HOW TO WIN

• How to avoid most strains and overuse injuries
• the secrets to a successful marathon

How to avoid most strains and overuse injuries

I want to pass on a cautionary piece of advice.

However fit you are or experienced as an athlete, it is always best to progress your training gradually and introduce all new training with care. As a coach, one of my aims is to ensure that my athletes reduce their injury risks. To achieve this you must include the relevant conditioning work specific to your sport and you must also plan the training so increases in volume or intensity and new exercises or workouts are phased in gradually.

In my experience most strain and overuse injuries occur when the athlete has done too much too soon. Proper planning helps to avoid what can be a costly "training error".

What is the secret to a successful marathon?

It must be said first that your marathon time has a close relationship with your I0K time. You can't run a good marathon unless you can run well over shorter distances. This is because maximum oxygen intake is a vital factor in both events. Thus we have immediately produced a way of determining what factors should be most important in training.

Endurance Training

In the three-month period leading up to the race you will need at least six runs in the two hours-plus ranges, or 18-plus miles. Opinion is divided as to whether one needs to run the full marathon distance in training. My view is that in every other race we get used to running longer than the race distance and so the same should apply to the marathon. It doesn't make sense to try to race over a distance, which you have never covered in training. Apart from any physical factors, you will be at a disadvantage in your mental attitude because you will be going into unknown territory. The serious marathon man or woman must therefore accept that three-hour training runs are going to be needed occasionally, but since they require a long recovery time they should not be done more than once a month.

The length of the daily run is important, too. Apart from the long, slow run, most daily runs should be 10 miles or more. This is more effective for endurance training than the "split" session of running, say, four miles in the morning and seven or eight in the evening.

Quality Training

Your basic running speed can only be improved by good quality aerobic training, which has to be dovetailed in with the endurance work. This will take the form of long repetition runs, at about your 10K speed, over distances of 1200m to 2400m, or of continuous runs, over distances of 5-10 miles, at close to threshold speed. Since threshold speed is about the speed of your best 10 miles, this represents a pretty hard effort at a pace that is appreciably faster than marathon speed.

Another ingredient of the quality training is short-interval work, which may be done either as a formal session with a fixed recovery time or as a fartlek session. In either case, the length of the bursts is short, no more than 300m and often as little as 150m, the pace is fast, close to 1500m speed, and the recovery as short as possible. In the early stages you might be putting in 15 x 200in, with a 200m jog after each, which will be about a minute, but as you become fitter these may increase to 30 x 30 sees, with a recovery jog of only 20-30 seconds.

Specific marathon training

In the last month before the event you should be focussing on running efficiently at race pace. The important sessions will therefore be repetition runs over 2-4K at a pace, which varies between your expected marathon pace and a pace that is about five seconds per kilometer faster. Thus the athlete who is hoping to run 2hrs 24min will do thier repetitions from 5.30 to 5.20 per miles or, if working in kilometers, from 3.25 to 3.18 per km. As well as this, you will be doing timed "pace runs" at your marathon speed, up to 10 miles in training, or possibly in the form of a controlled half-marathon race.

Whatever you do in training is no good unless you can reproduce it in race conditions. It is important, therefore, to rehearse as fully as possible the situations you are likely to encounter. These include getting up and breakfasting early for an early start, practicing the pre-race diet before long training runs, taking drinks during the run and wearing the shoes you are going to wear in the race. The best way of doing this, of course, is to incorporate some races into your programme, preferably over distances from 10-20 miles (15-32 km).

Recuperation

This is an essential part of the training, which must be programmed in, to take account of the effects of the hardest training runs and the races. Proper post-run routines should be worked out, including eating, drinking, bathing and, if possible, massage.

Countdown to the race

13 weeks to go - From now on marathon training takes preference over races. First two-hour run. These will be repeated every two weeks.

12 weeks to go Introduce the quality sessions, once a week at first, increasing to two a week, plus one long run, pace run or race. A typical session would be 6 x 1 mile or 5 x 2 km, with 3-4 minutes rest between each.

11 weeks to go Assess the training load of the first two weeks. From now on you should establish a pattern, based on either a 7-day or a 14-day cycle, which will enable you to do the hard work and recover from it by the beginning of the next cycle.

9 weeks to go After four or five weeks you should be running a race to measure your progress, and also getting up to two-and-a-half hours for your long run.

8 weeks to go At the end of this week you should allow yourself a recuperation period to absorb what you have done.

7 weeks to go The next four weeks will include the hardest training, but you should rest up before having a serious race or pace run.

5 weeks to go This is probably the best time to put in your three-hour run. It also gives you an opportunity to try out drinking before and during the run.

4 weeks to go Your last race. Rehearse the pre- race routines of carbo-loading in the last two days before the race, and the pre-race meal. Decide on the right shoes. During the next three weeks most of your serious running will be done at marathon pace to get into the right rhythm.

3 weeks to go Your last long run, about 20 miles, with a few stretches at marathon speed, the rest easy.

2 weeks to go From now on you are tapering. The mileage should be cut to two-thirds of normal and you should concentrate on feeling good, just doing a bit of striding out to keep the leg speed and the stride length. Run no more than 15 miles with 2 weeks to go.

The last week You will have done 8-10miles with seven days to go, and after that it doesn't really matter. I advise a little running each day, no more than half an hour. If you are going to carbo-load, the right period is from the Thursday evening to the Saturday evening before a Sunday race. It is advisable to be at the race venue the day before to check out the exact finish of the race and the arrangements regarding getting to the start.

Race day For a morning race, get up three-and- a-half hours before, breakfast three hours before, and bring a drink with you to take 10 minutes before the start. Make sure that you have clothing for either a warm day or a cold day. Finally, run the first mile as close to your target time as possible.
After that? You have done all you can so enjoy it!

All the best to those who are running in the London Marathon in April.

Yours,

Sylvester Stein

Chairman
How To Win

How To Win is a weekly newsletter from Electric Word plc, 67-71 Goswell Road, London, EC1V 7EP United Kingdom.