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Why you shouldn’t feel you can maintain marathon pace in training.

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If you have ever targeted a specific time in a marathon, you have probably had the thought “how on earth am I going to maintain this pace for 26.2 miles?”. If so, you are definitely not alone. It may be that your marathon pace is too fast, and you need to pull back, but more likely, it could be the fact that these worries are normal, and you shouldn’t feel you can maintain marathon pace in training. Here’s why…

 

  1. Cumulative fatigue. Your long run or pace section doesn’t occur in a vacuum. It will usually happen at the end of a heavy week of training, and the tiredness and stress (physiological and psychological) from not just that week’s training, but all the training in the block before will contribute to you feeling like the pace is unsustainable. In fact, your marathon plan may even aim to make you more tired before a long run, to get you practise running on tired legs. Cumulative fatigue is a vital part of marathon training, but it is difficult to quantify so often gets overlooked. However, come marathon day, if you’re training correctly, you will be well rested and tapered for the actual race and run on far fresher legs.

 

  1. Reduced glycogen stores. Related to the above point, your normal weekly training runs will have helped reduce your glycogen stores, which affects both your physical performance, but also your mindset as your brain uses glucose too. Hopefully you’re topping up on carbs regularly and fuelling runs longer than 90 mins during the run, but you will not have had the rest and full carb loading that you will (hopefully!) undertake prior to race day, so it will impact on your performance. Don’t worry, you’ll carb load in the days before the race (which along with resting will top up your glycogen stores), and on top of that, fuel well in the morning and try and take on board 40-60g carbs an hour during the actual race.

 

  1. No race support. On your long and paced training runs you won’t have the amazing race atmosphere, the adrenaline rush at the start, any possible crowd support, other people to run with or race, no drinks stations and other support, and no finish line to count down to. You also have to make decisions on route choices, road crossings, etc, which also causes more mental fatigue. It all makes a huge difference!

 

 

So, if you don’t feel you can maintain the pace in training, how do you know its your marathon pace?

 

The best way to be confident of this is to base it off your training. Even though you haven’t run the full distance at pace in training, you should have tested out your proposed pace for some miles (8-14 miles ideally) during your long runs or steady runs during the week. How did it feel? Comfortably hard? It may feel too hard for 26.2 miles but you should feel reasonably confident of completing another 2-4 miles at that pace in any run where you practice marathon pace.

 

Another way of confirming marathon pace is to run a tune up race. A typical one would be a half marathon 4 weeks out from your target marathon. You can then use an online calculator to work out your equivalent marathon pace (or double it and add 10-20 mins). However, the calculator estimates vary considerably – the best way by far will be to get an experienced running coach to write your training plan and review your paces throughout, or ask a coach to review your training logs and suggest a suitable pace.

Above all, remember, if you can hit the paces in training segments, don’t let that little voice in your head tell you that you can’t hold it for 26.2 miles. You’ll be rested, fuelled and pumped full of adrenaline, so believe in your training and go for it!

 

How are you feeling about your current marathon pace? Please tell us in the comments below…

 

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Coaching tip – How to run intervals. 

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If you want to run faster, you have to practice running faster. There’s no doubt that running interval sessions on a regular basis is a great way to do this. There are workouts to suit almost every type of runner, and all sorts of race, distance or time goals. But the purpose of this is not to tell you what to run (plenty of workouts to be found on the internet) but rather HOW to run intervals effectively, and make the most of your hard work, and lets face it… suffering!

 

It seems easy on the surface – go out, run hard, run easy, repeat lots of times, job done. However, for a truly effective interval session, there should be at least a little bit of planning…. Think about these tips before you next go for an interval session and make the most of your hard work:

Disclaimer: please note – these tips won’t work for everyone, or for every session. Read through, weigh up the options carefully, choose what works for you or seek advice from a coach. And don’t run intervals if injured or harbouring a niggle.

 

Top tips for before the session:

Fuel and hydrate properly.
If it’s an early morning session, have a little something to eat beforehand. Make sure it is easy to digest and contains simple carbs, such as half a banana, some dates, a gel or sports drink. If you have more time (for example, before a lunchtime or evening session) have a small meal 3-4 hours before and top up with a snack (as suggested above) just before if you think it will benefit you. Now is not the time to skimp on a few calories if they could help you run the session harder or faster.

