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How to mentally prepare for a marathon

Posted by Pascal Landshoeft

Mar 28, 2015 2:25:00 PM

20x30-FMBF1063

How to mentally prepare for a marathon

A marathon is not just a challenge for your body, but also for your mind. Inevitably you will push yourself beyond the limits as with normal running templates you will not go the full distance in your preparation. I have done two marathons so far, one under 4 hours. I am going to do two more this year, so here are some tips, if you are just starting out, as the bodily readiness is as important as the mental. 

 Do your long runs

You will train a lot. The weekend long runs are the most important ones. Those 2 hours plus runs will give you the confidence in yourself to run the full distance. When you get to that spot in the long run which beats you up and you want to quit, push a bit beyond it. Muhammad Ali started counting his repetitions when it started to hurt. Start to count your running kilometers after you think you've reached the limit.

Do your Intervals

After your long runs the Intervals are the most important component of your regime to be mentally prepared. When you know you can do a pace of 4 min on the kilometer for ten minutes a 5 minute marathon pace will come to you easy, also mentally. If you have good interval runs in the bag out of your program you can revisit these runs in your mind and have confidence in your legs for godspeed.  

Do your thresholds

Threshold runs will help you to build confidence in maintaining a slightly above moderate pace over a long time. I personally find these runs not as rewarding to prepare mentally for the 26.2 miles, but they still help to create more reference points for which you succeeded.

Plan your race

Get the race course and look for where the stations for water, gels and the gents / ladies are. Think about where you want to step out for your bio break, how much you want to drink when and where. I personally do not bring any supplies myself, as you usually find everything you need at the wayside of a well planned course. Make a plan how you want to run the 42km. A negative split ? On which kilometers do you want to rest to attack your PR yet again ? The man / woman with a plan is always more likely to succeed and less likely to panic.

Plan your nutrition in the week before the race

I made the mistake for my second marathon to eat bad and drink alcohol in the week leading up to the event. Free your schedule where possible from any social occasions that will expose you to bad food and drink a week before the marathon. Also plan what you are going to eat during that week. I found that the carb loading a day before did not go well for me. There are different approaches to diet, but for myself I found changing to more carbs gradually a week before race day the most convenient option.

Wear clothes you know

Do not pull some new runners out of the box for race day. Practice your long runs with the things you are going to wear on the day. Keep it as light as possible. Every unnecessary gram is a gram you have to carry with you for 3 - 5 hours, so choose wisely. The first day of the Marathon de Sables each year is a testimony to how overrrated unnecessary supplies are, as a lot of runners leave most of it behind in the first base camp of the 250km race.

Do your taper

I have heard that some runners have problems of downgrading the amount of miles run before the race, even though most training plans are designed that way. It is hard to get down from 100 - 200 kilometers a month to barely half of it in the last month. Still do as recommend. It will leave you with the fuel in the tank to go to space and beyond when it is needed.

Let it go

Do not chase runs you could not fit in because of social commitments, bad weather or whatever might have kept you from them. Let them go. It will put your mind at ease for the training to come. Focus on getting them to and make less excuses, because you missed the ones before. If you try to make up for lost runs, my experience was, that you are going to hurt yourself. Also you will be surprised with the teamwork amongst marathon runner on the course, a bonus you do not have in training.