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This post was last updated on March 2, 2020
With May 3 just weeks away you’re in the home stretch of your marathon training. Over the last few months you’ve covered many miles and are feeling pretty good about your training. Now that we’re into April it’s time to prepare for race day and beyond.
6. Race Day
After months of training you’ve finally arrived at The BIG Day! Today it’s important to properly fuel and hydrate your body. Stick with the same food and drinks you’ve been eating throughout training. Breakfast should be consumed at least two hours prior to the race. Plan to start hydrating when you wake up with at least 20 ounces of fluids and finish by one hour prior to the start. If you’re a regular coffee drinker you can have a cup or two in addition to your water or sports drink.
You also will want to warm-up. Begin your warm-up 45 to 60 minutes before your start.
In order to ease any pre-race jitters and stresses check out the resources available through the Pittsburgh Marathon website, including parking, starting line maps, and gear check procedures.
Also, make sure you check out the official 2018 race day course.
7. Post-Race Recovery
Congratulations! You completed the Dick’s Sports Goods Pittsburgh Marathon and are officially a Runner of Steel. After accomplishing such a feat it’s natural to be exhausted and headed towards the couch. Our experts recommend the first thing you do before celebrating with friends is to keep moving. After running for hours your body will recover faster if the muscles have a chance to cool down.
While you’re moving around remember to hydrate. The race left your body dehydrated and you must first replace the lost electrolytes and carbohydrates. You can do this by consuming water or a sports drinks and a small snack. After a race of this length it’s especially important to limit alcohol consumption.
In the days following try to get outside for a short run and consider signing up for a sports massage to treat your muscles!
Good luck runners! We can’t wait to hear how your race day experience turns out. Remember our medical staff will be on-site if you need anything.
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string(2975) "This post was last updated on March 2, 2020
It's that time of the year again! If you're running in a marathon this year, it's time to get down to business and start training. Whether you're running at a pro- or semi-pro level, or running as part of a group of friends and coworkers just for fun, it's important to condition yourself before run a marathon. Knowing where to start can be a challenge, especially for first time runners.
There are seven phases to the training cycle for full or half marathons. This year's race is taking place on Sunday, May 3. The time line and benchmarks for each phase depends on which race you are running and your initial abilities. Here are a few tips to help you get in shape and make it across the finish line for this year's marathon!
1. Offseason/ Base Building Phase
Offseason is a period of reduced mileage. You should continue running, but do not push yourself with high intensity workouts or long runs. The base building phase that follows is the process of slowly rebuilding mileage with low intensity runs and by following the 10 percent rule.
10 percent rule: Never increase your mileage more than 10 percent week over week.
At this point new marathon runners should be beyond this phase. Half marathon runners should be in this phase and gearing up to start their training by the middle of February.
2. Endurance Phase
The goal of the endurance phase is to accumulate time on your feet and your aerobic capacity. It is characterized by an increase in weekly mileage and increasing the long runs by one to two miles per week. As you increase your mileage remember to still apply the 10 percent rule. This phase typically lasts four to eight weeks.
This is the phase of training marathon runners should be in at this time.
There are many factors to successfully training to complete these physical feats. In addition to the main running aspect of your training you will also need to focus on proper nutrition and hydration, warm-up and cool down stretching, cross training, proper footwear, and mental training.
Over the course of the next few months the experts from UPMC Sports Medicine will be looking more in depth at each aspect of successful marathon training.
For more information on marathon training visit our Marathon page at UPMC Sports Medicine."
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Knowing how to start training for a marathon can be a challenge, especially for first time runners. Learn how to train for a marathon.Learn More
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Whether you're training for your first marathon or just want to pick up a new, studied approach to training for a big race, there's always room to improve your training regimen. In our Marathon Training 101 post we covered the first two of seven phases of training: off-season building and endurance. Now that we're into March, you may have moved into the next phase of your training. In this post we'll cover phases 3, 4, and 5: strength and speed, race preparation, and taper.
3. Strength/Speed Phase
The third phase, taking place in February and March for people running the Dick's Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon, is about building aerobic capacity. In this phase you should put a focus on cross-training and strength training. In order to build strength, consider adding hill workouts where you do a 45 to 75 minute easy run, incorporating uphill segments at a faster pace.
To increase your speed, begin to add tempo and fartlek runs into your training schedule. A fartlek run is a 45 to 75 minute easy run with fast segments intermixed. Similarly, a tempo run is a fast-paced workout where you increase your speed to run faster than your goal race pace. We suggest doing a 45 to 90 minute easy run and intermixing 15 to 45 minutes of tempo running.
4. Race Preparation Phase
Towards the end of March and moving into April you will be moving into the fourth phase of marathon training. The focus during this phase is to meet your goal pace. To do this you should run a portion of your runs at goal pace. For example, marathon runners should run eight to 14 miles of their long runs at their goal pace.
Marathon runners can also incorporate a tune-up race into their training schedule. Tune-up races are races you enter for the purpose of having fun with your long run and practicing your race day routine. Full marathon runners should plan to incorporate a half marathon tune-up race and aim to run the first 10 miles at their goal pace and then speed-up for the final 3.1 miles.
5. Taper Phase
The taper phase of your training is one of the most important phases as you approach race day. During this phase you'll begin to reduce your weekly mileage and distance of long runs. Starting three weeks out reduce weekly mileage by about 25 percent from the highest mileage you've ran. At two weeks reduce mileage by 40 percent, and finally on the week of the race reduce mileage by 60 percent.
While you should reduce your mileage to allow your body to be rested for race day it is important to maintain intensity during these runs. During your final week incorporate dress rehearsal runs where you do a 15 minute warm-up, followed by a 20 minute run at your goal race day pace, and finish with a 15 minute cool down run.
Also remember that no workout during your final week of training will improve your race day preparedness. Listen to your body and structure your runs based on how you're feeling.
While continuing to train for the May 6 Dick's Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon, remember there are other aspects of training to focus on, including:
The
marathon experts at UPMC Sports Medicine are available to answer questions you may have during training. To ask a question of our experts, call 1-855-93-SPORT (77678) to set up an appointment.
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