 

Prepare your watch
Consider what information you will need during your workout. How are you going to know when the distance or time of each repeat is up? Will you set it on your watch before the workout or look at your watch during? Have you got the right data on the screen for your run? If running hard, I usually set it as a session so my watch beeps when I reach the end of a segment, and then run by effort without looking at my watch. But if you are running for a pace or time, you may want this on your watch screen. Personally, I like to have a timer, lap pace, and distance on my watch screen during intervals, but don’t have heart rate.  All of this can be done on Garmin Connect and transferred to your watch (if compatible) and I am sure that other makes of watch will have similar ways of doing this.

 

Where are you going to do your workout?
For an interval session, you want to cover the same distance or time repeatedly, with rest periods in between (jog, walk or stationary). To make your intervals are comparable, you would ideally run back and forth on a single piece of road or track, covering the same ground each time. To achieve this, pick a point to start your interval. Run until it is either your time or distance is complete, and then continue in the same direction for half the recovery time or distance. Turn around, run the second half of the recovery, which will take you back to where you just finished your first interval, and from that point, start interval two. This means that you are running backwards and forwards over the same piece of road and means every second interval will be directly comparable – if one direction is slightly uphill, the other will be slightly downhill or if the wind is against in one direction, it will be in your favour in the other. Running the same piece of road will also enable you to form visual cues for the route which may help you run harder. So, if you know where your reps start and finish, you know you have a finish line and not just waiting for your watch to beep.

For safety, please consider the actual location of this piece of road or pavement for your training carefully. Check the length of the route and be aware of any potential hazards – is there enough lighting (especially in winter)? What about traffic or pedestrians? Pot holes, tree roots, large puddles etc). Is the path very twisty or undulating (this may slow you down). Ideally you want a flat, smooth piece of road, but this isn’t always possible.

I tend to run along the piece of road I’ll be doing my intervals in my warm up, or the day before during an easy run, just to understand where any potential issues may lie. There may not be a perfect location for you, but it is trying to get a stretch of road that is as safe as possible for you.

 

What will motivate you to run harder?
Will you want to run to music? If so, do you have the right type of music ready? I don’t run intervals to music – I like to have a clear mind to help me focus and push harder, but many of my clients find it helps. When I used to run with music I would have a very upbeat playlist for interval sessions. If you were to use calmer or downbeat music, will this slow you down? Will you run harder if running with people – in which case, can you coordinate workouts with someone else or take part in a track session? Do you need to prepare a mantra in advance to help when the run gets hard?

 

Tips for during the session: 

Warm up well!
A good warm up may be a mile or so of a gentle pace. In the second half of the mile, put in 2-4 10-15 second accelerations to get your legs and brain ready to go faster. If you usually do mobilisation exercises or drills before running hard, stick to your routine.

 

Run to your goals
If your goal is to run hard, don’t look at your watch. Focus on the goal and run to feel. If it is to a pace, make sure you stick to that. Most sessions you will want to try and keep each interval roughly the same, so if your goal is consistency, don’t go all out on the first interval.  Run hard by feel, but don’t sprint at the end as you will need to recover for the next repeat.

 

Embrace your recovery and take it easy!
Be consistent with recoveries as well as the harder intervals.  If you have a minute to recover, and walk 30s of that minute, and jog the next 30s, make sure you do that for every recovery. Unless your plan has specific instructions to the contrary, allow yourself to recover properly. Catch your breath by walking or jogging slowly to enable you to run hard again at the next interval.

 

Use the lap button!
If you haven’t set the session as a workout on your watch, consider pressing the lap button at the start and at the end of each interval so that you can see the stats for each repeat and recovery when you get home (and so your coach can eyeball your efforts!).

 

Practice building mental toughness.
This is a great opportunity to practice the mental skills that will keep you running when it feels really, really hard. It is a great chance to practice positive self talk, learn how to dismiss negative thoughts and push through when your mind is telling you to quit. Think about how you will motivate yourself to keep going, keep running hard. Being mentally tough is a skill, and interval sessions give you a chance to develop this ready for your next race.

 

Tips for after your workout: 

Cool down properly.
A mile jog (keep it easy….make sure your heart rate has a chance to come down) and a quick stretch of the key muscle groups is ideal.

 

Refuel and rehydrate.
You have worked hard and need to replenish glycogen stores and rebuild muscle. If you are not having a meal straight away, have a large snack with a 4:1 ratio of carbs to protein as soon as you get in and have a meal within the next two hours.

 

Make sure you rest or run easy effort the following day
Don’t run back to back hard sessions as it dramatically increases your risk of injury.

