It sounds bonkers, but it’s true. When you finish running a marathon you height is lower than when you started. Every step you take is the equivalent of 2-3 times your bodyweight and its estimated that because of this you end the race up to 2cm shorter than when you started. And the more tired you get, the more you feel that force of gravity because as fatigue sets in, you become less efficient and your feet spend more time on the ground. The more time you spend on the ground, the more time your feet, knees and hips absorb the force.
This is the reason why my cousin Joel has said to me he will never run a marathon.
Mind you, he is only 5 feet 2 inches anyway!
Being on your feet on long runs, over two hours, has a huge impact on your bones and muscles and so it very important to keep a check on your running form and technique. Over that length of time it is easy for your body to sag under the pressure of gravity, as well as fatigue. When you feel this happening, a good training technique is to do a Body Scan. Here’s how to do it:
Ask yourself, is everything working correctly? Starting with your head, ask yourself is it upright or falling forward or to the side? Then move to your arms. Are you holding them in a relaxed way? Work down to your hands and ask yourself are they clenched rather than relaxed? Take a look at your legs and consider if you should lengthen or shorten your stride to make yourself feel more comfortable and relaxed. It’s amazing how this check of your whole body can loosen you up. Top runners do this to ensure they are running as efficiently as possible. And if it is good enough for them, then it’s good enough for us.
And if nothing else, by the time you have finished scanning you may have run another mile!
Your imagination is extremely powerful and we have all heard the saying about ‘mind over matter’. There are plenty of famous stories about superhuman feats of strength when mind certainly overrides the body and allows you to do something people never dreamed was physically possible. During races your mind will think a million and one different thoughts, some positive and some not so positive!
One way of coping with a race is to harness these positive thoughts and you can create these during your training, and then harvest them on race day. It’s not as crazy as it sounds. The important thing is to ‘Just Imagine’. Here is an example. When you are on a long run and you enter into a nice relaxed state and feel good about your run, Just Imagine finishing a race feeling this good. If its the London Marathon you are training for, Just Imagine turning the final corner, passing Buckingham Palace and heading up the Mall with the crowd screaming in your ears, and think to yourself, ‘I want to feel this good at the end’ and say it to yourself over and over again. Whilst you are doing this, think of a piece favourite music and associate it with this feeling. Then recall a happy memory – maybe from your childhood and do the same; associate it with this good feeling. Then whenever the going gets tough either in your training or in the race you can reach for this bag of happy thoughts and sounds.
Whenever I am going through a bit of a tough patch in a long run or doing some interval training, I often think of my Mom who died 4 years ago. She would come and watch me play football when I was younger and followed me and my brother everywhere, driving miles and miles. And whenever I need that extra surge of speed or effort I think of her on the touchline, shouting my name and giving me encouragement. It never fails.
Believe me, after running 20 miles her voice that is in my head really does feel like it is coming from the roadside. Find your own positive associations to draw on and they will prove invaluable come race day.
Ever wondered why the marathon distance has the additional 385 yards tacked on the end of the 26 miles? Well for that extra bit of running we have our very own Royal Family to thank. The current marathon distance was set for the 1908 London Olympics, so that the course could start at Windsor Castle and end in front of the Royal Box. Typical! However, it was not until 1921, however, was that distance adopted as the “official” Marathon distance by the IAAF.
There are plenty of gadgets out there to help with your running. Magazines and shops are stocked full of those little bits of kit and equipment designed to give you more information and (in theory!) help improve your performance. Top of the list probably goes to Heart Rate Monitors (HRMs).
HRMs are a very effective tool at ensuring you are not going too fast as much as too slow. They provide information on the training zone you are working in. For runners looking to make improvements in time they are a valuable training tool.
For more information on heart rate training, take a look Runners World and Diet and Fitness resources.
Not sure if you want to invest in one? Then take a look at this useful guide on the Real Buzz site.
