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Big day tomorrow, I start to try and eat 700g of carbohydrates for three days on the trot. This in itself is a bit of a marathon as for the next three days you feel if you’re not eating something or drinking something you’re doing something wrong. I explained my strategy in a post earlier in the week and the Australian Institute of Sport has a similar outlook. Lots of toast with honey, orange juice and pasta. Repeat for three days while also consuming as much water as my bladder can handle, and then a bit more !
This can lead to weight gain apparently (no kidding!) but allegedly the benefit outweighs the negatives. (one of which is looking like Jabba the Hutt as already discussed!) The weight gain is mostly water retention so don’t be too afraid of a few extra pounds. As you tuck into your 4th round of toast for the day just think positive thoughts, carboloading done right is good for 3-5 minutes I reckon.
Points to note of course is you need to avoid too much high fat and sugar if possible, just low fat and carbohydrates. Protein is still ok as it will help with muscle recovery and everybody loves protein. Not sure where the go-to meal for runners, the humble muffin, fits into this diet but we can always find an excuse to scoff down a muffin.
So far this week I am feeling remarkably relaxed which is a two edged sword as I feel you should be nervous as this will focus the mind on the challenge ahead. Too relaxed and you won’t be focused enough. I’ll try and get nervous tomorrow, I’ll make a mental note to self to get nervous.
I’ve tried to avoid thinking about the heat but mentally have already written off a PB run due too the predicted temperature. Of course on the day I will re-evaluate but currently I’ll be aiming for position first and time second. When I say position I am targeting top 3 for my age group and/or top 3 Australian (age group) to go with my 2nd fastest Australian in the 5k last weekend. It will be difficult to see who I’m racing against on the day as I’m assuming all the race bibs will be similar ? In the end you run what you run and we’ll see how the cards fall, most important piece of advice is to run your own race.
Over the next few days it’s time to dial in a pace to hit your target finish time. This is your first goal. Next it’s time to dial in ‘plan b’, if you can’t make your target what would be your next target time, finally ‘plan c‘, this could be as simple as finish ! I’ve mentioned the different goals before and if nothing else they keep you busy over the remainder of the race, and it’s always nice to achieve your goal, no matter what it ends up being.
So one last article on carboloading from my main man on just about anything running, Matt Fitzgerald. ( http://mattfitzgerald.org ) It seems you have 3 options. The good old fashioned 3 day binge (my favourite), or the Western Australian 3 minute of VO2 max exercise and then binge the day before (risky) or ignore the whole thing and eat carbs on the run using Carboshotz etc..
No one said this running lark was easy….
You aren’t still putting yourself through a depletion phase, are you?
The practice of carbo-loading dates back to the late 1960s. The first carbo-loading protocol was developed by a Swedish physiologist named Gunvar Ahlborg after he discovered a positive relationship between the amount of glycogen (carbs stored in the muscles and liver) in the body and endurance performance. Scientists and runners had already known for some time that eating a high-carbohydrate diet in the days preceding a long race enhances performance, but no one knew exactly why until Ahlborg’s team zeroed in on the glycogen connection.
Subsequently, Ahlborg discovered that the muscles and liver are able to store above-normal amounts of glycogen when high levels of carbohydrate consumption are preceded by severe glycogen depletion. The most obvious way to deplete the muscles of glycogen is to eat extremely small amounts of carbohydrate. A second way is to engage in exhaustive exercise. The stress of severe glycogen depletion triggers an adaptive response by which the body reduces the amount of dietary carbohydrate that it converts to fat and stores, and increases the amount of carbohydrate that it stores in the liver and muscles as glycogen. Ahlborg referred to this phenomenon as glycogen supercompensation.
Armed with this knowledge, he was able to create a more sophisticated carbo-loading protocol than the primitive existing method, which was, more or less, eating a big bowl of spaghetti.
Ahlborg came up with a seven-day carbo-loading plan in which an exhaustive bout of exercise was followed by three or four days of extremely low carbohydrate intake (10 percent of total calories) and then three or four days of extremely high carbohydrate intake (90 percent of total calories). Trained athletes who used this protocol in an experiment were able to nearly double their glycogen stores and exhibited significantly greater endurance in exercise lasting longer than 90 minutes.
After these results were published, endurance athletes across the globe began to use Ahlborg’s carbo-loading plan prior to events anticipated to last 90 minutes or longer. While it worked admirably, it had its share of drawbacks. First of all, many athletes weren’t keen on performing an exhaustive workout just a week before a big race, as the plan required.
Second, maintaining a 10 percent carbohydrate diet for three or four days carried some nasty consequences including lethargy, cravings, irritability, lack of concentration, and increased susceptibility to illness. Many runners and other athletes found it just wasn’t worth it.
Fortunately, later research showed that you can increase glycogen storage significantly without first depleting it. A newer carbo-loading protocol based on this research calls for athletes to eat a normal diet of 55 to 60 percent carbohydrate until three days before racing, and then switch to a 70 percent carbohydrate diet for the final three days, plus race morning.
As for exercise, this tamer carbo-loading method suggests one last longer workout (but not an exhaustive workout) done a week from race day followed by increasingly shorter workouts throughout race week. It’s simple, it’s non-excruciating, and it works. Admittedly, some scientists and athletes still swear that the Ahlborg protocol is more effective, but if it is, the difference is slight and probably not worth the suffering and inherent risks.
Note that you should increase your carbohydrate intake not by increasing your total caloric intake, but rather by reducing fat and protein intake in an amount that equals or slightly exceeds the amount of carbohydrate you add. Combining less training with more total calories could result in last-minute weight gain that will only slow you down. Be aware, too, that for every gram of carbohydrate the body stores, it also stores 3 to 5 grams of water, which leads many athletes to feel bloated by the end of a three-day loading period. The water weight will be long gone by the time you finish your race, however.
