How to Peak for Race Day

SNAPSHOT

A simple 3-week peaking strategy will help you get the most out of your season’s training on race day.

DIGGING DEEPER

Coach Shelly’s Peaking Strategy

• 3 weeks prior to race day complete ¾ of your usual weekly workouts. Keeping the same paces and types of workouts, just reduce the amount to ¾.
• 2 weeks prior to race day follow the same strategy but reduce the workload of ½ your usual.
• During the week before your race keep your distances to only ¼ the usual but still do a short (¼) speed workout.

By keeping the same types and speed workouts your body will remember how to respond when you race.  Reducing the stress of training will lower fatigue and foster a solid recovery from your season's training.

It will feel awkward to be resting and not wearing yourself out, but don't deviate from this strategy. Your body needs to be in a state of super compensation and prepared to perform. Following the strategy will successfully prepare your body.

Nervousness tends to appear the last week, along with insecure thoughts. Look over your season's training and remind yourself you are prepared. Trust that reducing your training level will give you the best performance.

My secret to using up the nervous energy, since I can't use it up while peaking, is to organize. I pick a closet to clean out, plan a project, or even sort the junk drawer. It is not hard on my body since it requires only small movements. My mind becomes occupied within a low-stress environment. Most of all, I feel accomplished when it is completed.

SOLUTION

Explain to your training partners your peaking plan and ask them to keep you accountable.

Book Review - Brain Training for Runners by Matt Fitzgerald

SNAPSHOT

The brain has a lot more to do with your performance than you realize.

DIGGING DEEPER

I have a fascination with how the body and brain work together.  Fitzgerald quenches my thirst for knowledge and supports my experiences with his brain training theories.  

'The actual cause of running fatigue is a reduction in muscle activation by the brain that is influenced in part by declining energy stores.  This phenomenon is believed to serve as a protective mechanism that prevents us from running to the point where we seriously harm ourselves.' (page 3) 

The half marathon race is a good example of brain training.  On the course, you will see runners that can keep a consistently fast pace throughout the entire  race.  Then there are the runners that hit the wall at 11 miles and can't go any farther.  Their bodies revolt and stop running.  For them, it turns to intervals of walking and running until the finish line appears.  

What is the difference? Why are some runners not hitting a wall?  Fitzgerald contends that they have taught their brain to not shut down but instead trust that the body can endure the activity.  

How?  Practice. Putting yourself in the same position physically and mentally that will be expected during the race will prepare the brain for the challenge.  This makes the brain gain confidence that you can go from start to finish at the desired and practiced pace.  There are many ways to simulate the fatigue accumulated during a race.  

My favorite half-marathon workout to train your brain is a tempo/easy miles/tempo combination.  Start with 20 minutes of easy paced miles as a warm up.  Go into your tempo pace for 20 minutes. Slow down to an easy pace for the next 30 minutes.  Finish the workout at a tempo pace for 20 more minutes.  The fatigue that is accumulated during the first 70 minutes will simulate the challenge of a race pace without having to actually run the race. During the last tempo, you will gain by training your brain to withstand the pressure and continue on.

SOLUTION

Train realizing "It is all in your head".

Nerves

SNAPSHOT

Just do it

DIGGING DEEPER

2014 was the last time I had toed the line at a race.  It had been a fairly good race but it was the beginning of an injury.  I had gone through five doctors, PT exercises, X-rays, MRI, crutches, questions, and no answers.  However recovery came and training began again. I had 9 speed or tempo workouts in my training log, but this little race had me almost in tears.

If a friend had looked me in the eye, I would have lost it.  Me, at 36 years of age, scared of a no pressure local spring 5-mile race.  With over 250 races on my resume including years as a competitive runner in high school and college and I was still worried that I wouldn't be able to survive the pain and have the mental toughness needed for this small race.  

My coach had talked me through which shoes to wear and reminded me that there were no expectations.  A friend that knows runners too well had felt my nervousness and said, "Relax and enjoy the race." I keep my eyes downward for fear that someone with see my terror.

As I reached the start line and continued my pre-race routine with strides.  The weight and worry vanished. It just disappeared. Gone just like that.  I felt the old me, the one that was fast and confident. Everything was right.  My flats gave me smooth steps, my arms swung alongside, and my teammates were surrounding me.  I was free.  I was at home.  

The race went by quickly as it always does.  My splits were fairly even and faster than I expected.  I was back in.  I could toe the start line again and know I got this!

SOLUTION

Keep stepping closer to what scares you and let the fear disappear.

Thanks to Joe, Vince, Beth, and Willow Street AC.