Last week I told you about how to approach long distances. Today I go into detail explaining everything you need to evaluate to prepare for a “long” race.
The term long distance is very vague. For some athletes, running 18 to 20 kilometers already represents a challenging workout. If you are preparing races from the marathon on up you probably consider any session approaching and exceeding 30 kilometers to be long. The last pre-race test if you prepare a 100 can go up to 60, 70 kilometers.
Whatever the specific distance, in any case it is a very demanding workout that requires the right physical and mental preparation. So many times I explain to athletes that it is much harder to run a 35-kilometer long solo course than a 42-kilometer marathon. The reason is simple: during a race you are not only running with hundreds or thousands of other athletes but also within in a challenging and very competitive environment.
What are the aspects you need to take care of in preparing for a race such as a marathon or an ultra?
The first key factor is volume. You need a minimum amount of miles per week that will allow you to build your aerobic base, increase your endurance, and generate all the adaptations at the organic level that will allow you to sustain this kind of effort. One of the most important is definitely the ability to use fats as a primary source of energy.
Beyond running, you can also incorporate muscle-building sessions. I know your first thought is always to run and do as many hours of training as possible but in reality there are other training aspects. Several studies have now shown that an increase in recruited muscle fibers and your overall strength are associated with better results in long and very long distance competitions.
Training patience…
You read it right-one aspect you need to train is patience. It may sound strange to you, but that’s exactly what it is. Being able to repeat for miles and miles and especially for many hours the same athletic gesture is not trivial. You must develop the ability to handle a difficult effort with continuity and regularity. Patience is what you need to keep your concentration up throughout the training or the whole race. You don’t have to have deadlifts that cause you to slow down or lose motivation within the same workout. If you struggle to handle longer workouts at first and often stop more because of lack of motivation than because of energy or muscle problems, you need to work on the mental aspects. You must keep your concentration high at all times and be prepared to face this kind of difficulty.
One of the tricks I use with my athletes is to split the longer workouts into multi-lap workouts. If you have to do 30 km arrange to do it in 6 laps of 5 km. In this way you can increase your mental strength. Your brain will get used to facing the same stretch of road several times. It will be like having to overcome an obstacle each time only to find it in front of you again. Multi-lap is more tedious, but because of this, it will become easier to deal with an inline race. The advantage is that once you acquire patience and greater mental strength during training then you will also find them in everyday life with the benefits you can imagine in work, family and social relationships. Never neglect the mental aspects that are the ones that make the difference when fatigue begins to take over in the final miles of any long-distance race.
“Low intensity” is the way!
From a specific training standpoint, the basis of your training should be low-intensity running, that is, paces below your aerobic threshold. The key to this is volume. You will have to agree with your coach what is the maximum training volume you can sustain not only in physical terms but also taking into account your daily schedule. If you train alone you will need to assess well your current fitness level and your experience in long races. The important thing will always be to proceed in stages, alternating days and weeks of loading with days of rest and lighter weeks. In your unloading week you need to reduce especially the volume while keeping short work done at a good intensity. To reduce the risk of injury but also mental and physical stress, you can divide your first very long runs into two separate runs to be done at different times of the day. For example, 20 km in the morning and 15 in the afternoon for a marathon or 30 in the morning and 20 in the afternoon in preparation for an ultra marathon.
You can use specific strategies to make your long runs more trainable: you cannot cover the distance of the race in training lest you run into overload problems and still have too long recovery times. You can train over shorter distances, such as fasting, and without energy replenishment. Or you could insert a medium pace in the last few miles of a long run. In both cases you achieve total (or nearly total) glycogen depletion by reproducing physical and psychological sensations of the last miles of a race.
Slow running represents the largest investment of your time and can be as high as 80 percent of the total volume. However, you must not neglect the rest; short, fast repetitions both on the flat and uphill are very important because, in addition to making your training more complete from a metabolic and muscular point of view, they can improve your running technique. Always running slowly over time tends to worsen your running dynamics. Short, fast work helps you improve your stance phase, push phase and body position. The pursuit of speed and maximum stride efficiency must be part of your technical background even if you aim for long distances.
Study the route
Always remember to take good care of the specificity of the race you are preparing. Is this a flat race or an uphill race? Is the running surface asphalt or will you be running a trail on difficult and very technical trails? Whatever your goal is, it is important to include specific, race-related workouts so that you are ready in all respects to deal with any situation of terrain, elevation and even weather.
(Main image credit: MikeIAllica on DepositPhotos.com)