Training for any race takes a tremendous amount of commitment, not only on running the various sessions in a programme, but often in just planning them! This can often be just as difficult, life just gets in the way. Wouldn’t it be great if we could all just eat, sleep and train, and let other people sort out the rest of our lives?
Unfortunately we cannot live the life of an elite athlete and we have to fit our training routine into everyday life. Becoming a committed runner means it is easy to let things get out of hand. Dedication to the cause is both necessary and rewarding, but it is also very easy for dedication to slip over into obsession, and that is never a good thing. It is very easy to neglect family, friends, and your job.
You need to ensure you do not forget the people around you who are supporting your training. This happened to me when training for my first marathon. During the final 4 weeks running the marathon was ALL I could think about. It was the most important thing in the world to me, and I would never tire of talking about it. What I sometimes forgot was the fact that some people may be less interested than me – as work colleagues at the time would no doubt testify – or even worse, they may not be interested at all!
It is important to focus on your training and be dedicated to your running. But beware of the fine line between that and obsession.
The London marathon is famous for being not only the world’s greatest marathon, but also for the thousands of runners who every year decide that running 26.2 miles in ordinary running kit is just all too easy and not a big enough challenge. So many of them don rhino suits, dress up as large bananas, carry buckets to collect sponsorship on the way, or dress up in a deep sea diving suit and take a week to complete the course as someone did a couple of years ago! One of these weird and wonderful approaches to running the marathon even has its own world record. Meet Xu Zhenjun of China – a marathon runner who likes run marathons, backwards. Yes, that’s backwards. And even more amazing is that Xu’s world record holder for running the marathon backwards is an astonishing 3.43!!
http://www.recordholders.org/en/list/backwards-running.html
Not recommended for your long runs.
A good pair of running shoes is your most important piece of equipment. And make sure you visit a specialist running shop for the best advice and guidance. Run and Become is particularly good.
Once you have found ones that are comfortable and suit your style it is a good idea to buy two pairs at the same time. When the conditions are wet outside it can take a long time for running shoes to dry out fully. So rotating two pairs means they can recover their shape and dry out sufficiently before you use them again. Chances are that each pair will last you for more miles than if you used one pair all the time. Some manufacturers also make winter models of the best selling brands which offer even more protection from the elements than the normal versions.
Running at the right pace is crucial to make sure you can train on a regular basis, get the most from your run, allow you to get adequate rest and recovery, and hit your target times in your races.
The simplest way to approach this is to listen to your breathing. If you able to hold a conversation with someone whilst running then this is your easy pace and should be used for long runs. If you run on your own, try saying the alphabet out loud. You should be able to do this in a calm manner without leaving gaps between letters. Combining runs at different paces works your body in different ways as energy systems are slightly different, but your long run is used to develop your endurance base and works your aerobic energy system.
It is very easy in cold weather to start off too fast on your long run and for these runs to become more difficult than they need be. It’s also worth remembering that running in cold weather forces your body to work harder to breathe, pump blood, generate energy and power muscles, resulting in slower running for the same amount of effort.
So remember to find that easy pace gradually, and your long run will become more enjoyable and beneficial.
Run a nice easy pace for any period of time above and beyond 40 minutes and the chances something changes in the way you feel. Your breathing settles and becomes easy and controlled, you find a rhythm and everything seems to be working in harmony. You may even experience a sense of detachment where your body continues on its merry way whilst your mind wanders to other things: maybe what’s for dinner, a reminder to do something when you get back, and quite possibly you find a solution for a problem that has caused concern for ages.
Many runners – me included – find that long slow run a very creative time. I can count on one hand the number of times I return after a long run in a worse mood than when I set off (normally because I was ill-prepared for the weather!) and more often than not I have a flood of ideas that I must jot down as soon as I get back. Some elite runners try and avoid this drifting of the mind and use techniques to focus on their running rather than pondering if they left the oven on when they left the house. This is where we have an advantage of them. I say embrace this creative time, and enjoy the positive psychological benefits this provides.