A friendlier carbo-loading strategy was devised in 2002 by scientists at the University of Western Australia. It combines depletion and loading and condenses them into a one-day time frame. The creators of this innovative protocol recognized that a single, short workout performed at extremely high intensity creates a powerful demand for glycogen storage in both the slow-twitch and fast-twitch fibers of the muscles.The researchers hypothesized that following such a workout with heavy carbohydrate intake could result in a high level of glycogen supercompensation without a lot of fuss. In an experiment, the researchers asked athletes to perform a short-duration, high-intensity workout consisting of two and a half minutes at 130 percent of VO2max (about one-mile race pace) followed by a 30-second sprint. During the next 24 hours, the athletes consumed 12 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of lean muscle mass. This resulted in a 90 percent increase in muscle glycogen storage.
Runners have cause to be very pleased by these findings. Doing just a few minutes of high-intensity exercise the day before a competition will not sabotage tomorrow’s performance, yet it will suffice to stimulate the desirable carbohydrate “sponging” effect that was sought in the original Ahlborg protocol. This allows the athlete to maintain a normal diet right up until the day before competition and then load in the final 24 hours.
The Western Australia carbo-loading strategy works best if preceded by a proper taper — that is, by several days of reduced training whose purpose is to render your body rested, regenerated, and race-ready. In fact, several days of reduced training combined with your normal diet will substantially increase your glycogen storage level even before the final day’s workout and carbohydrate binge. When you exercise vigorously almost every day, your body never gets a chance to fully replenish its glycogen stores before the next workout reduces them again. Only after 48 hours of very light training or complete rest are your glycogen levels fully compensated. Then the Western Australia carbo-loading regimen can be used to achieve glycogen supercompensation.
An even newer carbo-loading protocol calls for athletes to eat a normal diet of 55 to 60 percent carbohydrate until three days before racing, and then switch to a 70 percent carbohydrate diet for the final three days, plus race morning. As for exercise, this friendliest carbo-loading method suggests one last longer workout (but not an exhaustive workout) done a week from race day followed by increasingly shorter workouts throughout race week.
Having said all of this, I would like to note finally that carbo-loading in general has been shown to enhance race performance only when athletes consume little or no carbohydrate during the race itself. If you do use a sports drink or sports gels to fuel your race effort — as you should — prior carbo-loading probably will have no effect. But it doesn’t hurt to do it anyway, as insurance.
Day three of the final week is normally when ‘self doubt’ rears its ugly head. By now you’ve had a light previous week and the odd day off and suddenly you start to feel flat. You’ve not been running as much as normal and all that free time plays on your mind. Runners are normally pessimistic people and any excuse to question themselves is normally embraced. Taper time gives runners too much idle time and rather than use this time for good they ‘worry’, a lot ! I’m as bad as the next runner and even with all my experience I question myself. I’ve posted so many times about ‘trust your training’ but typing the phase is a lot easier than living it.
To get over this ‘self doubt’ continually remind yourself of your previous training block distances and all the work you’ve put in over the last few months. The ‘hay is in the barn‘ so to speak and you’ve worked damn hard to put it there. As I have mentioned numerous times running is an honest sport and if you’ve put in the time you will be rewarded on race day.
Running marathons is a large part mental, especially after 32k, so you need to start to prepare yourself for the challenge ahead. Self doubt has no part to play nearer race day and certainly on the start line you need to be ‘bursting’ with confidence. Please note ‘bursting with confidence’ does not then mean running a 5k PB for the first 5k of the marathon like my good friend Jon recently did at the Geraldton Marathon and then had a walk break to recover. This coming from a man who has run over 40 marathons ! Even he couldn’t explain his enthusiasm on the day. Another friend of mine, also called Jon funnily enough, insists on running his fastest few kilometers in a marathon at the start and is often in the lead at the 500m mark. I would certainly not recommend this practice.
Another way to contain self doubt is to play back all the positive experiences you’ve had from previous races. (I’m assuming you’ve had some positive experiences, if not then they will come, trust me.) Also look at your training for the race and take confidence from the work you’ve put in. For the World Masters marathon I’ve certainly trained harder than I have ever trained before and been rewarded with PB’s and good times in a number of lead up races. This is another way to fight off self doubt, lead up races at shorter distances. The World Masters will be my 5th race in 6 weeks and although I probably wouldn’t recommend that many for all runners it does give me a good base for positive thinking. (assuming they all went well of course) I have highlighted racing before as a great way to break the monotony of training (sometimes it’s monotonous ?) and also as a way to boost confidence. You never work as hard as when you have a racing bib on your chest, or timing chip on your shoe. (or for my local club both!)
So to sum up todays post on my old friend ‘self doubt’ , trust in your training, take confidence from your training block and start to prepare yourself mentally for success. On race day you want to be standing on that start line ready to ‘explode‘ into action and for the last 10k you want to changing gear from 5th into 6th and accelerating into the finish. I can’t emphasis enough how important your mental preparation will be at the start and when you really need it at 32k onwards. Noakes talked about the ‘central governer’ and I have attached an articel from my old favourite Runners Connect by coach Jeff explaining this. It is worth a read as this will be invaluable at 32k when you start to feel fatigued. Think back to this article and it may be enough to get you over the line.
‘Bye bye ‘self doubt’, hello ‘over confident’……?
As runners, we spend countless hours focused on the physiological aspects of training – VO2max, threshold, aerobic development, etc. And for good reason. There is no doubt that improving these biological systems will help you run faster.
However, when it comes to racing, are physiological limitations all that matter or is there a mental component involved as well? What role does the brain play in our attempt to race as fast as possible?
According to exercise scientist Dr. Tim Noakes and a growing number of colleagues, the brain may play a more important role in race potential than runners have typically considered. Noakes’s hypothesis suggests that the brain acts as a central governor when racing, limiting our ability to push beyond perceived fatigue to ensure self-preservation.
