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: Quick Strength for Runners by Horowitz

SNAPSHOT

Must have in a Runner's library

DIGGING DEEPER

Horowitz did it! Finally, a simple, purposeful, modern description of the important strengthening exercises that all runners should incorporate into their training.

First of all, he addresses the glutes strength and activation weakness. In this world of sitting in chairs all day long, we need to be aware and combating the weaknesses and stress that are messing up our form and causing many injuries.  

You don't need to spend hours in the weight room at your local gym on the circuit machines performing the movements like a robot.  Instead, two 20 minute workouts each week will give the runner’s body the needed strength. I am not a fan of the hour "torture yourself, bust your butt" cardio room strengthening classes. There is only so much adaptation that can occur and to stress the body beyond that point will only cause pain and injury.  Instead, a sensible strengthening routine that targets each of large muscles and balancing muscles can keep a runner on the road.

The pictures, tips, advanced moves, and weekly workout routines make it easy to use for everyone. After reading through the book and testing out the exercises at home. Take a picture on your phone of the weekly picture-filled workout list. After your run take a quick 20 minutes to press through the list.

One more bit of advice when starting anything new. Start easy and let your body get used to the motions first. Don't be superman/superwoman and try to show off to the others near. You will gain strength and balance in just a few weeks as long as you keep the amount appropriate and the workouts consistent.

Women NEED to be strengthening their muscles.  Aging causes loss of muscle mass which in turn can cause many other ailments.  You lose what you don't use!

Pull along a friend to join in with you. They will appreciate you starting them on the path to better fitness.

SOLUTION

You do have 20 minutes twice a week to keep yourself on the runner's path.

JUST ONE MORE

SNAPSHOT

Overtraining awareness keeps you off the injury list.

DIGGING DEEPER

Knowledge is power. Being aware of the overtraining symptoms will decrease your rate of injury.  

Overtraining Indicators from Sage Rountree's book The Athlete's Guide to Recovery

Psychological

• Loss of interest in competition and training
• Loss of ability to focus, both in training and at work
• Loss of appetite
• Disturbed sleep
• Clumsiness
• Bad mood
• Irritability

Physiological

• Decline in performance
• Heavy, lifeless feeling in the leg
• Weight loss
• Gaunt visage
• Thirst
• Raised heart rate at rest, during postural shifts, and/or after exercise
• Dizziness
• Muscle soreness that does not abate
• Swollen lymph nodes
• Gastrointestinal (GI) trouble, especially diarrhea
• Frequent illness
• Slowing healing
• Amenorrhea (loss of menstrual period)

Remind your mentor, training partners, or coach to be on the outlook for these symptoms.

If you find that you are displaying several of the symptoms consult your doctor and make a plan to return to a healthy running routine.

Early intervention will decrease the recovery period needed to come back to a happy healthy runner.

SOLUTION
Know the overtraining list and watch out for yourself and those around you.

Listen to your body...

Without Purpose You Are Lost

SNAPSHOT

Purpose drives the run

DIGGING DEEPER

The first question to ask yourself is, "What is the purpose of this workout?" With a vision of what needs to be accomplished, you can rid yourself of guilt and indecisiveness, staying on the right path to your goals.

Perhaps you feel guilty that you only have thirty minutes for your easy run today. Is your guilt justified? Well if the purpose of the run was to gain weekly miles and increase your overall fitness then you may need to accept that you only can run for 30 minutes today and will need to add on the extra missing 20 minutes to another easy run later in the week.  However, if the purpose of your run was to increase blood flow and recover from a hard workout the previous day then 30 minutes of easy running will fulfill that purpose very well. The extra 20 minutes that you will miss is unneeded running and be grateful that your busyness is keeping you from overtraining.

Or say you are returning back to training and your workout calls for 4 sets of intervals. You complete three of the sets and feel spent.  You could eek out the last one using your mental superpowers. However being satisfied with the three intervals you completed will cause improvement without taxing your body to the point of overtraining or injury.  This is when you become the smart runner who performs a solid workout and leaves the last one for another day.  Your purpose was to work hard at your fast pace. Mission accomplished.

A favorite for runners is "The day off, I earned it" purpose.  That is the day where you either read an entire book, wander through your home taking the time to do as you please, or snatch the coveted nap in the sunlight coming through the window.  The purpose in this day is pleasure and recovery.  It keeps you from regretting all the devotion and time you put into running.

The important question you must ask yourself each day is, "What is the purpose of this opportunity?"

SOLUTION

It takes guts and wisdom to run with purpose.

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".