My 2 Cents on Tapering, Pre Marathon and During Race Routine

This coming SIM08, I would be pacing my wife again for the second time

for the full distance. The first one went pretty well and set a 4:57

in KLIM08. A few friends also interested in tagging along and they asked

about pre marathon routine. Well, here it is what I normally

practised, developed and fine tuned from my previous nine marathons experiences.




I must say that I bear no expertise in any medical, physical education

qualifications or things like that, and I advised you to take what I said

with a grain of salt. These are just my two cents...




(1)Sleep well and Enough
During the taper phase, I would slowly increase the
number of sleeping hours I am getting. I would first goto bed half an hour

earlier than before for a few days, then an hour earlier,etc.
I slowly train myself and build the habit that I am able to sleep at about 9

o'clock, which is what I need to do the night before the marathon.


When you travel for a marathon, Friday is is the most important day for

getting the quality sleep in. I personally call it the Zzz(read triple z) loading day. Take a day off if it is affordable and sleep in on Friday, as Saturday will usually be fully occupied by the hassle of traveling, bib
collection, hotel checking in, etc.

If it is a home run, then the Zzz loading day should be on Saturday.

(2)Eat Right
A few days after the Longest Long Run, I would go into the tapering phase
of a marathon program. During this phase, I would eat LESS than normal.

The reason behind is I don't want to risk gaining extra few pounds
while mileage is being scale down significantly.

But eating less does not mean eating badly. I would pay more attention on the

nutricient and quality of the food that I am taking in. More vege, more

fruilt, more high quality protein(lean beef,fish), etc. Just make sure that

the TOTAL INTAKE CALORIE IS LESS THAN MY EXPENDITURE so that I don't gain

weight.

(I WOULD BE MORE THAN HAPPY IF I ABLE TO SHAVE OFF a few pounds).

But two days (Friday and Saturday) before the big race, I would shift my diet
to more carbo oriented, it means I eat more rice, cut down heavily on high
fiber food like vege, fruit, etc. The reason behind is that the high fiber
food will make your feces soft and you would tend to have unneeded

irritating bowel movement during the race (it took about two days for the
feces formation and thus the two days of avoiding fiber food).

(3)PRE RACE MEAL
I usually take some solid food like rice THREE HOURS before the race. I

would also take some(little bit) of lean white meat like chicken breast.

The reason behind this is not to top off your muscle glycogen, but your
liver's.

I would hold a bottle of 100+ or Gastorade going to the race staring point
and empty it just 5 minutes before the race start( Too early and you end up

line up fot the loo). Then, I would normally
skip the first and second water station (5km,7.5km). I would then drink
on every water station afterward (this year, I would try to drink every
5K and it means every alternating water station).


(4)UP THE TRAINING INTENSITY AND DOWN THE MILEAGE

I normally taper only with two weeks. I found that three weeks is too long,
and when I am really fit after the intense phase III of the marathon training
program, I would have a very hard time holding myself back in the tapering
phase, and that three week seems lije eternity...


To balance things out while I scale down the mileage, I normally have more
shorter quality runs like fast tempo, short intervals, striders, etc.

I would not do any all out quality run so that I would not be spent, picking

up or aggravate any injury.


(5)NURSE YOUR INJURY DURING TAPER
After the Longest long run, your primary goal is to get yourself into a
state most suitable for undertaking the 42.2K feat.

Do all the neccasary icing, messaging, NSAIDing, etc., to nurse any nagging
injury. Avoid anything that will aggravate any existing injury that you have.

If you have to rest, then by all means go ahead skipping those tempo runs,
interval runs, or anything that stand a chance complicating the heeling

process.


(6)Potassium Loading
I personally believe in potassium loading before the race to prevent
muscle cramp from happeing. I normall potassium load two days earlier
before the race and then take one tablet just before the race.

I potassium load with a potassium tablet obtained from pharmacy which is
a slow release version. During the two days of potassium loading, I
took two tablets per day after meal.


(7)NSAID(Non Steroidal Anti Inffalamtion Drugs)
I am well aware that NSAID will cause less blood flowing to the kidney, that
is why I would not recommend NSAID too easily.

I recommend that one tablet to be taken just before the race and may be

another one at 15K/20K if needed.

Don't take NSAID on any race distance shorter than marathon or during training

unless you already have some injuries and you would want to keep inflamation

at bay.


(8)BCAA(Branch Chain Amino Acid)
There are some researches telling that BCAA does the delay onset of fatique

during race. I personally have tried it and have recommended to a few, with

all quite positive results.

I take some BCAA tablets just before the race and somes at half way mark.
I never take BCAA except for the marathon, so I have no prior experience on

the effect of BCAA on shorter race.


(9)Power Gel
I normally take 2 packs with me and count on the fact that I would get

another during the race. But I personally have ran a few marathon just

taking 2 gels.

Contary to most believe, I think the value of the Gels is not on its
Glucose content(I could have gotten those from the ISO drink and it is more
ready assorbable then the Gels'), but rahter on its electrolytes delivered
(which is more so since they came up the 4X version).

JUST make sure that you drink WATER with the GEL. Don't drink ISO drink
with the GEL as it will make the drink too thick and interfere with
stomach assorbtion.

On all others water station, drink ISO drink only.



(10)DON'T EXPECT MIRACLE
If you have not done the correct training, no gel, NSAID, potassium, etc in
the world will get you the miracle.

The proper routine only helps in BRINGING OUT THE BEST OF WHAT YOU"VE GOT,
it WON't GIVE YOU ANY EXTRA, so be practical.

And this lead to proper pace planning, race execution like pace the first,
race the second, etc. But these are out of the scope of today's topic.





Hope it helps.



Crank on.