Crucial little bit of any marathon coaching block is consistency. No single exercise goes to make the distinction as to if you obtain your aim time on race day—it’s the cumulative impact of months of normal working that makes the distinction.
That mentioned, when you’ve run a couple of marathons, sure exercises stick within the thoughts as having proved nice markers of your health as you method the occasion, and for being gratifying classes total.
I’m at present coaching for the London Marathon, which can be my thirteenth marathon and the eleventh I’ve accomplished with the identical coach. Whereas my coach all the time finds one thing recent to deal with each coaching cycle, one exercise that has been a daily characteristic of my build-up to races is a sequence of 3km reps at my goal race tempo damaged up by a 1km float restoration.
I’ve accomplished variations of this exercise with 5, six or seven 3km reps, so what number of you do will depend upon the general quantity you’re working and your expertise. I often do it two to 3 weeks earlier than race day.
The 3km reps are accomplished at your aim race tempo or barely slower, and the floats are at a tempo about 30 seconds per kilometer slower (48 seconds per mile slower, if utilizing miles in your race tempo). The floats shouldn’t really feel robust, however additionally they shouldn’t be fully simple both. My high tip is to be sure to don’t run the floats early on within the exercise too quick, that’s a recipe for catastrophe.
Relying on what number of 3km reps you do, plus the space of your heat up and funky down, the exercise often ends being 25-30km lengthy, with a protracted stint working at your aim race tempo. For those who can knock out a number of 3km blocks at race tempo with solely float recoveries in the direction of the top of a marathon coaching plan, it’s an important signal that you just’ll have the ability to maintain that tempo on race day after getting tapered.
Ending this exercise feeling clean and managed is a large confidence enhance and in my expertise it’s often adopted by a profitable race. Conversely, for those who do the exercise and must work onerous to carry the tempo throughout the 3km efforts, it could possibly be an indication the tempo shouldn’t be fairly there but. Don’t despair if that’s the case although, it is also an indication that you just didn’t sleep properly that evening, are a bit in poor health, or are simply having a foul day.
It’s additionally an excellent exercise for practising your fueling technique for the race, as a result of you’ll be able to street take a look at carrying and utilizing your gels and drinks whereas truly working at race tempo for lengthy intervals. I often gasoline throughout the exercise as if it’s the marathon itself, carrying all the pieces I would like for the total distance with me, even when I don’t plan to make use of all of it.
It is a robust exercise and one final thing I’d say about it’s that it’s price discovering a flat, comparatively clear loop to do it in, ideally with none site visitors—a park loop is often an excellent guess. Most marathons provide closed, flat roads and making an attempt to hit the tempo you propose to run in these circumstances in coaching—whereas crossing busy roads and dodging pedestrians—is so much more durable.
