A very powerful little bit of any marathon coaching block is consistency. No single exercise goes to make the distinction as to if you obtain your objective time on race day—it’s the cumulative impact of months of standard working that makes the distinction.
That stated, when you’ve run just a few marathons, sure exercises stick within the thoughts as having proved nice markers of your health as you method the occasion, and for being fulfilling periods general.
I’m presently coaching for the London Marathon, which will likely be my thirteenth marathon and the eleventh I’ve executed with the identical coach. Whereas my coach at all times 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 executed variations of this exercise with 5, six or seven 3km reps, so what number of you do will rely upon the general quantity you’re working and your expertise. I often do it two to a few weeks earlier than race day.
The 3km reps are executed at your objective 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 on your race tempo). The floats shouldn’t really feel robust, however additionally they shouldn’t be utterly straightforward both. My high tip is to be sure you 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 gap of your heat up and funky down, the exercise often ends being 25-30km lengthy, with a protracted stint working at your objective race tempo. If you happen to can knock out a number of 3km blocks at race tempo with solely float recoveries in direction of the top of a marathon coaching plan, it’s a terrific signal that you simply’ll have the ability to maintain that tempo on race day after you have tapered.
Ending this exercise feeling easy and managed is a large confidence increase and in my expertise it’s often adopted by a profitable race. Conversely, for those who do the exercise and need to work arduous to carry the tempo through the 3km efforts, it might be an indication the tempo is just not fairly there but. Don’t despair if that’s the case although, it is also an indication that you simply didn’t sleep properly that evening, are a bit unwell, or are simply having a foul day.
It’s additionally a great exercise for working towards your fueling technique for the race, as a result of you possibly can highway take a look at carrying and utilizing your gels and drinks whereas truly working at race tempo for lengthy durations. I often gas through the exercise as if it’s the marathon itself, carrying every thing I want for the complete distance with me, even when I don’t plan to make use of all of it.
This can be a robust exercise and one final thing I’d say about it’s that it’s value discovering a flat, comparatively clear loop to do it in, ideally with none visitors—a park loop is often a great guess. Most marathons supply closed, flat roads and making an attempt to hit the tempo you intend to run in these situations in coaching—whereas crossing busy roads and dodging pedestrians—is quite a bit more durable.