In this article, we’ll look at the central governor theory in more depth, explore why it matters to those racing for personal bests, and outline some specific strategies you can use to overcome your own central governor.
What is the central governor theory?
In short, the central governor theory is based around the premise that the brain will override your physical ability to run and “shut the body down” before you’re able to do serious or permanent damage to yourself.
Noakes believes that the point in the race when you think you’ve given everything you’ve got is actually a signal or response from the brain to slow down to preserve health, rather than a physiological reality. In actuality, Noakes believes you have more to give physically when this happens.
Runners experience this during almost every race they run. At mile 8 of a half marathon, goal race pace is extremely difficult and the thought of running faster, even for just a minute, seems impossible. Yet, when you get within 400 meters of the finish, you’re somehow able to summon a kick that finds you running minutes per mile faster than goal pace.
Once your brain realizes it won’t die if you pick up the pace (because the finish line is close) it opens the biological pathways to run faster.
That’s not to say that the physiological demands of a race aren’t real. Rather, the central governor theory posits that racing is a balance between: (1) physical preparation and biological systems; (2) emotional components, such as motivation and pain tolerance; (3) and self-preservation. The exact combination of these factors is what leads to how hard you’re able to push during a race.
Why does it matter? Does this mean you don’t have to train?
Perhaps the biggest misconception of the central governor theory is that if we could just teach ourselves to push harder or somehow turn off this central governor of the brain, that we could run faster. However, as mentioned above, racing is a combination of three important components: physical, emotional, and mental.
As an example, if you asked an Olympic-caliber runner to run a 7-minute mile, they would do so easily and be able to carry that pace on for 26 miles or more with little effort. Ask a four-hour marathoner to run a 7 minute mile and it will be an all-out effort they can only maintain for a mile. The physiological differences between these two runners means that even if the central governor was turned off, the four-hour marathoner couldn’t run with the Olympic-caliber runner. That’s pretty obvious.
However, if that same four-hour marathoner can learn to push the boundaries of their central governor, perhaps by adding motivation, like a Boston qualifier, or improving their mental fortitude, then they can tap into this extra performance reserve.
How to overcome the central governor
So how do you do that? How do you push the boundaries of your central governor? While you can’t completely overcome the central governor, you can improve your ability to tolerate physical discomfort and prepare your mind for the physical demands you plan to place in it.
Workouts
The problem many runners face is that the experience of trying to push themselves beyond their comfort zone when their mind is telling them it can’t go faster only occurs on race day.
Typical interval workouts and tempo runs are performed at a consistent pace and the recovery between repeats allows you to recover to a state that is very unlike the corresponding point in a race. During workouts, you simply get to a certain fatigue level and then stop pushing.
This is great for building your physiological systems, but does nothing to teach you how to push the central governor and prove to your brain that you can in fact run faster, despite how bad you might feel.
One workout that trains this specific aspect of racing is called a hammer interval session. Succinctly, a hammer interval session is traditional interval workout except that on the third or second to last interval, you break from your goal pace and simply focus on running that specific repeat as fast as you can – hammering it. An example hammer workout for a 5k runner might look like: 8 x 800 meters at 3k to 5K race pace w/2mins rest, hammer (run as fast as you can) interval numbers 4 and number 7. Maintain the 2-minute rest after each hammer and do your best to get back onto 5k pace after each hammer.
The specific pace of the hammer repeat isn’t the important part of this workout. Rather, it’s the ability to chip away at the mental constraints late in a workout or race that tell you that you can’t go any faster.
Mental training and visualization
Running a PR is tough! No matter how well rested or prepared the body is, racing hurts. If you toe the starting line thinking that somehow you’re going to feel good or that pushing during the last miles is going to be easy, then you’ve already set yourself up to let the brain override your physical abilities.
Prepare yourself mentally. Don’t head into a race telling yourself that somehow this race is going to be different. Be prepared for it to hurt, but remember that you’ve trained yourself to push through this exact situation. Visualize the race during your training runs or while meditating and picture yourself hitting that point in the race when your body starts to hurt. Recall those feelings from your last race or hard workout and then visualize yourself pushing through that moment. By preparing yourself mentally, you’ll be ready to face the realities of the race.
Pacing
Finally, work to improve your sense of pace. Pacing is one of the ways the brain self-regulates the central governor. The brain “anticipates” all the known variables of a race – distance, topography, temperature, etc. – and then calculates an optimal pace that will get you to the finish without dying.
When you deviate significantly from your optimal physiological pace, the brain reacts by reducing the level of muscle activation in order to force you to slow down. By going out too fast during a race, you kick in the central governor early and even elicit physiological changes by the brain designed to slow you down.
Armed with this new understanding of the central governor theory and how the brain impacts your ability to race, implement these three simply strategies into your training plan and start to push yourself harder than you think you can.
There are times when being a runner can really be an excuse to eat great ‘tukka’ and carboloading is one of those times. Three days before your goal race, which should be a marathon distance or more (so don’t think this applies to 5k races, sorry !) , you try and eat 10g of carbohydrates for every 1kg of weight, i.e. me being 70kg , I need to eat 700g of carbohydrates for 3 days pre-marathon. It is actually quite hard to get this right unfortunately. A lot of runners just end up eating junk assuming all food is good food this close to the race or don’t hydrate enough. (You need to properly hydrated for the carboloading to work properly)
So what does a 700g day look like. Breakfast, weetbix and honey with orange juice. Brunch, 2 slices of toast with honey and another OJ. Lunch, pasta with chicken and some yoghurt. Maybe another round of toast pre-dinner of more pasta. Add in another OJ somewhere and a late night yoghurt or toasted muffin and you’re pretty close. Best thing is to google ‘carboloading’ and you’ll get the general idea. What did we do before ‘google’? Maybe I’ll google ‘what did we do before google’?
