Top 5 Tips to Train up for SAFRA Singapore Bay Run 2009

Received this email from SAFRA, and thought it would be useful to share with our running community:

Top 5 Tips to Train up for SAFRA Singapore Bay Run & Army Half Marathon 2009 (SSBR & AHM 2009)


Training up is the vital thing we have to keep in mind for the SSBR & AHM 2009. How do we exactly train ourselves up for the big day?

We are letting you in on some tips what you can do to really train yourself up in order to emerge the hero during the SSBR & AHM 2009.


1. THE HAUNTING WALL
The one thing that spooks every participant is the Wall – that “lovely” point late in the race where glycogen, which is your preferred fuel for your muscles, is used up and thereafter you will slow dramatically. Or, at best, struggle dramatically.

Training for SSBR & AHM boils down to one thing - pushing out that point at which we hit The Haunting Wall. If we push it out far enough in training, we will not smack into it in the race. You can try to accomplish this by first building endurance with long runs, and then as SSBR & AHM approaches, “sharpen” with shorter and faster intervals.


2. BUILD YOUR ENGINE
The goal of training is to improve the power of the human engine, so that you can run faster. The goal of training for SSBR & AHM is to reduce the consumption of fuel at race pace. When you become more efficient at marathon pace, you burn less glycogen and theoretically have enough to maintain your goal pace to finish SSBR & AHM.

First, build the engine with shorter, faster workouts. This is to keep your mileage up, then fine-tune the efficiency of your engine with lots of running at marathon pace.

The benefit of this approach is that you get your body as fit as you can, then you get as efficient as you can. In the three weeks before SSBR & AHM, it is hard to get much fitter, you make only small improvements, but you can get your body used to working within a certain zone that efficiently improves how your body burns fuel during the SSBR & AHM. This approach makes you very strong, so that a sub-maximal effort like SSBR & AHM feels easy.

Workouts should be spaced out, rather than be done on consecutive days.

If you feel overly fatigued or have acute soreness in a particular spot after the first week of training, this is a sign that you are not ready.

Use the first portion of long runs to warm up, then spend the rest of the run at the prescribed pace. The honest pace on these long runs will increase your fuel-burning efficiency, but it is not so intense that it will kill you for the rest of the week.

When possible, do your runs on terrain that mimics that of your marathon.


3. RUN JUST ENOUGH
It does you no good to train hard and then get sick or injured. It is better to be slightly undertrained, but feeling strong and eager, than to be overtrained. The trick, of course, is to find the fine line between the two.

Fill in the rest of the week with easy running. As your hard days get harder and increasingly focused on sustaining marathon pace, the pace on your easy days should get easier. One way to ensure that you are truly recovering on your easy days is to wear a heart-rate monitor and not go above 70% of your maximum heart rate.

Plan to do 10x100m pickups after one of your easy runs each week. These strides which are short bursts of controlled, fast running will help you to run in a better form at all paces. To do a stride, accelerate to near full speed while staying as relaxed as possible. Take as much rest between strides as you need to run the next one with good form.


4. DO YOUR LONG RUNS
The newer you are to SSBR & AHM, the slower and the more important your long runs. You simply have to get accustomed to being on your feet for 3 or more hours. There is no magic length. You can stop at 2.5 to 3 hours. You can also choose to run further, but include walk breaks. All systems work, as long as you get to the starting line healthy and strong.

Many runners hate to taper; but a taper can gain muscle fiber strength – fast aerobic muscles that can adapt to improve your performance.



5. RECOVERY
How fast you run between sessions, that is the pace of your recovery running should be steady training pace. As your workouts get easier, increase the pace of your recovery efforts, not the pace of the training segments. The longer you work at your training sessions with short rest, the more prepared you will be to hold that pace for SSBR & AHM.

You do not have to train hard seven days a week. You just have to train smart three or four days a week.


Training up for SSBR & AHM 2009 may not be as easy you have perceived, but it will all be worth it.


The above information is in adapted from Army News (Issue 154: May/June 2008, Issue 155: June/July 2008) and “50 Tips for Healthy Running”(2008) by Raffles Medical Group.