The week before the marathon…race week.

Body Train:

This week your training should be significantly reduced. Volume and intensity should be low to allow your body to recover and re-fuel from all the hard work you have put in.

Don’t leave you best running behind in training – save it for the event! As a rule of thumb you should be doing 30% of your highest training load in this final week. Runs should be much shorter, slower, with one light ‘session’ to turn over your legs, maybe some strides. Add a few more rest days in this week, or if you like to run, then very short runs – just 10 mins.  It’s simple really, the closer you get to therace the less training you should do!

This week you may feel like running more,and get twitchy, but you can only run too much in the last week, you can never do too little! Focus on resting up a few days before the race, watching a DVD or reading a book can help you be relaxed and take your mind off the event.

Food Focus:

The week before the marathon eat a normal healthy, balanced diet. Focus on consuming extra carbohydrates 2 days leading up to the race- this does not mean you need to over eat, but try to eat a little and often some carbohydrate foods. You may want to eat simple foods to try and reduce the risk of upsetting your stomach.  Don’t simply trough everything in sight!  You may well be away from home in the lead upto the race, staying in a hotel, so try and eat things that you would normally eat at home.

Avoid pigging out on the breakfast buffet just because it is there, save that for after that race.

Make sure you are hydrated; carry a small bottle of drink with you when you are out and about and visiting the Expo.

Brain Train:

• Control the things you can and shut out those you cannot.
• Don’t worry about what others or your competitors are doing or might do.
• Catch the onset of a negative thought and replace it with a positive.
• Draw on your mental rehearsal.
• Use positive self talk and affirmations in the race – especially when it gets tough!
• Focus on your successes.  Think about a training session or a race in the past that wasreally successful, when you felt strong, invincible, alive and full of energy. Recall whatmade it so great.  Store these thoughts in your mind and pull them out during the race.
  Enjoy and appreciate each moment.

2 weeks to go.

BodyTrain:

This is the start of your taper. Your long runs should be well behind you now and you should only run between 10-15 miles in your longest run 2 weeks out. This week you should aim to run 60% of your highest volume week, therefore reduce the volume but maintain some intensity. Still do sessions if you are used to doing these, but reduce the number of reps and reduce the length of your runs.  You should start to feel more refreshed and energized in your running towards the end of the week.

With the extra time that you may find you have from reduced running time, try and do some jobs that you want to finish off leaving the week before the marathon free for you to put your feet up and be really ready to rock and run!

Food Focus:

As this week you will be reducing your training so try and not over eat this week. All the hard effort and running training you have done will have probably have lead to you being a healthy, optimal weight to achieve your marathon goal. Focus on eating a balanced diet, with plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables to stave off illness and keep you focusedand fit. You don’t need to carbo load yet!

Brain Train:

Bring out the best in yourself rather than pointing out and reinforcing the worst!  Before you next make a negative or pessimistic comment about your running, stop, pause and have rethink.  Can you say it in a different way?  Try looking at your running through a positive ‘lens’. When we anticipate positive experiences and outcomes in the future, everything tilts in that direction.

Always pay attention to the positives in your running.  Attend to the positive dimensions of the present moment and really focus in on what went well in your runs. Identify, appreciate and amplify your strengths to make bold shifts forwards.  Prioritise positives and possibilities rather than focus on negatives and obstacles.  If you focus on problems – you get more problems – focus on possibilities and you become motivated, inspired and more aware of these.  In your training diary try listing 2 ‘positives’. What was your best running success this week?  What really worked well for you in your training this week?

4 – 3 weeks to go.

BodyTrain:

Four weeks out from your marathon should be your last long run.  This is your confidence booster to prove you can do it!  After this your long runs should start to reduce in time.  4-3 weeks before the marathon is a good time to race.  This will help you to practice your pre- race routine, your taper, eating, drinking, what clothes to wear,what shoes to wear, should you Vaseline your feet?  Are you going to carry a fuel belt, take gels, and practice with Lucozade Sport? As this will be the drinks supplier at the FLM it’s a great idea to get used to drinking it before you race. That way your body knows what to expect on race day!

Food Focus:

You should be eating enough to balance your energy needs with your marathon running. At this point you’ll be in hard training and so need to focus on recovery and fuelling yourself correctly.  Eating an energy boosting snack within 15 mins of finishing long runs and hard sessions will help you recover more quickly. Try and then eating a well balanced meal with a couple of hours to replace all the energy you have used so you can train effectively again the next time you run.  Your diet at this point is as important as the running that you do. Don’t overlook any aspect. Tick every box along the way!

Brain Train:

Practise how you want your race to happen.  Imagine and create your future performance as you want it to happen.  Mentally rehearse the best things that could happen from start to finish.   Try this last thing at night, close you eyes and picture yourself warming up, toeing the start line feeling fresh, alive and energised, embrace the sensations of the spectators, the feel of the road under your feet, the perfect, cool, still weather conditions, the lightness of your step and spring in your stride as you coast effortlessly through the first 10kms bang on your target time.  Filling your thoughts with positive goals will create a greater like lihood of positive out comes.  Practice negotiating obstacles and facing challenges mid race.