Also make sure you aim for high carbohydrate , low fat food; avoid the high fat food.
So carboloading, a good thing if done correctly and I’d say worth 4-5 minutes. C’mon, what other sport gives you such a return just by eating. Gotta love running……
This article written by AIS Sports Nutrition is worth a read on the subject.
‘Carbohydrate loading’ is probably one of the most misunderstood terms in sports nutrition. People commonly think anyone involved in sport needs to ‘carb up’ and the way to do this is to eat ‘flat out’ in the days leading up to an event. Read on to get the facts on carbohydrate loading.
What is carbohydrate loading?
Carbohydrate loading is a strategy involving changes to training and nutrition that can maximise muscle glycogen (carbohydrate) stores prior to endurance competition.
The technique was originally developed in the late 1960’s and typically involved a 3-4 day ‘depletion phase’ involving 3-4 days of hard training plus a low carbohydrate diet. This depletion phase was thought to be necessary to stimulate the enzyme glycogen synthase. This was then followed immediately by a 3-4 day ‘loading phase’ involving rest combined with a high carbohydrate diet. The combination of the two phases was shown to boost muscle carbohydrate stores beyond their usual resting levels.
Ongoing research has allowed the method to be refined so that modern day carbohydrate loading is now more manageable for athletes. The depletion phase was demonstrated to be no longer necessary, which is a bonus for athletes as this phase was very difficult. Australian marathon runner, Steve Moneghetti has described the depletion phase as making him feel like “death warmed up”. Today, 1-4 days of exercise taper while following a high carbohydrate diet (7-12g/kg body weight) is sufficient to elevate muscle glycogen levels.
Does carbohydrate loading improve performance?
Muscle glycogen levels are normally in the range of 100-120 mmol/kg ww (wet weight). Carbohydrate loading enables muscle glycogen levels to be increased to around 150-200 mmol/kg ww. This extra supply of carbohydrate has been demonstrated to improve endurance exercise by allowing athletes to exercise at their optimal pace for a longer time. It is estimated that carbohydrate loading can improve performance over a set distance by 2-3%.
Who should carbohydrate load?
Anyone exercising continuously at a moderate to high intensity for 90 minutes or longer is likely to benefit from carbohydrate loading. Typically, sports such as cycling, marathon running, longer distance triathlon, cross-country skiing and endurance swimming benefit from carbohydrate loading. Shorter-term exercise is unlikely to benefit as the body’s usual carbohydrate stores are adequate. Carbohydrate loading is generally not practical to achieve in team sports where games are played every 3-4 days. Although it might be argued that players in football and AFL have heavy demands on their muscle fuel stores, it may not be possible to achieve a full carbohydrate loading protocol within the weekly schedule of training and games.
What does a high carbohydrate diet look like?
The following diet is suitable for a 70kg athlete aiming to carbohydrate load:
Breakfast
3 cups of low-fibre breakfast cereal with 11/2 cups of reduced fat milk
1 medium banana
250ml orange juice
Snack
toasted muffin with honey
500ml sports drink
Lunch
2 sandwiches (4 slices of bread) with filling as desired
200g tub of low-fat fruit yoghurt
375ml can of soft drink
Snack
banana smoothie made with low-fat milk, banana and honey
cereal bar
Dinner
1 cup of pasta sauce with 2 cups of cooked pasta
3 slices of garlic bread
2 glasses of cordial
Late Snack
toasted muffin and jam
500ml sports drink
This sample plan provides ~ 14,800 kJ, 630 g carbohydrate, 125 g protein and 60 g fat.Are there any special considerations for females?
Most studies of glycogen storage have been conducted on male athletes. However, some studies suggest that females may be less responsive to carbohydrate loading, especially during the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle. This appears to be, at least partly, because they have difficulty consuming the larger amounts of carbohydrate required for a complete CHO load. Further research needs to be conducted specifically on females.
What are the common mistakes made when carbohydrate loading?
Research indicates that many athletes who attempt to carbohydrate load, fail to achieve their goal. Common mistakes include:
Carbohydrate loading requires an exercise taper. Athletes can find it difficult to back off training for 1-4 days before competition. Failing to rest will compromise carbohydrate loading.
Many athletes fail to eat enough carbohydrate. It seems athletes don’t have a good understanding of the amount of food required to carbohydrate load. Working with a sports dietitian or using a carbohydrate counter can be useful.
In order to consume the necessary amount of carbohydrate, it is necessary to cut back on fibre and make use of compact sources of carbohydrate such as sugar, cordial, soft drink, sports drink, jam, honey, jelly and tinned fruit. Athletes who include too many high fibre foods in their carbohydrate loading menu may suffer stomach upset or find the food too bulky to consume.
Carbohydrate loading will most likely cause body mass to increase by approximately 2kg. This extra weight is due to extra muscle glycogen and water. For some athletes, a fear of weight gain may prevent them from carbohydrate loading adequately.
Athletes commonly use carbohydrate loading as an excuse to eat everything and anything in sight. Consuming too many high fat foods will make it difficult to consume sufficient carbohydrate. It may also result in gain of body fat. It is important to stick to high-carbohydrate, low-fat foods while carbohydrate loading.
Day one was uneventful really. Busy at work so didn’t have time to think about running. How does that happen ? Note to self must never let that happen again. ! So I can look forward to a run tomorrow morning, probably my go-to 10k that I run between 3-5 times a week religiously, normally as a second run after work on auto-pilot. These go-to runs are important as they allow you to drift away and think about ‘stuff’ , be that family, work or leisure ‘stuff’. The ‘stuff’ thinking is not as important as the benefit the time on legs is giving you. As you know I am a big believer in the two runs a day, distance, not pace theory. I firmly believe the second run , which may or may not be on tired legs, is a massive benefit and allows you to really make a big difference to your running aspirations.
