On March 7, 2016, I ran my first marathon in the new running season. Only 10 people ran the full distance, and 20 people still ran half the distance. However, he is completely official, so to speak, and is included in the CLB classification on the Run.org website. The result did not suit me, to put it mildly. The total time is 2 hours 53 minutes 6 seconds.
The difficulty of the marathon was, first of all, that the track ran through an ordinary park. The turn was carried out around the flower bed, that is, there was no bend at all. And there were 112 sharp turns along the entire distance.
In this article I want to talk about the circumstances preceding the marathon. Perhaps my experience will be useful to someone.
Sick before the marathon
5 days before the start, I fell ill with a cold. But since I understood that I would soon run a marathon, the day on which I felt unwell I devoted myself entirely to treatment. In general, the symptoms were removed. At night I was thoroughly “fried”, and in the morning I was already in a normal state.
Unfortunately, any disease, even if it is quickly cured, does not pass without leaving a trace when running at such distances.
The morning before the marathon, I woke up with a wild sore throat. I had to get up at 5 am and gargle with salt. There were no other signs of illness. But already at that moment I realized that the body was weakened and I could not show the maximum. Therefore, I decided to change the tactics that I had planned in advance, more about it below.
Marathon eyeliner
For a year and a half I have been trying to find the most correct eyeliner for a competition. Traditional ways don't work for me. So I'm experimenting.
This time it was decided to start the eyeliner two weeks before the start. That meant a 20 percent reduction in running volume, and two 10 and 5 km pulls at the start and end of the week at a pace just above the marathon.
During the week, the volume has decreased by another 30 percent. And that he reached 100 km. A week before the start, I did only slow crosses, in which I included 2-3 km accelerations at the pace of a marathon.
It turned out that such a regime relaxed me too much, and the body was no longer in good shape.
In early December, I ran a training marathon, to which I did not make eyeliners, and ran it in 2 hours 44 minutes.
Therefore, the next experiment will be to continue training as usual until the moment when there are 3 days left before the start. Then take away intense workouts. Remove strength exercises only a week before the start.
Marathon running tactics
The best running tactic in a marathon is to start with a calmer start so that you have enough strength to finish. No "touch" at the beginning of the distance will help you show you better results than the most even running.
But since I understood that I still can't show a good result at the marathon, I decided to make the marathon purely training and work out two parameters on it.
1. Run the fastest time possible at a pace of 3.43 per kilometer, which is the target pace for the 2.37 time in the marathon that I am aiming for this season.
2. It is easy to endure the rest of the distance, regardless of the result and speed, training a purely psychological moment - "patience", which is extremely important in a marathon.
As a result, at the right pace, I managed to hold out for about 20 km. The half marathon took 1 hour 19 minutes. If we take into account the “excellent turn” at every turn, which was 112 throughout the marathon, then we can safely say that I ran the starting segment with a decent margin relative to the required time, since on each such turn, about 2 seconds of net time was lost, in addition to that the constant change of pace, to which I was not used, took extra strength.
I crawled the rest of the distance. With each lap, my pace dropped. The last laps I was already running at a slow pace.
As a result, the first half was completed in 1 hour 19 minutes. and the second in 1 hour 34 minutes.
Conclusions on preparation
Due to the large training volumes, endurance was not to be occupied. However, due to the lack of good interval training, special running exercises, and speed training, the legs could not maintain the entire distance at the declared pace.
Therefore, the next stage of preparation will be focused on the SBU, in particular on multi-hops. And I will also add uphill running to better include the calf muscles - they were the ones that prevented me from running.
Psychological aspects of the marathon
This marathon became a real test for my psyche. I don't even like to train in an ordinary stadium, because it is psychologically difficult for me to run a lot of circles. And then a marathon of 56 laps.
When 5 km is left before the finish line, it is perceived calmly, but 7 laps (753 meters each) sound much worse.
I admire people who can do a daily run in the arena, where the circle is generally 200 meters. For this, the psyche must not be killed at all. For me, even 25 laps per 10 km in a stadium is hard labor. And 56 laps with a sharp U-turn in a marathon is mental murder. That is why I decided to go to it - I must somehow train this parameter.
After the marathon
There were no “waste workers”. The next day, as such, pain in the muscles, which would somehow interfere with walking, was not observed. Instead of a jogging hitch, I made a short bike ride, at the same time opening the cycling season.
But the cold was activated with renewed vigor, since instead of being treated, the body wasted energy on running. Therefore, this was to be expected.
The next start is scheduled for March 20 - 15 km. It is intermediate, I do not expect any definite results from it. It will show how quickly I adapt from the marathon.
The next marathon is scheduled for May 1 - the Volgograd International Victory Marathon. I will try to prepare thoroughly for it.