 

 

And, of course, don’t forget to pat yourself on the back! Interval sessions are not easy and rarely fun. But they are very satisfying when they are over.  And, a regular interval session will help you improve your speed, strength and running form. So embrace the suck, and enjoy the results!

Do you have any top tips for interval sessions? Any sessions you love or hate? Or love to hate? Please do share in the comments below. 

 

Join the Club at MH Runner’s Club

Do you want a personalised training plan?

Want to know more about running or personal training?

Contact me today to ask any questions or to book your FREE consultation.

Email me at martinhulbertpt@gmail.com or contact me via Facebook Messenger

 

Martin Hulbert

Running Coach & Personal Trainer Leicestershire

MH Health and Fitness Online Community

MartinHulbertRunCoaching

#MHrunnersclub

 

 

Setting Meaningful Running Goals

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It’s the time of year when many runners are reviewing their annual goals and setting new ones. However, setting meaningful goals for the year isn’t as easy as it sounds. Some runners know exactly what they want to achieve – maybe to complete a specific distance, run a certain time in a race, or complete a number of miles for the year, and now need to work out how to achieve this goal. Other runners may simply want to relax and enjoy their running without the pressure of specific times. Or you may be in a third group, where you know you want a target to motivate and excite you, but haven’t decided what that will look like. Whatever category you fall into, read on, there’s useful advice to be found below…

 

Why set goals?
Research has shown that setting specific goals, in running and in other areas of life, helps to motivate you and create a sense of excitement and fun. They contribute to an increased commitment and performance, but can have a dark side too. Runners who don’t meet their goals, for whatever reason, can see this as a personal failing, that they just aren’t good enough or not progressing enough.

 

So how can you set meaningful, positive, running goals?

  1. Set specific goals
    They don’t need to be race target times – they can be improvement based (e.g. to get a PB at a specific distance); consistency-based; socially based (joining a club, starting run leading, volunteering at parkrun etc.); or even simply completing a certain distance or running further than you’ve ever run before. SMART is the acronym you’ve probably heard before, but it still stands true (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timed – where timed stands for when you plan to achieve it by, rather than a race time!)

 

  1. Go for tiers of goals – A, B and C
    Success should be viewed on a spectrum rather than one specific point. Who knows what will happen that is beyond your control – you may get ill or injured, or face poor weather conditions on race day. External factors shouldn’t mean your hard work is wasted and setting a tier of goals can solve this. Your A goal should be what would happen if everything goes well in training and on the day – your ideal (realistic) outcome. The B target would be a very good outcome that would make you happy and C target something you would be satisfied with. For example, if you want a sub 4 hour marathon, and your current marathon best time is 4.20, you could set your A goal as anything under 4 hours, your B goal as any PB (under 4.20) and your C goal to be run a great race and make good decisions in tricky circumstances– a process rather than a result oriented goal.

 

  1. Set process goals as well as target goals.
    Celebrate the smaller wins not just the overriding goal. Annual goals are particularly tricky – anything could happen in the next year (as we found out in 2020), so have some wins along the way. Maybe you celebrate completing all the long runs on your marathon training programme, doing some smaller races, getting out 4 times a week instead of 3…Consider a ladder of smaller goals building up to your main one.

 

  1. Know your why.Research suggests that athletes who are happy long term have an internal and positive why. Make sure your why isn’t just about external validation, it is one you are excited to pursue, regardless of what others think.
    Make sure you enjoy the daily process required to achieve your goal. If you don’t like long runs, consider whether training for a marathon or ultra is really for you.

 

  1. Make sure your goals are challenging but realistic for you.
    As a coach, I find that clients often set unrealistic or overly challenging goals.  For example – some goals are incompatible – mileage targets or run streaks often cause problems as they don’t always go well with time or race targets. High mileage can cause fatigue and reduce your top end speed, run streaks can force you to try and run when you shouldn’t be, increasing the risk of injury.Realistic goals also work within your limits – we all have physiological limits (is that 15 min 5k honestly a realistic goal for you?), as well as lifestyle limits. There’s no point fighting things that are out of your control. Consider whether what you are sacrificing is worth it, or whether you can adjust timeframes (not all targets have to be achieved this year!)

 

Goals chosen – what next?
Write them down! Somewhere you can revisit them. Break them up into ABC tiers and then look at smaller goals – basically, the steps you need to accomplish in order to achieve this goal.

