Going into the last few weeks of training with your race nearing, are you ready for race day? The taper weeks of your training can to some extent make or break your race, so having a plan going into it is important mentally and physically. After putting in months, weeks, and endless hours of training, you want to put in the details to prepare for the race day. Here are some recommendations for preparing for your race day and preparing you for the result you want.
1. Set a Realistic Goal Time - Having a pre race idea of what time you would like to run your race in will give you an idea of what pace you should run it at and a racing strategy. You can do this based off of your long training runs. For marathoners, I recommend doing a 21 mile long run prior to the event. For a half marathon, I recommend running 11 miles prior to the event. You can typically expect to race a marathon or half marathon 30-60 seconds faster than your easy pace training run. If you properly train for race based off a program that incorporates threshold and speed workouts, you will race 15-30 seconds slower than your 1 mile threshold pace. This will give you an idea of what pace you should run your race at. Also, if you have a recent race result, you can use www.runnersworld.com/predictor to predict your race time based off your last race. You want to pace yourself and feel good for the last miles of the race. This is critical for your race time. Starting off at too fast of a pace and bonking at the end of the race can add on a lot of minutes in the last miles. If anything start off a little slower than your race pace and speed up as your go. You can always make up for your slower miles in the last half of your race. One way to check it you paced yourself appropriately, is look at your half way split time pace. If your end pace (overall pace) is right around your half way split pace, then you paced yourself perfectly for the race.
2. Know the Course - Once you know the goal time you want to run and have your pace figured out, research the course. By researching the course ahead of time, you have an idea of what is ahead. Go onto your race website and typically they will have the course and sometimes even the elevation. Depending on where the race is, you can use part of the course for your training runs. You can even drive the course ahead of time. This will give you a better plan for a racing strategy based off of the course elevation and some miles that may slow your pace, and other miles that may speed up your pace. Depending on the course, your pace can vary based off of elevation, so knowing ahead of time can get you mentally prepared for the race and give you a much better plan and racing strategy on race day. This will also give you an idea of water stops, supplementation, etc. Take the guess work out and get familiar with the course. This will only help you when it comes to your race day plan and racing strategy.
3. Hydration, Fuel & Racing Outfit - Going into race day, this is never a good time to try something new. Stick to your training and to your race day routine. If this is a first time race for you, I recommend trying out your race day routine with hydration, fuel and outfit ahead of time. Try it before a couple of your long runs. Try waking up, having your pre race meal, hydrating like you would for race day (or just training in general) and wear your race day outfit. You never want to switch things up prior to a race. For your nutrition, knowing what your body can handle and sticking to the supplements and foods that you know your body agrees with. Wearing your outfit for training runs prior to a race will let you know if it is a good racing outfit or not. Lets just say Boston Marathon 2011 was my lesson learned when I wore shorts that cut into my inner thighs and basically chaffed for the entire race. Trust me that is not the experience you want to have :). Stick with what works and pre plan going into your race day.
4. Make a Race Morning Schedule - Know exactly what time you are waking up, what you are fueling your body with, have your outfit laid out, have your pin number on your shirt and your chip on your shoe. Know how you are getting to the starting line. Make time to use the bathroom and hydrate properly. Have back up and extra foods, supplements, and hydration on your way to the starting line. Never feel rushed on race morning! Give yourself time to mentally prepare and also to be prepared for any bumps in the road on the way to the starting line. Being over prepared is 100 times better than under prepared. Don't let small details throw you off your race day strategy. Have a plan and enjoy the experience.
5. Race Day Weather - Research the weather up to 10 days out from your race. Many times race day weather can also make or break your race and your racing strategy ahead. Weather can throw a lot of different factors into how your race your race. Depending on whether it is too hot, too cold, extremely windy, raining, etc, etc there are a number of things that you may need to plan ahead of time to keep you on your game plan. Once again be over prepared and know what the weather will be like on race day.
6. Avoid Taper Week Mishaps - Last minute cramming and over tapering when it comes to your training can be a common error that is made in the weeks leading into your race. Your body can not make adaptations the last 2 weeks going into your race but you want to keep your training sharp. Don't cram a bunch of extra mileage in on missed runs. Instead keep your intensity up, reduce your mileage, and focus on the quality of your runs. Keep your muscle memory sharp and feel confident that the training you put into that point is more than enough to prepare you for race day. With the reduced mileage your appetite will also drop, but you will still need to carb load going into race day. Carbohydrates should consist of 70-80% of your nutrition starting 72 hours from race day! Stick to the carbohydrates you have used through out your training and fill your muscle and body with the glycogen needed to perform your best on race day!
Feel free to post comments or email me with questions!!
Happy Race Day Running :)
No comments:
Post a Comment