Born to Run

Okay, Bruce Springsteen was talking about some Runaway American Dream in his lyrics “Born to Run,” not running 26.2 miles. But, I needed a title. Sooo…let’s talk about the Marathon.

I’ll start with the obvious. If I can start and finish a Marathon, anyone with the desire can do the same. The word “desire” is the keyword here. I recently watched a Netflix series called Lucifer, and the main character Tom Ellis plays the handsomely English accented devil helping a detective named Chloe solve homicides in Los Angeles.

One of his powers is to gaze into the suspect’s eyes and asks: “what is it that you truly desire,” and the responses, as you could imagine, are pretty funny. But, it’s the same question that we all need to look into the mirror and ask ourselves before we begin the Marathon training journey. It’s an honest question that deserves the same accurate response as an answer.

It’s a big commitment physically, mentally, and time constraints. Let's face it, not many of us have the genetic gifts of Meb, Galen Rupp, Paula Radcliffe, or Desi but, "I'll run through a Hurricane," Linden to win Boston.

It's a serious commitment that not only protects you physically but mentally too. We never want to set ourselves up for failure at anything that we set out to do. And preparing and running a Marathon needs 100% effort. So deep down, there is always a motivator, external or internal, pushing our challenge buttons. Once you make that commitment to yourself, the training becomes so much easier to manage.

So here are a few tips and mistakes that I had made along the way that is probably worthy of sharing.

The first tip is don't be concerned about your finishing time. Because it doesn't matter. The most important thing is that you finish healthy. We'll talk about qualifying for Boston a bit later when times do matter.

The second tip is nutrition; we will be logging a lot of miles on your training journey. Make confident you're eating enough quality calories. It might seem obvious, but often it's a drastic change to our current sedentary life caloric intake. I've experienced this often early in my training especially when long weekend runs and monthly miles have accumulated. You don't want to bonk during training sessions. That will hurt our race time Marathon effort.

Also, when we're on the subject of nutrition, let's talk about that during a training run since it's critically essential. During your daily training runs, long, short, and medium runs, don't bother to use those race day Gels or sugar-loaded treats. Instead, save them for race day. Instead, sip Gatorade diluted with water during your long training runs if it's hot as needed. This strategy of not using gels and other supplements will help teach your body to use fat as energy after your body's fuel sources become depleted naturally during your runs. This strategy will also pay off during race day at mile 22 when you can use those gels or Gatorade to help fuel you to the finish line.

The third tip would be not to overtrain. It's better to step up to the starting line a bit undertrained and fresh than overtrained and tired; sometimes, we don't realize all the effort we put into training weeks and months to catch up to us and hurt our effort. In other words, train hard but train smart. Don't put all-out effort into all of your training runs. Sometimes running slow and steady does win the race.

If you are injured, don't try and run through it, even if it's a week or two from your big event. Rest and physical therapist help will be the correct way to go. Even if you decide to run the event still injured, you will not lose much fitness that you banked from your previous training. Most likely less than 2%,

This advice comes from my own experience. I tore my MCL Before I started to train for the New York City Marathon seriously. I trained for six weeks for the Marathon by taking intense spin classes, weight training, and minimal slow runs with a knee brace. It was, without a doubt, the best strategy. It allowed me to finish in with the least discomfort.

Lastly. If you decide to try and qualify for Boston, it's time to focus on speed work. What I mean by that is build up your high-mileage long runs earlier in your Marathon training and start adding 1/4 -1/2 and full one mile all-out efforts during your medium and short training run. Also, start doing some hill work like the post on this site describes: "So many hills...So little time."

This type of effort will prove worthy, especially at mile 22, where things start to get a bit hazy. Make sure that your fast efforts include slight variations in height: incline and decline. I should add that speed work is probably best to use during your last 4-6 weeks of a training module. It’s easy to get burned out by doing too much for too long.

And remember Bruce said it the best we’re all "Born to Run." or was that Bob Seger about "Running Against the Wind," I guess, in a way they’re both true...