Consider what support you want in achieving your goals – do you want to share? Do you want help with training? Who do you ask if you have questions? How do you motivate yourself or make yourself accountable? And who are you going to celebrate your success with?

Don’t forget, for support and help you can turn to a coach – you can join my Facebook group for free, where you will find a friendly supportive environment to help you achieve whatever you want https://www.facebook.com/groups/mhhealthandfitnesscommunity

You can join MH Runners Club where you can get weekly coaching advice in the Ask the Coach sessions (as well as workouts, coaching advice and more) https://www.mhhealthandfitness.co.uk/mh-runners-club/ .

Or you can visit Martin Hulbert Run Coaching and look into getting a personalised plan and support to help you achieve your targets https://www.facebook.com/MartinHulbertRunCoaching/ .

 

A final word – write down your goals, share them if you wish, enjoy the process of working towards them, but please remember progress isn’t linear. As long as you are consistent and improving, you are winning!

 

Good luck with your 2022 goals – let us know what you decide on and how you get on!

 

Join the Club at MH Runner’s Club

Do you want a personalised training plan?

Want to know more about running or personal training?

Contact me today to ask any questions or to book your FREE consultation.

Email me at martinhulbertpt@gmail.com or contact me via Facebook Messenger

 

Martin Hulbert

Running Coach & Personal Trainer Leicestershire

MH Health and Fitness Online Community

MartinHulbertRunCoaching

#MHrunnersclub

 

Feeling Christmassy? How’s your running motivation?

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Some runners find Christmas and the ensuing changes in routine, means finding time to get out, or sticking to a schedule gets much harder. Here are my top tips to keeping going over the festive season – remember, you can still enjoy your running, but you don’t have stick to your normal schedule if it doesn’t work for you and your family…

 

If you’re following a plan, change it to suit your new schedule. If you have a coach, tell them how your needs are changing, and get your plan adjusted to fit. If you don’t have a coach, get advice from runners on Facebook groups or MH Runners “Ask the Coach” session to help adapt your current training. I know that I’ve been asking my clients what days they want to run over Christmas as some people love running on Christmas Day, for example. Others will never even consider the idea!

 

Be flexible. You may have other demands on your time – family, friends, pressie shopping, decorating etc, if you have to miss a day or two because life (or the weather) has got in the way, that’s fine. Accept it and don’t try and cram any running you’ve missed – that is a recipe for creating niggles and possible injury.

 

If you have time but can’t get out (no babysitting etc), consider doing a home workout. Stationary bikes, HIIT workouts etc. Will add interest and keep up your cardiovascular fitness whist not adding the additional stress of trying to find a free moment to get out without kids etc.

 

If you’re short of time, but can get out, try a tempo run or intervals. Go short and hard, and then enjoy time with your family and friends.

 

Lacking motivation to get out the door? Change it up a bit and have fun! You could get Christmassy…make a Christmas themed playlist to run to, sign up to a festive 5k or Christmas parkrun and get dressed up…. How about making the most of running in daylight if you’re not at work for a few days? Or going off road? Why not drive somewhere new to run? Lots of new options to try out.

 

Don’t worry if you need to keep it easy – especially after nights out, or heavy meals. Christmas is a time for over-indulgence, but it doesn’t always work well in combination with harder running. Don’t beat yourself up, just get out the door and enjoy.

 

Above all, don’t forget that the new year will bring new running goals. Take this time to relax and reinvigorate – it’s okay to take a day off, have a lie in, or simply spend time with family or relaxing rather than exercising. Sometimes a break is just what you need and means you can come back refreshed in the new year.

 

What are your Christmas running plans and top tips? Please share below to keep us all motivated! 

 

Join the Club at MH Runners Club

Do you want a personalised training plan?

Want to know more about running or personal training?

Contact me today to ask any questions or to book your FREE consultation.

Email me at martinhulbertpt@gmail.com or contact me via Facebook Messenger

Martin Hulbert

Running Coach & Personal Trainer Leicestershire

MH Health and Fitness Online Community

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Why coaches love fartleks…

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The word may make non-runners giggle, but the best distance runners in the world do fartlek workouts regularly, and so should you. Here’s why…

The word fartlek is Swedish for speedplay, and that’s what it is – literally playing around with speed. It is an unstructured (or semi-structured) continuous run where periods of different speeds are mixed in. You can make it as simple, or as complex as you wish, and therein lies some of the fun. It’s a relaxed, fun and varied way of bringing speed training into your running.

