An Underprepared Marathon
This past weekend, a friend of mine told me that he was going to run his first marathon this coming weekend. He asked me if I had any advice. I asked him about his training. He told me that his longest run was 16 1/2 miles. It was clear (as is often the case) that he was underprepared.
Does this mean that he should not run? If he runs, what kind of adjustments should he make? I should tell you that my first marathon, I was slightly underprepared and in my second, I was grossly underprepared. I have some personal experience in this area. It is a knowledge base that can be useful in a situation like the one facing me this past weekend.
He had done enough work that getting through the marathon was not likely to be a huge struggle, but he must be wise in how he runs it. Bravery could, in his case, mean posting a DNF (did not finish). My advice to him was two-fold: go slower than you think you need to; and take sugars. In my first marathon, I learned the second lesson hard, very hard. I was still young - 30, and thought I knew what I was doing. I ran well, and at mile 18 was still feeling good enough that I decided to pick up the pace a bit. Time has taught me that that is too early to pick up the pace, but more significantly, I was running on water ONLY. By not taking sugars, the only sugars I had in my body were those that were there before the race, so no replenishment of sugars could occur. I got to 23 miles in almost exactly 3 hours, but needed to walk a little. I began walking, got my head together, and started running again. About 100 yards up the road, I was walking again. The disturbing thing was that I hadn't decided to walk, the body just did it. I was no longer capable of running. My finish time was just over 4 hours.
The value of the wisdom gathered can be shown in my second marathon. I had done very little preparation. In spite of this, I didn't struggle, and my finish time was only about a half-hour slower than my first. Why? I took sugars, and, recognizing that I was grossly undertrained, stayed well within my limits. The result was that I finished tired, sore but without having paid a heavy price. Since then, I've run three others, and while I could have run more, have chosen to run these for performance, in pursuit of a goal - Boston.
I have confidence that my friend will finish the marathon, and I think he will do respectably well at it. His level of undertraining is not too bad, and he's a determined sort of person. He's also young and active enough to have an innate strength level I can barely remember. I'm interested to see his result.
Does this mean that he should not run? If he runs, what kind of adjustments should he make? I should tell you that my first marathon, I was slightly underprepared and in my second, I was grossly underprepared. I have some personal experience in this area. It is a knowledge base that can be useful in a situation like the one facing me this past weekend.
He had done enough work that getting through the marathon was not likely to be a huge struggle, but he must be wise in how he runs it. Bravery could, in his case, mean posting a DNF (did not finish). My advice to him was two-fold: go slower than you think you need to; and take sugars. In my first marathon, I learned the second lesson hard, very hard. I was still young - 30, and thought I knew what I was doing. I ran well, and at mile 18 was still feeling good enough that I decided to pick up the pace a bit. Time has taught me that that is too early to pick up the pace, but more significantly, I was running on water ONLY. By not taking sugars, the only sugars I had in my body were those that were there before the race, so no replenishment of sugars could occur. I got to 23 miles in almost exactly 3 hours, but needed to walk a little. I began walking, got my head together, and started running again. About 100 yards up the road, I was walking again. The disturbing thing was that I hadn't decided to walk, the body just did it. I was no longer capable of running. My finish time was just over 4 hours.
The value of the wisdom gathered can be shown in my second marathon. I had done very little preparation. In spite of this, I didn't struggle, and my finish time was only about a half-hour slower than my first. Why? I took sugars, and, recognizing that I was grossly undertrained, stayed well within my limits. The result was that I finished tired, sore but without having paid a heavy price. Since then, I've run three others, and while I could have run more, have chosen to run these for performance, in pursuit of a goal - Boston.
I have confidence that my friend will finish the marathon, and I think he will do respectably well at it. His level of undertraining is not too bad, and he's a determined sort of person. He's also young and active enough to have an innate strength level I can barely remember. I'm interested to see his result.
posted by Scooter at 7:39 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home