And what did we learn today?
Training, June 06, 2017
Is your training or racing going to plan? How do you know and how can you get the most of your next build-up? Evaluate and re-evaluate.
Sometimes a parent needs to let a child make a mistake, so that they can see what happens. A very common question after this is, “and what did we learn?”
We can and should apply this to our training and racing. Without taking notice of how our mind and body reacts to certain sessions, training weeks, nutrition, or race situations it is very hard to know what does and does not work for us. Therefore, I always recommend that my athletes observe and note how things went after a key session or race.
Evaluating and re -evaluating.
Through this process we can reduce the likelihood of a reduced performance when it counts.
I do this during throughout the build-up, but I always find it very useful to do it specifically for the goal event and directly afterwards when everything is still fresh in your mind.
There are a few points that affect our race and these start in the week leading up until the race. Factors to evaluate include, but are not limited to stress, travel, sleep, your workload, nutrition, hydration, and training.
In my case, I slept normally and this could have been better. I ate and drank well (I was free from alcohol in the last week). I raced in Hamburg, which meant I could sleep in my own bed during the week and travel in on the train on race day. I also tried to restrict my workload over the two weeks before in that I did not make any appointments that did not need to be made.
The only additional stress that came in on race week was waiting on the Suit and picking it up only on Wednesday. Clearly this is not something that I would recommend, but it was also not something that I could control or change, so there was not much point worrying about it. It would have been good to get a few runs in the suit beforehand, as you should always do before your race. However, it is not that I would recommend running a marathon in a suit ??
On race day I had my normal breakfast and coffee, so that all worked well. However, sometimes this is something can go wrong.
The train ride in was no problem and I got to the start area over an hour, which is something I would recommend. You spend so long preparing for something that is does not make sense to leave things too late. Being there on time is much more important than 30-40 minutes more sleep, which is not going to affect your performance anyway.
This allows enough time to get through the queues for the toilets, drop your gear off, do some loosening up, and get in your start box.
This all worked perfectly for me and I was in the start box early enough and I had a very good starting place.
The place where A LOT of people go wrong is pacing. They start too hard and fast, and it catches up with them later.
My first kilometer took 3:49 and my average pace was 3:48/km. Along the way the pace changed a little due to the course, but it was a constant effort.
Was your last run evenly paced?
My nutrition and hydration was good throughout, as I took a cup at every second aid station and had three Gu Gels between kilometer ten and kilometer twenty-six. I had tested them in training, and had only positive effects during the race.
As mentioned previously my pacing was good, and I do not think on the conditions I could have run much quicker, but I did have to focus and stay positive. A Marathon is not easy even when you are well prepared.
However, I must have done a good job of staying positive as on most of the posters I am smiling. That and Marcel's company helped a lot to make sure the kilometers ticked by very quickly.
One of my favourite quote about the power of positivity is,
“A positive something always beats a negative anything”
If you can just find one positive thing to think on when things are getting tough you are much more likely to come through it better and quicker than if you focus on the negative If you are thinking that it is still so far, your legs hurt, your feet hurt, it's hot, or you are running alone it's not going to help is it?
A very very important aim during a race has to be executing a race plan. You need to have a detailed plan going into the event and focus on following it throughout the event.
This is one point I did not get perfect. After my acceleration after km 37 I lost focus just before km 40 and took my foot off the accelerator, and this cost me my rhythm. I am sure if I had kept focusing on catching the runners in front of me I would have run close to a minute faster. At the end of the day it was not that important, but if I am being honest about my approach that is something I learned.
The aim was to push the last 5km. Not 2.3km of the last 5km.
The last key point that I achieved was to enjoy the finish. Take in the last 50m and do not concentrate on stopping your watch until after the finish. You never know when you will get the chance to have this experience again, so make the most of it.
I have just summarised my race week, but this approach can be taken on a slightly less detailed way through your whole preparation. Regardless of the outcome of our goal we can still get a lot out of a preparation and an event.
We just need to know what we have learnt.