YES! So this I have been reading about, by drinking lots of water I meant in general over the next week and a half as appose to on the day of the marathon itself and by lots I mean the recommended amount which still seems like lots to me! As for during the race I normally drink a combination of water and sports drink, just really sipping as I go along normally on my walk break which is about every 5mins. Do you think this sounds about right?
Thanks for the link!
Haha brilliant excuses I'll be using them for sure!
Hi everyone! After years of just reading (stalking?) I decided to join in. I've completed 6 marathons, 11 half-marathons, and a handful of 5K/10Ks. This January will be my 3rd Dopey (going for Legacy) and I just love the experience of it. I am a big believer in the Hansons Marathon Method after this past marathon where I set a marathon PR by 42 minutes (3:38), a 10K PR (49:22) during miles 17-23, and a half marathon PR (1:46) during the second half of the marathon. By occupation, I am a scientist and feel I may be able to help others enjoy running as much as I do through a combination of my experience and scientific approach to running.
@dancingtodisney I use a variety of calculators that I've compiled from different sources (Hansons and Ben Rappoport) to determine carbohydrate, calorie, and liquid consumption. Without trying to be too personal, with your weight (lbs), estimated time goal, and VO2 max I could give you an estimate as to how many calories/carbohydrates you would need to consume during the race. If you don't know your VO2max, you can use the calculator here to get a very rough estimate (
http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/vo2max-calculator.aspx) using your age and resting heart rate.
Hansons are a proponent that it takes the body 10 days to receive the benefits from a workout. Thus, doing any hard workouts within 10 days of the marathon won't really help much. Thus, a 50% reduction in total mileage (don't change # of days running though) from peak week during the last week is their recommendation with intensity being on the slower side of most of your training. To account for the "staleness" from reducing intensity and mileage, on the day before the marathon run 2-3 miles with a few 10 sec bursts up to desired marathon pace.
As for carb loading prior to the race, there are three different main methods out there.
1 - 3 day carb depletion followed by a 3 day carb loading
2 - No carb depletion followed by a 3 day carb loading
3 - A 110% (close to all out effort) run for 30 sec on the day before the marathon, followed by a super carb loading throughout the day.
All three of these methods have been shown to increase glycogen storage to higher levels than normal (with a rough correlation to giving an improvement of 1-3% in overall time). There is also some research out there that a glycogen supercompensation can last as many as 5 days. Personally, I don't like the feeling of being so full on marathon day. So for me, 4 days out from the marathon I start a 3 day carb loading cycle that changes the % of carbs as my diet from 60% up to near 85% with mostly protein filling the remaining difference (I generally don't like to increase my overall calorie consumption though). This way the day before the marathon I can revert back to my normal diet, and feel less full for race day.
The key to any advice though is we are all an experiment of one and thus something that may work great for one person might not work well for someone else. We all just have to find our personal sweet spot through trial and error.