Create scenarios that might happen and rehearse your strategies for every option you can imagine that can help optimise your performance in each situation.  ‘What if’s’ can help you work through a situation before it arises and keep you calm and focussed if it occurs.  Be thorough with the whole process.  Envisage not only the road before you but also your physical sensations in the race. Feel your pulse rate and breathing controlled and steady as you continue to meet your target times at 15k, 20k, 30k and 35k, appreciate the smoothness and efficiency of your running style and form.  Try viewing yourself from the outside, as if watching your performance on the television.   See yourself tick along with metronomic mechanically efficiency. See how all the miles you have ran to prepare have helped you become the best you can be.  See yourself cruising down the finishing straight, running tall, head high, happy and energised.  Cross the finish line and collect your medal, hold it, feel the cold metal and be proud of your achievement. Be ready to realise your dream.  Visualise what you’d previously thought impossible and make it possible.

8 – 5 weeks to go

Body Training:

This is probably the time which is the hardest mentally and physically. It’s during this phase that you really are putting the miles in the bank to get through the event. Your long runs will be getting well over the 2 hour mark and building towards running for 3 hours.

Training should include some tempo running at marathon pace and faster, some hill work to strengthen your legs and some intervals to really boost your fitness. Think about having a massage to reward yourself for all the hard work you are putting in. If you can have a lazy day after your long runs!

Doing some racing at this time will be a good way to measure your fitness and give you a psychological boost.  Any races from 10k to a half marathon are great preparation.

Don’t do a marathon!  Save that performance! It is always good to race instilling confidence in your ability and to practice how to prepare and how to deal with those nerves.

Food Focus:

In long runs you should be practicing your drinking every 2-3 miles or 25-40 minutes. Try getting someone to come with you on a bike, hide drinks in the hedge before you run, carry a drink with you, or doing a 3 mile loop collecting a drink each lap.  Practice your pre race eating before your long runs too. Get your body used to all the pressures you are going to ask of it on race day!

Re-fueling after training is important for recovery – you can expect to feel very tried and sleepy after a long run as you will have depleted most of your energy stores. The sooner you can eat and drink the quicker you will recover. Eating foods with protein and carbohydrates are great for recovery, foods like beans, eggs, whole grain carbohydrates (quinoa, brown rice, and wholemeal bread), fish, and lean meats.

Brain Train:

In your long runs practice your mental strategies, repeat positive sentences to yourself, break your run into sections and just focus on one section at a time. Maybe counting or singing to yourself will help?  Remember on race day, you will have lots to keep you going, so if you can get through a 3 hour training run on your own, race day will be no problem!

Focus on using positive statements in your everyday language and especially in your training diary.  Don’t record what you did wrong –but what you did right, well and with brilliance (even if it seems like only a tiny thing!).  The use of positive statements and affirmations is not about eliminating failure but harnessing what you do well.  Develop some positive affirmations.

“I flow with energy and passion”

“This is the best I have ever felt”

“I’m so relaxed, smooth and strong”

“I’m feeling great”

“I’m fast, fine tuned and ready”

“I run with grace,style and strength”

Write these affirmations down and put somewhere you can read them (e.g., on your bathroom mirror). Make up your own personally significant affirmations.  Keep them sharp and snappy, make them positive, always affirm what you want, not what you don’t want.

Training plans typically range from 18-16-12 weeks of pre race build up. Personally, I believe if you are already running consistently then 12 weeks out is plenty of time to get you in shape for race day.

9-12 weeks to go

Body Train:

This is the time to be building on the training you already do.  Gradually increasing your long run bit by bit.  Never increase too much too soon – this can lead to injury and illness. Take 2 steps forwards and one step back.  Much of your normal training routine can remain the same.  Increase by an interval here and there, and add 5 to 15 mins to arun mid week. The biggest change and challenge for most of you will be the long run. If you increase the time you run for over the next 6 weeks in manageable chunks then you will have no problems. 10-20 minutes a week is an appropriate amount. You’ll need to build up to running for approximately 75% of your anticipated marathon time so think carefully!  Take progress nice and slow. Break it down into sections with rest periods walking if you need too to start off with. Be sensible and listen to your body, but at the same time don’t be afraid to push yourself either- you may surprise yourself!

Sometimes we have to step outside of what we’ve previously thought possible and move beyond the ordinary to achieve the extraordinary!

Food Focus:

In your marathon training you will need to eat a variety of foods, including lots of freshfruit and vegetables, protein, fish and meats, and plenty of carbohydrates to keep you fueled up for your running. Nuts and dried fruits are good for snacks, as are vegetable sticks and humous. Set yourself food and nutrition goals just as you would running goals.  “This week I am going to make sure I eat 5 pieces of fresh fruit / veg on at least 5 days of the week”.  “Today I will drink 200ml of fresh water 3 times”

Brain Train:

Discover the core values behind why you run.  We all run for different reasons, to keep fit, to loose weight, because we are driven to be the best we can be, to make friends, to travel, for fun, because we can!  Having a personally salient and highly recognisable motivator for why we run helps crystallise our thoughts when things get tough.  Take the time to think clearly about the reasons you run and give meaning and purpose to your training.  Every time you step out of the door to run do it with purpose.  When you run remind yourself that you are really living!