick to my most important and oft repeated tip – trust your training!! Remembering this will help you stay relaxed and confident. It will be hard – pretty much every marathon has rough patches – but you can get through these by knowing that you have that bank of effort. Make your mind work for you and not against you and..most importantly enjoy the day – you’ve earned it!!!