In the Dec 15th Feature Article “How Many Weeks Before Your Marathon Should You Run Your Last Long Run”, we concluded that it is best to conduct your last long run four weeks prior to your marathon.
Without a long run during the last four weeks, won’t you lose fitness, compromising your ability to run the marathon at your true potential?
Don’t worry! These four weeks provide the opportunity to continue high quality training. As you recover from your last long run, incorporate a variety of speed workouts (assuming they were part of your training program) that will result in improving other factors that will affect marathon performance, e.g. running economy, speed and VO2max (maximum capacity of an individual’s body to transport and use oxygen during exercise).
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Many marathoners run their last long training run two or three weeks before race day. After all, doesn’t it make sense to run your last “biggie” reasonably close to your race to derive maximum benefit and bolster your endurance? You recover during your taper, don’t you?
Running your last long run this close to race day is a critical training error. During a long run, leg muscles sustain considerable damage. Contractile fibres get damaged or destroyed. Until the muscle tissue has repaired itself, the propulsive force that your leg muscles can exert is decreased, hindering your ability to maintain running at race pace over long distance.
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We are pleased to announce the first annual IAWR Women’s Running Telesummit. This unique event will be held November 29th – December 2nd, featuring five presentations from guest experts over the course of four days.
You can phone in and listen to each presentation from the comfort of your home, office or car. And – registration is free!
Learn how to:
- Train more efficiently and effectively so that you can improve your running without spending extra precious time
- Practice optimal nutrition for performance and maintaining your ideal weight
- Prevent, diagnose and treat injuries so that you can avoid frustrating layoffs that derail your progress
- Improve your running performance as you age
Join other women who share your passion for running and discover:
- Practical strategies for busy women to carve out time to get in your daily run
- How the women’s running community is revolutionizing both the running industry and fundraising
And more!
Click on Women’s Running Telesummit to find out who is speaking and when!
The Athlete’s Kitchen
Copyright: Nancy Clark MS RD CSSD October 2010
Sports Snacks: Food Suggestions for Fueling Hungry Runners
“What should I eat before I exercise?” That’s a key question—as well as what to eat during extended exercise—that runners commonly ask me, a sport nutritionist. While they know the words carbs, proteins and fats, they often don’t know how to translate those words into food choices. Hence, the goal of this article is to offer specific food suggestions to fit a variety of exercise situations. This is far from a complete list! Please be sure to experiment with new pre- and during-exercise foods to learn which ones settle best in your gut, don’t “talk back” and enhance your performance.
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We are pleased to announce that Kathrine Switzer has joined the IAWR as a Guest Expert. A true pioneer in women’s running, Kathrine is the most influential women runner to date. Not only was she the first woman to officially run the Boston Marathon, she also led the movement to have the women’s marathon included in the Olympics, created programs in 27 countries for over 1 million women and forever changed the world’s paradigm of women and running.
Each issue of the IAWR newsletter contains practical information that you can easily apply to get more from your running, racing and a healthy lifestyle. To start receiving our weekly email newsletter, click on info@iawr-connect.com and put your first name and email address in the Subject line.
by Dr. Kate Hays
It’s the day before your first marathon and you’re wondering: What on earth have I gotten myself into, anyway? Good question!
I hope you’ve done your training, whether with a running group, an online running coach, or careful attention to a running clinic-type training program. Marathons—and half-marathons—have become increasingly popular. Last year, nearly ½ a million completed a marathon in the U.S. Among other things, that means that some people will think: “If so many people are doing it, I can too.” Which may well be true…if you train sufficiently.
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We are pleased to announce that Dr. Kate Hays has joined the IAWR as a Guest Expert. Dr. Hays is a psychologist specializing in sport psychology and performance psychology. She founded the very successful Toronto Marathon Psyching Team; as a recreational runner, she is especially passionate about working with runners. In her sport psychology work, she focuses on both the mental skills associated with optimal performance as well as the mental benefits of physical activity.
Prior to her move to Toronto in 1997, Dr. Hays’ training and practice occurred in the U.S. northeast. Internationally recognized for her scholarship and innovative practice, she served as president of the Division of Exercise and Sport Psychology of the American Psychological Association and continues to maintain leadership positions in psychological organizations in both Canada and the U.S. Dr. Hays has authored five books as well as numerous chapters and articles on the intersections of sport, exercise, psychotherapy, performance psychology, and positive psychology.
Each issue of the IAWR newsletter contains practical information that you can easily apply to get more from your running, racing and a healthy lifestyle. To start receiving our weekly email newsletter, click on info@iawr-connect.com and put your first name and email address in the Subject line.
Running a long run every weekend is a common error that many runners commit. It can take several days to recover from the pounding that your legs endure during a long run. This has a negative impact on performing high quality workouts in the subsequent week and increases the risk of injury, especially for marathoners.
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Reader Rebecca writes:
I am 64 years old and started running at 58 yrs. I look forward to your newsletter and often share your ideas and comments with my other runner friends. My running girl friends are a bit younger and come in a different shapes and sizes and speed.
I celebrate the fact that we are out there running for health, exercise and FUN. Some of us feel like we don’t count because we are not in front of the pack to speak. There tends to be some running snobs in our town!! Our lives are not all about pace, personal bests, etc.
However, I would like to qualify for Boston. I have done many half marathons and 5 full ones. I am a 5 hour marathoner. Last year, I ran my best half marathon, 2:07 at the Road2Hope in Hamilton.
I turn 65 in December. Well, just to say I qualified for Boston………………
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While cleaning my office, I came across an article that I had printed that appeared last October in the New York Times. “Plodders Have a Place, but Is It in a Marathon?”
Author Juliet Macur points out that from 1980 – 2008, the number of marathon finishers in the United States increased from 143,000 to 425,000. During this time period, the median finishing time for women increased from 4:03:39 to 4:43:32. For men, the slowdown was more dramatic, from 3:32:17 to 4:16. This trend is being driven by the increase in participation, largely by slower runners……………and some veteran runners are not happy!
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"The Seven Deadly Sins In Preparing for Your Race" Report - Download Your FREE Copy Here!
