Marathon Topics #2: Practicing drinking water/sportsdrinks

Staying hydrated and keeping your fuel reserves high are crucial components to marathon success. Many people already know this, but do not practice enough in their training to be successful at it on the big day. The importance of taking in a sports drink is very big. First of all, it helps you stay hydrated. Being hydrated allows your body to keep its blood volume high; meaning that exercise intensity can be maintained longer, as well as the body can cool itself through sweating and evaporation. Also, the sugar in the sports drink actually helps the water absorb faster into the blood stream, carrying with it the fuel that your muscles need. Also, the flavor of a sports drink will often trigger the body to drink more fluid. This is very important for later in the marathon. Your body needs both the sugar and the water to keep from “bonking” or hitting the wall late in the race. Your body has a limited number of calories stored from carbohydrate. The best way to keep from using all of them before you get to the finish is to take them in throughout the marathon. The best way to become good at this is by practicing during your training.

 

Fluid/Gel Guidelines:

 

 

1.                  Practice drinking and eating before your daily run. Get used to the feeling of having something in your stomach prior to the start of your race. Try this whenever possible. You may have to experiment with the timing, so that it is digested before you are out on your run. Usually and hour, or so, prior to beginning is good.

 

2.                  Practice drinking on the run. Practice while running will help you develop a system of grabbing a cup and getting the most of the fluid in your mouth, with minimal spillage. It is alright to slow down to take in fluids, because the few seconds you lose to do this will be gained back several fold later in the race.

 

3.                  Practice with what you are going to use in the race. This goes for same name brands as well. Companies make different products with different ingredients. Some you may be able to tolerate, and some you may not. You don’t want to find this out on race day. If you are taking cups of whatever the race is providing, then get on the race’s website and see what they are going to have.

 

4.                  With gels, follow the directions. These can be taken every 45 minutes, or so. Remember, that these provide a lot of carbohydrate, and may cause some stomach issues. You should chase these with water, not a sports drink. If you do, you may find yourself with a sugar overdose.

 

5.                  Drink early and often. The sooner you begin to rehydrate/refuel the better off you will be. If you wait until you feel like you need to, it will be too late. The damage will already be done. Get fluids down at every station early on, because later in the race you will not feel like drinking at all.

Marathon Topic #1: The importance of marathon pace

Marathon Topic #1: The importance of marathon pace

 

Throughout my 13 or so years of running, I have always been instructed on the importance of proper pacing. My high school coach always told me to take it easy for the first half, then blast the second half. Whenever I ran a personal best or finished high in big races, it was because of this strategy. Every distance event world record has been set with this strategy.

 

There are many reasons why you should approach your training and racing with even and negative split. Physiologically, when you go out too hard, lactic acid is produced faster than the body can recycle it. It is commonly thought that lactic acid is bad, but it is produced by the body all the time and used as a fuel source. However, the body can only work so fast and when more is produced by the muscles than can be used, it floods the blood stream and lowers your body’s pH. Since our body wants to maintain homeostasis, or equilibrium, it will force your body to slow down in order to protect itself.

 

So, when we train, we want to train at even pacing to allow the body to stay in homeostasis for as long as possible. I know that eventually the body is overwhelmed anyway and fatigue sets in, but with even pacing, that point is prolonged significantly.

 

A good rule of thumb is that for every 1 second you are fast in the first half of the marathon (per mile), you will lose 2 seconds per mile in the second half of the marathon. With this said, there is no such thing as having time in the bank, because you will always end up overdrawing.

 

Mentally, getting the pace engrained in your mind will help you keep pace early on. By doing your workouts at the prescribed pace, you learn what it feels like under a variety of conditions.  This will help in the early segments of the race when people are cheering like crazy, you feel amazing, and you think you are out for a Sunday long run. Because you have trained at pace, you will know if you are fast or slow and fix it immediately. When the race gets tough, you’ll still have your legs underneath you and people will be coming back to you in agony.

 

If you want to put time in the bank, do it with proper pacing and make those deposits during your training. In the end you’ll cash out a new PR, a
Boston qualifier, or the satisfaction of running the best race you absolutely could.