I have dabbled with double-days before but never for the length of time I have sustained it this training block, pre-Masters. I think this is probably week number 17 of upwards of 10 runs a week. What has surprised me is how fresh I have felt. I have certainly felt a lot more fatigued when I have run less k’s and less total runs a week but heavier workload i.e. faster average pace. Will this work for everyone ? Probably not, every person is different, they have different aspirations, different threshold for distance and pace, different constraints allowing them only a certain amount of running time. Double-up days does mean some ‘juggling’ of work and family life and maybe once in a while one of these will suffer. To quote Ned Kelly ‘Such is life’, or was that Ben Cousins for the Australians among us. The benefit of distance cannot be over stated, if you can run more (and not get injured of course) then I recommend you do it. With running the more you run the better you can run. Obviously there is a point when you do start to slow but when or where that is I do not know and I’m nearing 50 and haven’t found it yet. (and don’t intend to anytime soon.)
So I digress, for a change, this post was meant to be about taper day 1 for marathon week. Uneventful and no real thought of running to tell you the truth, which for me is strange but after so many marathons I realise the benefits of not running more than twice on marathon week gives me a spring in my step come Sunday. I’ll venture out for a slow 10k tomorrow morning and a similar one Thursday and that will be it. Remember ‘it is impossible to do too little on marathon week, the only option is to do too much.’ The only reason I run at all is to retain my sanity as I grapple with my old favourite ‘weight gain‘. So far I have been lucky and avoided ‘self doubt’ and ‘niggles’, with no one ill on the train, that I could see , and all my work colleagues looking quite sprightly today I may even avoid ‘everyone is trying to infect me…
An uneventful post today but with taper week in full swing I need to focus elsewhere until Thursday when its my favourite time, carbo-loading. I’ll discuss that tomorrow because although carbo-loading can be a good thing for runners who like to eat , it is not an excuse to binge on chocolate and muffins for three days. Sorry guys there is a certain requirement to meet to make carbo-loading work and chocolate and muffins , although a small part (maybe!) , is not the complete picture. Running really is a cruel sport…..
I’ve attached a photo as all good posts need photos. This was taken on Saturday at the Masters 5k by Jon Storey. A great photo, a talented man with a good camera, a good combination.
Looks like today is the day to wear your Australian World Masters running singlet before the big day next weekend. ( http://www.perth2016.com ) Me and the Sunday morning posse agreed to meet at the West Australian Marathon Club house ( http://www.wamc.org.au )and run on alp of the World Masters marathon course. It was also agreed to wear our Masters Australian singlets to ‘wear them in’ pre-November 6th.
Funnily enough in the photo three are English, there’s one Scotsman and one South African; and a token Australian. Seems to be the way in Western Australia, and Australia as a whole. We’re a diverse lot. All here for different reasons but for the next 6 days we’re here for one reason and one reason only, to run a marathon representing our country of choice, rather than our country of origin.
We weren’t the only ones running the marathon course ahead of next weeks big event. We spotted another couple of Australian singlets and at least two from the Netherlands, a possible Portuguese and I’m sure the French were out somewhere. I hope these guys have trained for the heat because we are expecting a hot day. Currently they are predicting 35c doe Saturday which doesn’t bode well for Sunday. It will be a tad cooler but not enough to negate the issue of heat and what it does to marathon runners.
Heat and Wind are two things which unfortunately can make all that hard work fruitless when chasing a PB. Unfortunately sometimes the elements can combine against you and nothing you do can beat Mother Nature when she conspires against you. This morning would have been a good morning to run the marathon as it was cool enough that if we had started at 6am we probably would have missed the heat. Next weekend we won’t be so lucky.
So how did you mitigate heat. The best thing is to adjust your pace at the start. You need to realise that heat will sap your strength and your body will need to work extra hard to maintain its core temperature. All this extra effort comes at a cost and that is your average pace. Another option is pre-race cooling which could be drinking a slushy before the race and/or cool towels hand carried until they are of no use.
Drinking water and more importantly electrolytes pre-race is another must do and this will be an even more important part of the 3 day carbo-loading process. You need to be fully hydrated pre-race as the drink you take onboard during the race is really self preservation.
I’m not painting a pretty picture am I, but this is a risk you take running a marathon in November. Luckily , as Mike discussed this morning over pancakes (for a change), we always have next year and most of us run 3-4 marathons a year and as such a good run is only a few months away. Running a good PB is a combination of proper training combined with ideal conditions on the day on a good marathon course.
Article from coach Jeff from Runners Connect on pre-race cooling. Worth a read…
What is Pre-cooling?
Running causes the core body temperature to rise, which is exacerbated in hot and humid conditions. Once an athlete’s core temperature reaches a certain threshold, significant declines in performance will occur. Pre-cooling is a technique used to slightly lower a runner’s core body temperature before they start running, which in turn extends the amount of time they can run hard before hitting that critical temperature threshold.
How does Pre-cooling work?
By pre-cooling the body, an athlete is able to lower their core body temperature, thus increasing the margin before they reach their critical temperature threshold and are forced to slow down. Furthermore, pre-cooling enables runners to draw on their reserves later in a run due to reduced thermal strain. This means you can finish off your workouts harder and also begin the recovery process faster.
Numerous studies have proven that heat is a major cause of performance decline in runners – and you’ve more than likely experienced it yourself this summer. However, recent studies have now confirmed that pre-cooling can significantly improve performance in hot and humid conditions. One study reported that pre-cooling can boost performance by 16%. A second study showed a 2.6 degree average core temperature difference after a 5k race between subjects who pre-cooled with a vest and those that did not.
How to get started
Ideally, runners looking to implement a pre-cooling strategy would use a cooling vest for 10-20 minutes prior to their run or during their warm-up. Hands down, cooling vests are the most effective product on the market for pre-cooling. Understandably, not every runner reading this article will want to shell out the money for a cooling vest, so I’ll give you two quick and cheap ways to try pre-cooling at home.
