Questions for marathon runners

[lostmedstudent]

hello

i am currently training for my first ever marathon. due to my busy schedule, i am no where near ready for my marathon. my highest weekly mileage is 50km (30 miles), and my longest distance so far in my training is 20k. i have done 2 half marathon races in the past, my best one was 2hours. 

in my training, i often hit the bunk. i eat before and i bring gels with me, but at about 20k i usually hit the bunk pretty bad even if i carb up the few days before. i also only run in my training. i do a bit of swimming on the side but no strength training. should i start doing some strength training? if so what kind and which muscles especially?

i was wondering if you guys have any tips for the first marathon? i am pretty nervous. i dont have high goals, i just want to finish it without injuring myself. should i start super super slow? should i bring A LOTTTTTT OF gels? should i drink coffee?? what has been the most useful technique / mindset that has helped you in your marathons?

in the end, i just had to increase my mileage gradually but my marathon is in a month so i dont think ill be ready . so i am hoping to get some last minute tips. and possibly more long terms techniques / advice for my next marathon and half marathons!

thanks all for your help!

Edited April 24, 2019 by lostmedstudent

[Hellspeed]

Breath and channeling Kundalini is crucial, otherwise you deplete the muscles 10x faster.

[outlandish]

Your body can only store enough glycogen to power you running for around 90mins, 2 hours absolute max, so carb loading will only get you part way there for a marathon. Gels have around 100 cals in them, and when you're running you can be burning 600-800cal/hour pretty easily. Your fat reserves do provide some energy, but you can't burn fat fast enough to keep up*.

I'm guessing you simply need to eat more during your run. You mentioned you're pretty young, your metabolism is probably running pretty high. I'd experiment with eating more during your run. They say you can only absorb around 30-60g of carb per hour, so that's just a bit more than one or two gels per hour, gels have about 25g of carb each. I've found I can take on a bit more than that, but you have to experiment to find out. If you're doing gels, try forcing yourself to take one every 30mins and see how that goes. Have you already tried that?

Personally I can't handle gels, they make me feel sick, and too much garbage, so I stick to bars or maltodextrin dissolved in my water.

Definitely practice your fuelling before your race.

Go out slow in your start of the marathon, try to run an even pace through the race, which will feel super slow at the beginning. 

A month out from your race, don't bother trying to throw on any strength training at this point. Try to have a really big volume week this week, and make sure you taper adequately during the 2-3 weeks before the race.

Coffee helps too, for sure.

*unless you're on a keto diet and a lot of training to be fat adapted, and even then you won't be able to perform at a high level for marathon. There's a reason why no top marathon athletes are doing this - it's been tried and carbs still win.

[Forestluv]

@lostmedstudent The problem isn't your fuel source, it is the body's conditioning. In particular, it lacks LSD (long, slow , distance). This is the most important aspect of an endurance marathon. The body needs to be able to improve it's fat burning efficiency through sub-lactate threshold slow runs. Like below 65% of your heart-rate-max. That will feel slooow. This helps to improve energy metabolism off of carbohydrates toward fats. It also has a host of other benefits such as building more capillaries, increasing mitochondria etc.

I've run several marathons on about 35k/week, yet some of those weeks included a 35k run (I only ran once that week). A 20k long run is super low, unless you are doing the whole run as an extended tempo run and doing cross training.

I've found it best to do my last long run 3 weeks out before race day and begin to taper. Based on your training, I would consider switching to the half-marathon if available. I think it's still possible to run the full marathon without causing excessive stress to your mind-body if it is a relatively flat race course and you get decent weather. If it's a hilly course with hot weather, that would make it much more difficult.

If I were to do the full marathon. . . keep in mind that any training you do takes about 10-14 days to get integrated into your body, so you really only have 1-2 weeks of training left. I would say the most important thing is to get in a real long run. It doesn't have to be fully running. Walk-run it. Yet you've got to get both your mind and body into a new zone - for both time and distance. I would say at least 30k, better 35k. If you can do 35k, you can finish the full marathon. Again, I would walk and run. The continuous movement and energy metabolism is most important. As well as the psychological aspect. Take headphones. Run with friends, whatever it takes. it's fine to push yourself to exhaustion to with "good hurt", yet don't push into "bad hurt" - such as intense pain in a joint telling you to stop. I would plan to not have to do anything else that day productive.

In addition to the above long run, I would slightly increase the mileage with an emphasis on a few "tempo runs". This is the second most important marathon workout - it is shorter run with a pace that is "comfortably hard". Yet, I would not increase the mileage or distance too drastically. The above long run will tax the body a lot. I would not do any strength or speed work training at this point. It is too close to race day and you don't have the base to support it.

I would also get out of the mindset that you have to continuously run the whole thing nonstop to count it as "finishing". I would say that is too much at this point. There is no shame in run-walking a marathon or ultra-marathon. The top endurance runners - run-walk their ultras. 

[lostmedstudent]

@outlandish @Serotoninluv

thank you so so much!!! i will focus on long runs from now on and start really slow!!

i will keep you guys updated with the results. i really appreciate your advice <3