By Rodrigo Gavela

MOST OF THE WORK IS ALREADY DONE...

INTRODUCTION

Seven days before the marathon the work is already fully completed, whatever you do during this week will practically add nothing to your training. It is a week of active rest, with some days of very easy and short jogging, with one day of 1000 m reps and several days of total rest. These 1000s help psychologically to build confidence that you are going to run the marathon well.

If to all this physical training done over so many weeks we add improvements in diet, increasing carbohydrate intake, making the right choice of gear and putting some practical tricks into practice, you can arrive in optimal condition for the big day.

ABOUT NUTRITION

From Monday to Wednesday keep your normal diet, eating fewer carbs. From Thursday at noon until Saturday, you must markedly and progressively increase your carbohydrate intake, especially on Saturday, when the percentage of carbs in your diet should be around 80%. Take 6 glucose tablets throughout Friday and the same amount on Saturday, or take 3 carbohydrate gels each day. This should always be done by significantly increasing your fluid intake: water and sports drinks. Because of this you will gain 2 to 3 Kg (it is normal).

You can make your sports drink by mixing it with water and potassium (a quarter of a Boi K tablet per liter of sports drink). In all cases it should be tested throughout the previous week before the marathon to see how your body reacts; if it is good you can also take it during the marathon.

SLEEP WELL

Arriving well-rested to the marathon allows you to make the most of your physical potential. It is essential to sleep well from Friday to Saturday night and, if possible, take a nap that day. If you don’t sleep many hours from Saturday to Sunday nothing happens, as long as you have rested well the previous days.

MORE TIPS...

Follow these small tips, they will also help you enjoy your marathon to the fullest:

1. Take care of your feet.
Soak your feet for 20' in very hot water, coarse sea salt and vinegar every day this week; it will toughen the skin and together with the petroleum jelly you apply on Sunday before running, it will reduce the risk of chafing and blisters.

2. Avoid talking about the Marathon.
Don’t talk about the marathon with other runners during the last week, you will avoid mental fatigue and “self‑pressure”. You have the rest of the month to talk about it as much as you want.

3. Try not to get nervous.
If you are very nervous and sleep poorly before big events I recommend a good remedy: drink two cold beers on Saturday after dinner and before going to bed. It never fails...

4. Do not wear new clothes or shoes in the marathon.

You must have your shoes “broken in” with a minimum of 15 days of use and training. The ideal shoes are the ones you normally use in your daily training. The ones considered as racing shoes are so extremely light that not only will they not help you, but they will cause discomfort in the tibials, soleus, calves, knees and hips. Racing shoes are for light runners who run the marathon under 3' 30" per Km.

5. Choose the right clothing if a hot day is expected.
If a hot day is expected, clothing should be very light-colored and made of next‑generation fabrics such as Coolmax, which breathe better and stay almost dry.

6. Avoid chafing.
To avoid chafing in friction areas, apply petroleum jelly. My experience tells me it is necessary on the whole foot (between toes, on the nails, on the arch, heel, etc.), on the groin, armpits and nipples.

MARATHON DAY

Only hours remain before starting, it’s the big day you’ve been waiting for, but you still can’t relax. Here I suggest some last tips:

1. Nutrition.
Get up two to three hours before the start of the race. Have breakfast as always, but very light, because what you eat a few hours before cannot be used during the race. The best are complex carbohydrates (bananas, cereals, nuts, fiber biscuits, dried figs and prunes). It is very good to drink plenty of fresh water until the start of the warm‑up. Do not take glucose or simple sugars during the hour before the race starts. It is very Dangerous!! It can cause hypoglycemia in the first minutes. Juices can cause diarrhea. Be careful! Milk before the race is not recommended as it is slow to digest, unless you are very used to it. Do not try any new or strange product on Sunday, as you don’t know how it will affect you; you must have tested it before. If you feel heavy on race morning it is normal, it is due to being loaded with glycogen. A cup of black coffee or tea (almost without sugar) half an hour before the race works very well: it speeds up fat consumption from the first km (saving glycogen for the final Kms) and makes you nervous, which is good for racing. During the marathon, drink a little at each aid station, in small sips.

2. Warm‑up.
Warm up very gently and slightly bundled up; if it's very cold wear a plastic poncho so you don’t get cold at the start, and once running, after one or two Km you can throw it away.

3. Pace.
You must run the marathon with a negative split, from less to more. That is, start slightly slower than your target average pace, from km 10 to 30 try to run at target pace and in the last 10 or 12 Km progress slightly. Remember that the marathon is not about how it starts, but how it ends. The best is to reach Km 30 feeling very good and from there begin a continuous and smooth progression to the finish, or in the worst case maintain your pace.

AFTER THE MARATHON

Bundle up well, drink plenty of fluids and eat light.
Right after finishing, put on dry clothes and drink plenty of fluids, both water and juices, eat lots of fruit and walk for a while. Your lunch and dinner afterwards should be light. You will recover sooner and better.

Put your legs in cold water.
As soon as you get to the hotel fill the bathtub halfway with cold water and sit inside for a little more than five minutes. To warm up again take a very hot shower.

Don’t worry about soreness.
The next day, most likely you will have severe soreness or leg pain when going down stairs; you can relax and ease the discomfort with a very hot bath. If when going down stairs the quadriceps pain is very strong, you can go down backwards and you will see how it almost disappears. Don’t worry, in two days, three at most, it will be gone.