1. Freeze a paper cup of Gatorade or buy some freeze pops. 10-20 minutes before your next hard workout in the heat, eat the freeze pop or Gatorade slushy and get on your way. While a popsicle won’t cool your entire body quite like a cooling vest, you will see benefits during your run.
2. Grab a few hand towels or small bath towels and get them wet. Place them in the freezer overnight and put them on your neck, head and back 10-15 minutes before you head out for your workout. Warning, it will be shockingly cold at first, but you’ll appreciate it when you get back. Plus, if you put them back in the freezer, you can put them on again when you return for a nice treat!
Well after many weeks (months) preparing the World Masters is upon us. The first event I enrolled for was the 5k as I ran a 5k PB before my last marathon so thought a repeat would give me some confidence going into the World Masters marathon in a weeks time. Unfortunately there were several external factors I had not planned for and in the end I feel this race probably did more damage than good.
My week long holiday at Rottnest may not have been the most ideal preparation for the Masters and although I ran twice a day for the early part of the holiday I may have let myself go a bit with the ‘treats’. Truth be told my main treat of choice was a paleo banana bread which was probably good for me, the accompanying coffee was the problem. I must also confess to two glasses of wine which doesn’t sound a lot but it’s probably the same amount of alcohol I consumed for the previous 10 months. Add in tired legs from the half marathon and plenty of time scuba diving looking for crayfish and cycling everywhere and my first week taper was a bit of a disaster. (Although from a different viewpoint it was a great holiday and I’ve already booked in to Rotto’ again for next year, for the marathon this time, no more half marathons for me!!)
The Masters 5k was at the Ern Clarke Stadium in Cannington, Perth. I have raced a 10k in this stadium on three occasions previously. Must admit a 10k on the track is not my favourite race and running round a track 25 times can be a tad monotonous. How these runners who do 24 hour track ultras do it is beyond me ? (They must take solace in food of course because on a 400m track you are always within 400m of food…..) I wrongly assumed that 12.5 laps would be a lot easier. Today I was to be proved wrong.
The 5k was to start at 3:25pm but was a tad late so probably got under way nearer 4pm. This in itself was a problem as there was the issue with what to eat. I had decided earlier in the day that after breakfast I would use a Yelo muffin and coffee as my fuel for the race. I has these all done and dusted by 11am so logic dictated that by 3-4pm (after 1 banana) I would be ready to race. Truth be told I much prepare the 5k park run which starts at 8am and when I race these runs I normally do so on an empty stomach. Probably another mistake, Yelo muffins are not the prefect pre-5k meal. Pity.
It was windy which make the back straight feel pretty good but the home straight was a struggle. I did manage to get into a group for a few laps but was mostly battling alone.(Although I notice on the results a couple of French runners I had passed early seem to have magically finished a few seconds behind me. They are sneaky the French.)
I have attached the results below. Top 10 finish and 2nd Australian is a good result, position wise. I had hoped for a faster time but I feel the wind, racing last week, the late start, the American election etc. all played a part in me dropping 10-20 seconds. Truth be told I made a decision at the start to run with the leaders for the first few laps and a 3:11min/k first kilometre was, with hindsight, not the right thing to do. I did manage to put in another couple of half decent kilometres after that but the last two were a struggle, or should I say a ‘challenge‘.
Funnily enough I watching a 800m heptathlon heat before my 5k race and one of the runners bolted out of the traps like ‘greased lightning’, she probably has a 200m lead at the halfway mark. For the second lap it was obvious she had nothing left and she was nearly caught. What a difference a lap makes, even in an 800m race you can blow up. I did find some humour in that as I struggled home, though I would hope I did not look quite so ‘finished‘.
So what did I take from today.
- I am still not a fan of the track. Just too old I think.
- Went out too hard, too early and paid the price but that was always the game plan so got what I deserved.
- You can’t get a PB every time you put on a race singlet. (More’s the pity!)
- I need to be really careful with this last week of taper as i seem to have made a hash of the first one.
- Yelo muffins are not ideal pre-race nutrition. (This hurts the most.!)
After the Rottnest half last Sunday I entered the 2 week period all runners detest, the ‘taper.‘ As I have mentioned before as runners we like to run, when we want and normally as may times as we want. This is called ‘training’ and depending on your goals this can mean you get to run a lot. Running a lot is good, assuming of course you avoid the ‘I’ word ! (I’ll type it once but that’s it… injury. I even hate typing that word.)
At the end of a training block we are then faced with a 2-3 week taper period where we cut back on running to allow our weary legs to recover and better prepare for the goal race. It all sounds good to the untrained runner, they would think that after an intensive training block you’d be ready for some ‘downtime’. In theory of course you would think so but once we take our foot of the gas, so to speak, along comes ‘self doubt’ and his friends ‘niggles’, ‘I’m coming down with something’ and the worse of the lot ‘weight gain’. These four make the last 2 weeks pre-race a living hell for most runners.
Let’s start with the first one, ‘self doubt‘. I know I continually talk about trust in your training but even typing this I have a 5k race tomorrow at the Perth world Masters ( http://www.perth2016.com ) and because I have been on vacation for a week I am wondering if I can still run 5k. ! Ridiculous I know but after a day resting my old mate ‘self doubt’ has got to work. I’m lucky at the moment because after self doubt along comes ‘niggles’.
‘Niggles‘ is a bad one because after weeks of pushing yourself without the faintest thought of any issues all of a sudden every tendon and muscle in your legs, and/or anywhere in your body really, is starting to feel tight. Your hammy , which has been made of steel for months, now feels about to break in two if you move anywhere fast. Ankles and ITB’s start to feel they are about to implode and you are certain it’s all over.
