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RUNNING
299
November14
HEALTH&FITNESS
COMMENTARY:
RUNNING
Self-Sabotage
At the peak of the racing season
– the Great Eastern Women’s
on the 9th of this month and the
Singapore Standard Chartered
Marathon on 7 December –
Verne Maree
chats to former
professional tri-athlete BEN
PULHAMof JourneyFitnessabout
the self-sabotage that runners
tend to inflict on themselves.
Can we always trust them to stick to the
pace they’re displaying on their boards?
“Not in all the races,” admits Ben.
“But we’ve been involved in coaching
the Singapore Standard Chartered
Marathon pacers for the past few years,
and I can assure you that they are
phenomenal.”
He himself wrote their 16-week
programme, which is implemented by
a club called Running Department. They
train over a 3K hamster loop that helps
them internalise the pace they’ve been
tasked with setting. “They use GPS,
too,” he adds.
8 Top Race-day Tips
Don’t
over-train, and do taper
properly.
Do
prepare your kit the night
before the race.
Don’t
expect to sleep well; the
previous night’s sleep is more
important.
Do
know exactly how you’re
getting to the start, and have
a Plan B.
Don’t
try anything new: food,
drinks or kit.
Do
get to the start in good
time.
Don’t
start out too fast.
Do
be flexible and adjust your
expectations if you’re slowed
by the crowd or a toilet break.
Control what you can
control, let go of what
you can’t , and the
outcome will take care
of itself.
Y
ou’ve done your training,
you’ve tapered well and
there’s a bounce in your
step. The last thing you need
now is to scupper yourself on race
day, agrees Ben. According to him,
race success often has little to do with
a runner’s fitness, and more with race-
day execution.
#1 Mistake: Starting too fast
This is the worst mistake, and the most
common. Buoyed by the crowd and the
music, most runners head out too fast.
The main problem in a longer race – less
so in the 10K – is that it quickly chews up
your precious store of available carbs.
Only a tiny percentage of our available
energy is in the carbs stored as glycogen
in our muscles, explains Ben – about
2,000 calories, as opposed to more
than 80,000 calories available as fat
(enough to get you to KL). “This also
stuffs up your nutritional strategy,” he
adds, “because it’s impossible for you
to replace those carbs as fast as you’re
burning them.”
Well in advance of race day, decide
on a doable pace; and then try to stick
to it as evenly as possible throughout
the race. This would give you an “even
split”. Inexperienced runners tend to run
a “positive split”, albeit by accident; elite
runners will typically do a negative split
(a slightly faster second half).
Some races provide official pacers,
identified with bunches of balloons, to
help runners maintain their goal pace.