Now Is The Time To Focus

At this point in your marathon training, everything has been done and nothing can be taken away from all that hard training you have done. Now is the time to focus on getting mentally and physically fresh.

You are in full taper now. Tapering means you run less and rest more. Your muscles will repair and strengthen. You will feel stronger and fresher so don’t do anything extra. You will not lose fitness.

The primary aim of the taper should be to minimize fatigue, rather than to attain additional fitness gains so don’t do anything extra. If you cross train, lift weights or do other exercises, stop doing them.

Your weekly mileage should be cut down to 60-70%. You should be done with your last big long run. What you want to do is maintain fitness while getting fresh. You can still do a medium long run between 1-1/2 to 2 hours and also do a faster tempo paced run once a week. Take an extra day of rest too.

When you are tapering, just remember that you cannot attain additional fitness. It is what you have been doing the last several months that counts, not the last 2 weeks.

Early Training Advice

It is the time of year where the specific training begins for the Honolulu Marathon. Here are a couple tips that may help you as your training increases.

Shoe selection: What is a good running shoe? It is the one that fits your foot motion. Everyone lands and pushes off differently and this is called pronation. Pronation happens when your foot hits the ground on the outside heel and then rolls inward. This motion acts as a shock absorber everytime you land.

Too much pronation (overpronation) or too little pronation (underpronation) puts extra stress on leg muscles and joints because your foot is not absorbing the shock properly. This can lead to common running injuries such as shin splints, IT band tightness, and knee problems.

Go to a specialty running store as the salespeople there are trained to fit people in the proper type of shoes.

Proper training: A successful training program is a consistent one. It is up to you to make a commitment to train on a consistent schedule. Long breaks will setback your training. Consistency is the key.

Proper training requires a lot of patience. Running faster or more miles sooner will not get you in shape quicker. Your body needs to adapt to the stresses involved and requires weeks of gradually building and increasing intensity. Doing too much too soon risks injury. Make sure you plan a “back off” week of reduced training after every 3 weeks of increases to allow your body to adapt to the stresses of training.

Your Long Run

At this point in training, your long run is the most important run of the week.

By gradually increasing the length of your long run, your body will increase endurance and be able to handle longer periods of stress. As your body adapts to the increased stress, it will also learn to operate more efficiently. You will be able to supply more oxygen to muscles. You will also be able to burn fat more efficiently and in turn be able to run better as the body learns how to use fat as fuel.

For the most part, long runs are done at a comfortable pace. This means you will be running more aerobically. This increases the amount of fat used in your fuel mixture, which saves your precious supply of glycogen. This will prevent you from hitting "the wall" and slowing down. Remember, the faster your pace (especially in the beginning of your run), the more anaerobic (without oxygen), and the more muscle glycogen is used as fuel. So slowdown. Being able to run further in each long run is the goal, not how fast you do it! The intensity of the long run is the length of time, not the speed. You need to prepare yourself for the Long Run. Two things keep the energy level high, water and glycogen (sugar). The minimum requirement of water is 4-8 ounces every 15 minutes. Dr. Alan Titchenal of the University of Hawaii says that a 5% weight loss of water can seriously slow you down and make you feel sluggish. The second fuel needed is glycogen which is found mostly in carbohydrate form. You should try to take in between 40-60 grams (160-300 calories) per hour, depending on your size. He also says to load up an extra 500-800 calories two days before and after in your diet to help perform and recover from your long run.