 

There are lots of ways of doing fartleks (see the list below for some ideas to try out) and each brings benefits. The purpose may be to build speed, or endurance, or getting your legs turning over faster pre race, or making neuromuscular connections – the benefits are numerous and will depend on what speed and distance you do your faster paces at. Fartlek leaves a lot of control to the runner – you can choose paces and distances for your efforts, without necessarily having a detailed structure. Unlike speed training on a track, it can be more representative of racing as you cover a variety of terrains, at a variety of training and unlike intervals, you don’t rest or recover fully between.

 

They are a great way to introduce faster running into your schedule without having specific pace targets to meet which can reduce pressure, especially for less experienced runners. Fartleks put the runner in control – feel good? Run the hard bit harder. Tired? Try running at 70-80% effort for the harder sections rather than 90%. Unlike so many of our runs nowadays, you can also ignore your watch and just run by feel, or by visual cue.

 

 

So how do you run Fartleks?
Whilst some of your run may be at easy effort, this is a workout, so warm up well (usually 1km-1mi easy effort) and then introduce some speedplay. Below are some workouts for you to try. Make sure you cool down and stretch after.

 

 

Fartleks by time.
If you’re running the faster segments by time, you can ignore pace and go by effort, rather than by numbers. Ignore the terrain, part of the beauty of fartlek runs is that they work on road, off road, on the flat or over hills.

Try one of these workouts:

  • One min fairly hard (70-80% effort) each half mile or km or mile, the rest of the distance easy. You can do this with 2 mins as well. If you’re feeling good, up the effort to 90%.

 

  • Alternating hard / easy effort over the course of your run e.g.
    1 min hard effort / 2 min easy effort
    2 min hard / 4 min easy.
    Or mix in some steady work such as 3 mins easy / 2 mins steady / 1 min hard.

 

  • “Mona” fartleks – a session used by distance runner Steve Moneghetti. Start with 10 min warm up then
    90s hard / 90s easy x 2
    60s hard / 60s easy x 4
    30s hard / 60s easy x 4
    15s hard / 15s easy x 4.
    Cool down.
    Vary your hard / easy paces depending on your target race. If you are going for short distances, take your easy very easy, and run the hard as hard as possible. If you are focused on longer distances, run steady rather than easy on the easy segments.

 

  • 6/5/4/3/2/1-min efforts, getting faster as you go through, with 90 secs easy or steady running between; or four sets of 3/2/1 mins, with 60-90 secs ‘off’ between the efforts and sets.

 

 

Fartleks by distance or other cue.
If you don’t want to worry about time, or want to run without looking at your watch, doing Fartleks by visual cue or distance is a great way to go. If you’re doing this, don’t worry about time, or pace. Go on effort, and enjoy!

Try some of these to get you started: 

  • Run easy for half a mile, steady for half a mile, hard for half a mile, drop back down to easy.

 

  • Use visual cues to run hard then easy e.g.
    Lamppost Fartleks – run hard to one lamppost, jog to the next. If you don’t live in a built up area, try running hard to a gate, easy to the next, or any other visual cue.
    Junction Fartleks – run hard to one road junction, easy to the next and repeat (don’t run hard across the road without looking!)

 

  • Hill fartleks – great hill training without the repeats, run a reasonably undulating route and every time you hit an uphill, run hard. Then take the downhills and flats at an easy effort.

 

  • Group Fartleks – run in a group. The first person decides on a time or visual cue to run hard to, then the next group member determines the length of the easy segment. Switch between all people in the group determining the pace and length of the next segment.

 

  • Audio cues – there are some great podcasts out there that provide audio cues for Fartleks. For example, the cross run podcast has beginner, intermediate and advanced fartlek podcasts you can listen to when running and give audio cues of when to change pace and what to.

 

 

Above all, Fartleks are there to be enjoyed. They should bring flexibility and freedom to your running whilst allowing you to experiment and practice at different paces. Get out there and enjoy!

Do you have a favourite fartlek run? Please let us know below.

 

Join the Club at MH Runners Club

Do you want a personalised training plan?

Want to know more about running or personal training?

Contact me today to ask any questions or to book your FREE consultation.

Email me at martinhulbertpt@gmail.com or contact me via Facebook Messenger

Martin Hulbert

Running Coach & Personal Trainer Leicestershire

MH Health and Fitness Online Community

www.facebook.com/MartinHulbertRunCoaching

#MHrunners