Unfortunately it gets worse when ‘I’m coming down with something’ pops along and you are by now just about suicidal. How is it every single person you come into contact with has a cold and insists on sneezing on you, or in your vicinity ? The train journey is like sharing a carriage with the walking dead, everybody it seems has one purpose in life and that is to infect you.
Finally, after negotiating ‘self doubt, niggles’ and ‘I‘m coming down with something along comes’ the worst of the lot ‘weight gain’. After working so hard to get down to your running weight, even racing weight, you now have 2 weeks where the appetite is still there and thinks you’re running your training distances. Alas you have halved your distance and thus all of a sudden you feel you look like ‘Jabba the Hutt’! Of course it gets worse as the last few days pre-marathon you have to carbo-load. What idiot thought of this ? When you are already stressing over the smallest morsal of food you are now forced to stuff yourself silly for three days. How can this possibly help unless the course is downhill and the added weight is useful with gravity as a co-pilot?
We are a fragile lot runners and these four serve to make the 2-3 week taper a living hell. I know runners who cannot handle the taper and train right up to the event just to avoid the whole process. For an ultra there may be something in this. I wouldn’t recommend training as hard but if you really need to run there could be the option to train slower and ‘recover‘ while running. Unfortunately the carbo-loading is not to be avoided for any distance from the marathon up. Sorry guys but sometimes you just go to eat the odd muffin or two.
So I’m sitting here with my mate ‘self doubt‘ on my shoulder and I’m sure his three friends are just around the corner , waiting to pounce. You’d have thought after 40 marathons and 16 ultra-marathons I’d be ready for them, unfortunately not. Counting down the days to the World Masters Marathon because I love racing but also because after the marathon I can get back to what I love to do, run, and run a lot.. (maybe even add in a stack of pancakes or two because I can…)
Note: I actually outdid myself this time by adding extra pressure agreeing to a photoshoot for the local Sunday newspaper. So add ‘Pressure‘ to the four running nightmares. Wouldn’t have it any other way.
While I holiday with Rottnest I have made an effort to read as much as possible, in-between running of course. One of my favourite books is the running bible by Tim Noakes , ‘The Lore of Running’. A 921 page book of biblical proportions containing just about everything you ever need to know about running and more. It must be noted though, as pointed out by my friend Mike, ‘how can anyone write so much about running, it ain’t that complicated’.
There are hundreds of extracts I could post on the blog but this one section caught my eye this morning which I think is worth sharing. It describes the selfish runner syndrome and balancing running with life’s other commitments (There are other commitments ? ….) Noel Carroll, an Irish double Olympian, describes runners as an introvert lot. ‘They like keep their thoughts to themselves. Their behaviour is at best antisocial , at worst utterly selfish…‘
What amused me in the book by Noakes was a section where he offered pointers to avoid the selfish runner syndrome, or at least mask it. One of his offerings was :-
Don’t allow running to affect the way you carry out your household responsibilities. Doing so provides your family with a tangible reminder that they come second.
What a classic quote from a by-gone age (I think?). So runners if you load the dishwasher once in while and maybe even mow the lawn intermittently you may disguise the fact that running is far more important than your family.
It gets better,
Be aware of “danger times” – you will know what these are in your household. At these times, be at your most attentive and, at all costs, do not open your mail to see if your running magazines have arrived, discuss running, or, worst of all, go for a run. Weekends too must be handled carefully to ensure that running conflicts as little as possible with the family’s weekend recreation.
Not sure what to do when I live in ‘danger times’ constantly. ? Luckily we now have the internet so I can pretend to answer emails while secretly reading my online running magazines.
One last gold nugget from Noakes.
Don’t get overtired. As a runner with a family you just have to accept that, for the sake of your family, you simply can’t train hard enough to run your best. That is the price that must, realistically, be paid.
He is a wise man Noakes, I just hope my Wife never meets him or reads this.
All joking aside, which I assume Noakes was doing when he wrote these little gems, family life and running are not ideal bed partners. I often say to my non-running colleagues that I run early morning before the family awakes and lunchtime , when the family are miles away. Truth be told this has the knock on affect of course that after I read my youngest her bed time story I sneak off to bed myself, leaving my Wife to do whatever she does for a few hours. (‘Karen time’ I think she calls it )
When I was training for Comrades in 2008/2009 and 2010 I have three young Daughters. After my long runs, which would sometimes be up to 50k, I would return home and like limpets the girls were on me, excited to see their Dad return. Karen, my Wife, would of course then hand then over as she had looked after the girls till then. It made the afternoons as challenging as the previous 50k of running. Many times I would bundle the girls in to the car and find a park where I would position myself to watch over them from beneath the shade of a tree but that would be my contribution. The legs would be stiff and tired from the mornings exercise where as the girls were full of life. Sacrifices had to be make. Looking back I can see why most ultra-runners are older as after the mornings training nothing would have beaten a nap, after a good sized lunch of course.
Funnily enough I only started to run marathons ,and then ultra-marathons, when I had my third daughter, I’m not sure if it was a conscience decision but running further, although harder, was still easier than looking after three young daughters, I’m sure Noakes would understand, not so sure about Karen.
As I get older I have managed to keep my love of running and even managed to up the training but this has the negative affect on any other sporting activity with my girls. Basketball, Tennis and Netball are all far too dangerous to an ageing runner who is one bad injury from retirement. As soon as any ball based game is offered I retort with how dangerous it would be for ‘my hammy’ and runners are ‘built to go in straight lines not move from side to side !’ The girls are less than impressed, another sacrifice us selfish runners make.
Truth be told my family does realise that running is important to me and they also realise it has stolen time that would have normally be assigned for them. Because of this they are flippant to the point of uninterested in any of my achievements which is a pity because it would be nice if they were to share in my successes (or failures) but it seems I may have not followed Noakes successfully enough.
