Hello Mt. Charleston Marathoners,
First off, well done. The work is behind you and the training piece of this journey is complete. Clean your hands of it. The only miles you’ll run from here on out will be in service of recovery.
You’re mid-taper. That means your body and mind are feeling weird from the sudden change in activity level, and you’re convinced that if you ask the right person maybe someone will tell you the how-to-run-the-marathon secret. (spoiler: you’ve got everything you need, and you know more than you think you do.) Let’s nail down logistics. Or, as my coach always said to me: “control what you can control.”
Mileage: How many miles did you run during “peak week,” when you ran 20 or 18 miles? Your mileage for the 8 days before the Marathon should be at most 50% of your highest mileage week this 16-week season and, you shouldn’t exceed 5 miles on any day this week. If you’ve been following The noname Program mileage plan, you’re covered.
Speed: Your Speed Run is listed below, and should be run between 6 and 4 days before your race.
Week’s layout: Refer to The noname Program for sample weekly layouts. You should do a short run the day before the race, which you may not feel like doing but will help you feel better on Race Day. We suggest you take the day before that off, and otherwise set up your day-by-day to reflect a typical week, only with exclusively short easy runs.
Cross training and lifting: Your total physical activity outside of running should be 50% at most of your normal weekly effort and minutes. If you typically lift, bike, or do yoga, or anything else, keep it up, but make it all short and easy. As with your runs, this week is about staying in a rhythm and going through the motions.
Food: Eat well, but keep it simple. Nothing new, too salty, too spicy, too decadent, too rich, too adventurous or too….anything. Just keep it pretty boring until after the race! Make sure to include carbs and protein in every meal, with an extra emphasis on carbs in the last 2-3 days before the race.
If you’re comfortable thinking about carbs, the standard carb-load rule is
Hydration: Again, don’t go wild. Keep sipping, and break up the water with juices and electrolyte drinks. You want all the tissues of your body to be lubricated, but you don’t want to wash out all your electrolytes, a condition known as hyponatremia. Just keep hydration on the good side of normal.
Time on feet: we want you fresh on the line! It’s completely fine to go out and shake away the cobwebs/nerves with some light marathon-weekend offerings. But, save the big fun for after the race. Splurge on a cab, have a long people-watching lunch, put the feet up, and be lazy.
Pre-race jitters: Either you’ve got them now, or you will soon! Nerves are totally normal, and even a good sign. You’ll want that adrenaline on race day! But, for now, keep them at bay with distraction. Conversations with friends, books, movies, music, museums, and long, leisurely meals are your friends and teammates. Don’t sit around fretting your cortisol up!
Sleep: get as much as you can, but don’t sweat it. You can trust your training, your adrenaline, your taper, and your well-functioning bodies to deliver on Race Day. Many many many marathon prs have been run on low/weird sleep. Don’t stress.
Pick up your race packet: do it as soon as you can! It’s best not to leave this to the last minute.
Taper crankiness: they may continue. Remember that this is normal, and evidence that your body is working hard for you to prepare for race day. Feel what you feel, and see the humor in it. You’re doing something incredible and unforgettable and bigger than yourself but you are also a cranky baby and you need a NAP!
New aches and pains: first, remember that it’s very normal for these to crop up during race-week, because your body has turned its focus inward. Very rarely does a race-week ache impact a race. Do a good stretch, ice, and rest.
Nervous habits: it’s very normal to develop funny race-week behaviors that, in retrospect, are obviously not great. Sipping water every 10 seconds? Cramming an entire season of stretching into 6 days? Trying out a new, better, revolutionary diet/posture/sleep program? Don’t do it! Your race will be good because your season has been good. You’re good. Nothing needs changing. Keep everything on the light/easy/clean side of normal.
You know what you’re doing. You’ve earned that confidence, so own it.
LFG
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This week you will run 3-6 times, with 1-2 Speed Run(s) and 1 Long Run
These runs may be done on any days and in any order, with two caveats: 1) The Speed Run should be earlier in the week than the Long Run, and 2) follow the hard-easy-hard principle, which means never run back-to-back hard days. Instead, separate hard (speed or long) runs with at least one easy run or rest day.
The last 8 days before your marathon (including last week’s long run) should be about 50% of your peak week’s mileage. For more help planning, check out pages 22-33 of The noname Program manual for examples of weekly mileage breakdowns and progression.
Speed Run: 2 x 1 mile @ Marathon Pace with 2:00 rest. 4 x 400 @ 10k pace with 2:00 rest
Run 5-20 minutes of easy warmup running.
Do 5-10 optional minutes of dynamic warmups + strides.
Run 1 mile @ Marathon Goal Pace. Take 2:00 of stand/walk/jog recovery. Repeat. Take 2 more minutes of recovery, then run 4 x 400 @ your 10k pace with 2:00 recovery.
This pre-race workout is designed to freshen up the legs by increasing blood flow and breaking up any lingering byproduct that might be hanging out in your muscles or joints. Think of it as an internal massage and a little neurological tune-up. You might feel a little stale here, and that’s 100% ok. This work will help you feel much less creaky tomorrow.
If you feel great today, stick to the pace. If you feel awful, stick to the pace on the miles, and feel out the 400s with no obligation to hit the times. Whatever you do don’t run any faster than your assigned pace; doing so will only detract from your race. You body is transforming right now and you are butterfly goo—it is irrelevant how you feel. Get the run done, check it off, and think nothing else of it.
5-20 minutes easy cooldown running + dynamic cooldown, just like at the start.
Aerobic Runs: 1-4 easy runs for aerobic development
Find your aerobic pace on page 19 in The noname Program manual. This wide pace range is determined by your prospective Marathon pace, and is the pace range at which your system is fueled almost exclusively by aerobic metabolism. That means at this pace your energy comes from an oxygen-based system; any faster and it start to rely on chemical reactions within your muscles, which produce byproducts that are measured by lactate. The majority of your training miles should be run in this aerobic, oxygen-powered pace window. This will develop your body's reliance on oxygen-based metabolism, build out the capillary “infrastructure” for delivering oxygen-rich blood, and coax your body away from the production of leg-burning muscular byproduct.
Put a different way, at this pace your body can both recover from your hard runs and develop your endurance at the same time. Some people refer to these days as recovery runs or easy runs. We like to use the technical term: aerobic—adj, relating to, involving, or requiring free oxygen, to keep at the front of our minds that even though these miles are easy, they are just as purposeful and essential as any speed day.
NO Optional Tempo!
In race week you should swap your tempo run for an easy Aerobic run (or a day off!)