September 2005

Previous issues

Each month we offer a new article by Kitty Consolo, Ph.D.   Kitty is a veteran runner and exercise physiologist.  She has been running and racing since 1975, and has won over 400 road races ranging from the mile to the marathon and went to the first women's Olympic marathon trails in 1984. Kitty has a PR of 2:42.46 for the marathon and 35:02 for the 10km,  She now enjoys shorter races and masters running.

Dr. Consolo is currently an assistant professor at Ohio University Zanesville where she teaches a variety of health, PE classes as well as human anatomy and physiology.

Enjoy, and please let us know your thoughts about the Runner's Corner!

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The Perfect Taper Plan for Your Race

        We are finally due for some cooler weather in the next month and with many fall races underway, this month’s Runner’s Corner is to help you taper for that one race you want to really peak at.  If you have a strong solid base of training, you may be able to taper for more than one race if it is shorter than a marathon, but this is not something to try to do at every race as there is so much rest involved that soon the benefits of your training will be lost.  So utilize this technique for the most important race of your fall and especially a race in which you would like to see your fastest time.

When to Start

        If your race is a marathon, start your taper three weeks out from the race.  If your race is 10 miles to 30 km, start your taper two weeks out from the race.   And if your race is 5 miles to a 10km, start your taper 1 week to 10 days from your race.  Races less than 5 miles can start with about 5 days prior to the race.

Tapering in terms of mileage or distance

          Distance running can put a constant strain on our muscles and leave us depleted of glycogen and water even if we are eating and hydrating correctly.  Thus a good taper gives one’s legs a chance to really rest and start building up glycogen stores.  For those of you tapering for the marathon, do your last long run (anything over 10 miles) three weeks before and then that third week, cut your total weekly mileage by 1/3 to ½.   Keep eating good healthy carbs like fruits and vegetables and drink plenty of water, not caffeine and alcohol.   For the second week, cut your total mileage another 1/3 and continue high carbs and water.  Have one or two days though where you warm up and do a few 400, 800s and 1 mile at marathon race pace or a bit faster to keep up your turn over.  Do not do a long run over 1 hour or 10 miles.  For the last week of the marathon, cut your mileage to just 1/3 of what your normal training was and do no long run.  Two or three days before the marathon, do some 400s, 800 or 1 mile at marathon race pace.

For those of you tapering for a 10 miler to 30km, do your last long run two weeks before and then cut your total weekly mileage by ½.  For the week before your race, cut your mileage again so that it is just 1/3 to ¼ what you normally run and limit your long run to 8-12 miles.    Eat plenty of fruits, veggies and drink lots of water also avoiding lots of caffeine and alcohol.

For those of you tapering for 5 miles to the 10km, make your last long run no longer than 5-7 miles and then cut your total mileage by ½ to 2/3.  Be sure to eat lots of fruit and veggies and drink plenty of water with limited use of caffeine and alcohol.  One to 3 days before your race, do some 400s, an 800 or mile at race pace after a good warm up to keep up your turn over.

If you are running a 5km, run no longer than 5 miles for your long run for the week before and then cut your miles down to 1-3 a day for the last week.   Take care to eat good carbs such as fruit and veggies with water with limited use of caffeine and alcohol.  Two to 4 days before your race, do a few 200s and 400s at race pace after a good warm up to keep up your leg turn over.

Expect some weight gain

        When you cut your miles and keep up the carbs and water, expect to experience a few pounds of weight gain (but not a huge amount like 10 to 20—then you have done too much carb loading.)  This weight gain is especially important if you are running the marathon or races longer than 10 miles.  For every gram of carbs you store in your muscles, you are storing 3 grams of water with them, hence the weight gain.  This weight gain is necessary to help you avoid dehydration in the longer races and will be totally lost during the race.  Thus do NOT go into a marathon feeling hungry and skinny.  

        For the shorter races, the taper is shorter and you should not see much weight gain, if so, then perhaps you overdid the carbs or ate some unhealthy carbs like ice cream, candy etc.  Try to go easy on these foods as they have little nutritive value.

Sleep

        The most important night’s sleep for your big race is not the night before, but the night the night before.  So try if at all possible, to go to bed and get up as you would on race day.  If you have trouble sleeping try taking a hot bath 90 minutes before bedtime and taking 200-400mg of calcium or some lowfat milk, soy or rice milk products that have a high calcium content.  Try to distract yourself from any worry, watch a funny movie or listen to fun music.  You can still run well without a few good night’s sleep but it is better if you can get a good sleep two nights before your big race.

        As for the night before your big race, keep off of your legs even if you are having trouble sleeping.  Rest in bed watching funny movies or listening to good music and try to divert yourself from worries.

Imagine the Best

        Before you do sleep, imagine in your mind the perfect race.  See yourself running with relaxed form, easily, mile after mile.  Positive images can have a positive impact on your subconscious and your performance.  Avoid catastrophizing and thinking the worst and have someone talk to you about the perfect race if you are having trouble seeing it yourself.

Race day

        For race day, please refer back to the Runner’s Corner index for the article on how to run your perfect race.  Arrive early and confident that you are ready, ready to run your best ever.

Good luck and see you at the races.