Final Week Before the Marathon

It’s my last marathon feature before Scotiabank Waterfront Marathon and I hope you all are deep in taper crazies.

I wanted to speak a little to the last week before the marathon. I did a feature on the final week in August, but I wanted to explore a little bit of the psychological side and a few things I learned from the last round.

• One thing that you must must must keep in mind is that your work is done. Any running you do this week is to sharpen your legs for the race, but the training is over. I ran maybe three times total the final week before my marathon, with one sharpening run where I did a 2 KM tempo at marathon pace.
• The day before, do as little as possible. As in, don’t even stand for too long. I personally spent the day in bed, watching movies and eating pancakes.
• Carb load begins long before the night before. I have even heard it suggested that the bulk of the carb loading should be complete by 1 PM the day before the marathon and the night before, it is best to eat a normal sized dinner and get a good sleep.
• I said it before, but it bears repeating – spend the time that you would spend training, in bed sleeping this week.
• Spend some time thinking about what you are about to do, how much it will hurt and how much time you have put into preparing for it. I actually even picked a song the week before and would play it through, visualizing my marathon at my most difficult moments and imagining how I would react. This was the song I chose:

I truly do think it worked as my marathon went as smoothly as it could have. I was relaxed, happy and positive even when I was really hurting. Knowing I did all I could to prep myself nutritionally, physically and psychologically was a huge help to feeling confident on race day.

• If you feel like you are eating too much, resting too much and sleeping too much the week before, you are probably doing it right. It is fine to get to the starting line well rested, a couple pounds heavier than you train at and alert. The extra weight is telling of well fuelled muscles that are holding water and glycogen – basically, it means they are ready to take you the distance!

Wishing everyone who is tapering a fantastic final week before the big race. For my Canadian friends, have a wonderful time celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving today.

 

Taken from my Instagram. 

I have arrived safely in Mexico and am spending my days in the sun, playing in the waves, doing some intense open water swims in the ocean and eating ALL the Mexican food as it is my top favourite cuisine of life.

And doing a whole lot of this:

 

What is your favourite way to relax during a taper?