Running is a selfish sport and families do suffer because of it but I would hope my family realises that although I love my running nothing is more important to me than family. (Just don’t tell them I said that!)
Running can be a lifetime commitment and in my opinion of course should be. If you can avoid injury and maintain the passion there is no need to ever stop running. Discussing this topic with my friend Dan he raised a good point that company is another factor that can prolong your running career.
Running with friends encourages participation, if only for the banter afterwards over pancakes. In sunny Perth I have running friends who I have met over the years and together we formed the St. Georges Terrace Running Club. (We all work on St. Georges Terrace in Perth hence the name) This entailed purchasing some great running tops (see below) which we actually had professionally designed and made. As a group run together most lunchtimes, encourage each other, offer advice and race together.
Over the last 8 years I have met so many great runners who have become good friends and this week in Rottnest I holidayed with my friends Jon, Dan and Paul and their families; all people I have met through our love of running. So this bond keeps you running as before long you’ll find most of your friends are runners and you need to run to be able to add to the conversations, which invariably are about a new race to enter or current running goals etc.
As well as the St. Georges Terrace Club I am also a member of the West Australian Marathon Club. ( http://www.wamc.org.au ) (WAMC) and this is another source of good friends who I race against but also share the same love of all things running. The WAMC put on around 30 events a year ranging from 4k unto 64k and each one is run and organised by volunteers.
Without these friends I would have found it difficult to maintain the passion as, although I enjoy some ‘Kev time‘ running alone , I also enjoy the banter running with a group. So I encourage all runners to seek out like minded people and spend time running with them. It will be a major factor in the length of your running career as when these runners become your friends spending time with them will encourage you to lace up the trainers.
It also helps at the end of the run as no one likes eating pancakes alone in the cafe.
Running has become more and more popular not seen since the days of the Sony Walkman revolution of the early eighties when for the first time you could run with music. (To the young generation amongst us we used a thing called a ‘tape’, analog not digital music. ) People new to running inevitably join a running club or run with more experienced friends and before they know it they’ve signed up for their first race. This is a good thing as I believe you never push yourself as much as when the competitive juices start to flow with a racing bib on your chest. One thing leads to another and before too long you’ve entered your first half or full marathon.
Invariably this distance is conquered and you’ve informed all your friends via Facebook and normally your work colleagues via daily updates on your progress. The problem arises though when the marathon doesn’t seem to cut it for kudos like it use to. In the office there seems to be quite a few marathoners and worse most are faster than you. You start to get compared to John in accounts who ran sub3 or even Sheila in Purchasing who ran has ran 10 marathons while juggling family commitments and a busy career. So these days to get some real kudos it’s time to take this running to the next level, the ultra-marathon.
The ultra has the added benefit of the slower you run the more kudos you get where as the marathon is these days about not only completing it but also setting a good time. Non runners are getting use to people telling them they’ve ran a marathon and have responded asking how long they took. Again they are wise to what they consider a good time and if you reply ‘4 hours’ they look at you with pity an asked ‘what went wrong’? Not so with the ultra-marathon. Because it is still not mainstream a non runner has no idea what a good or bad time is for an ultra and even if they did the distance can be varied to confuse them. Remember an ultra is anything longer than a marathon distance, it can be 42.3k upwards.
The ultra gets even better, they tend to be in far flung locations and have pretty serious titles, again earning kudos points. How good does an ‘ultra-marathon in Death Valley‘ sound. Death valley, c’mon, if that doesn’t get serious kudos around the drink fountain nothing will. Ok, Sheila from Purchasing has ran 10 marathons but she’s never ran an ultra-marathon in Death Valley. They have no idea where Death Valley is or even what an ultra-marathon is but who cares, you are now the running god in the office, someone who wouldn’t waste their time with silly ‘girl distance’ like marathons. The universe is realigned and you can ‘strut’ around the office yet gain.
The only downside to this new running adventure is the office folk then look to you for more and more longer distances and/or exotic locations. After your first ultra you can never repeat that distance as non-runners , although initially impressed , soon become impervious to distance running unless there is a serious upgrade or the location adds some spice. e.g. The Marathon Des Sable ( http://www.marathondessables.com/en/), the toughest footrace on Earth. ! ( ..On Earth? are they saying there’s a tougher footrace not on earth, the Moon 100k maybe? Now that would be worth talking about !??)
A word of warning of course you may come across the non runner who knows a thing or two about ultra-running and while you strut around the office sprouting off about a 100k race on the local trails, basking in the adulation of the finance department, they walk past and grunt it was ‘no Marathon Des Sables’. Instantly your credibility is destroyed and you sneak off back to your desk plotting your next adventure.
So to some up an ultra marathon may fill the void in the office kudos states. It has the benefit of still being relatively hardcore, in the view of the uneducated, allows you to focus on distance and not time (to counter that nasty sub3 runner in Accounts) and even allows you to slow down and take your time as the longer you take will actually earn more brownie points. I won’t even start to mention the extra equipment you get to buy and use on ultra-marathons. The wardrobe options are endless and include camelbacks, gators, water belts and my mate Mark’s favourite a cappuccino machine. ! (He doesn’t actually bring along a cappuccino machine but he wore a water belt once that had so many accessories he might as well have!) This can become more of a hindrance than a help as I always remember feeling my mate TB’s camelback at the end of the 6 inch ultra-marathon ( http://www.6inchtrailmarathon.com ) and it must have weighted 10k; and that was at the END of the race not the beginning !!
The 6 inch is a good example of the small step up needed from the marathon distance. Remember anything longer than a marathon is classed an ultra. The 6 inch is 46k (assuming you don’t get lost, which I have on a number of occasions!), so for that extra 4k you get to shoot down Sheila in Purchasing as you’ve ran an ultra-marathon and as everybody knows so much harder than the silly marathon…
So lookout Sheila, we’re coming for you ?
