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Planning Is Everything
The Royal Air force are renowned for their ability to train pilots for every eventuality at extremely high skill levels. Naturally, the best of the best are chosen to be trained up, but one aspect of their training which is drilled into them time and time again is referred to as the 5 P’s.
P.P.P.P.P
Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance.
You may not be training to dog fight the Taliban, but using this concept will put you in a very good position to make the most of the race, irrespective how fast you intend to run it.
You have to consider every eventuality and train for whatever you are likely to be faced with. So to give you a helping hand, fitFAQS suggests you spend some time training for the following:
Hill Training
You may laugh at such an obvious suggestion, but you’d be surprised how many people do not take race conditions seriously. I have spoken to people over the years who didn’t do any sand running for the marathon de sables (translated marathon of the sands) or done any kind of heat training when their chosen marathon was usually run in temperatures of 30 degrees.
The Snowdonia marathon is hilly. Not just inclines, but declines as well, so you have to factor both of these into your training. What surprises many people is the necessity to train on the downhill runs too. In short, this is because the muscular contractions of your legs running downhill (eccentric contractions) are slightly different to the contractions whilst running up hill (concentric contractions).
It is eccentric contractions which give you really bad muscle soreness for days afterwards, so I’d strongly suggest that you get a few downhill training runs in too. Also, the emphasis you place on the different types of leg muscles ie quads, hamstrings and glutes, also varies when running up hill and downhill, both forms of training are strongly suggested to prevent your legs feeling like jelly half way through the race.
The best way to make your training as specific as possible is to go onto runners forums and find out form others who have run the race, how steep the hills are how long they go on for. Whatever the answer, factor it into your training runs, so that your legs are able to tolerate the burn come race day.
Clothing
Knowing what to wear on the day of the race is tricky. As the race takes place in October, the weather could be doing anything. It could quite easily be in the high teens and dry but it could also be pelting with rain and cold.
Above all, you have to train for all eventualities (P.P.P.P.P), so it would be wise to buy yourself a good quality waterproof suitable for running and make a point of setting out on a long training run, in the rain in your waterproof. You will then know for sure that it is comfortable and it does not rub. Racing in clothes you have never worn before is a school boy error you must avoid. Discovering that you’re armpits or legs are chafing after 5 miles of a 26.2 hilly course is a great way to get a sense of humour failure, so plan for it.