It’s the day before the big United Airlines NYC Half Marathon 2017! The bib has been picked up and I’m so excited and eager to participate in my first ever marathon!
The past 2 months have training have gone better than I expected. As with any training regimen, there were setbacks that presented themselves, especially with this being my first ever marathon of any kind, but, overall, I am more than happy with how my training went.
So as this past week unfolded, what did I focus on with my training?
1) Short sprinting and elevation work. After reaching 10 miles last week, I spent this entire week dialing back the overall distance and working on slowing up my cadence and increasing cadence with toe contact gait vs flat foot gait pattern. The definite focus was on short sprinting on the Alter G Anti-Gravity Treadmill in my Physical Therapy office and elevation work at 3-5% incline.
2) Stretching, stretching, stretching! I’ve had a little bit of back pain creep up the past two weeks, so I added prone press ups to help ease issues I was having with my low back. This was added in addition to my regular stretching program including the runners’ stretch of the hip flexor, hamstring stretching and achilles tendon stretching. Foam rolling the IT band and all the muscles around the leg have kept everything nice and loose, overall.
3) Diet – I have maintained a 3200 calorie diet high in good carbs for the whole week. Energy levels have maintained throughout my work week in the midst of treating Physical Therapy patients
4) Water Hydration – I’ve kept to about 65 fl oz daily and I’m making sure that 2 hours before the race on Sunday that I drink up to 18 fl oz. In monitoring my training, I’ve calculated that I lose about that much in water weight on my long runs.
So there you have it, my top 4 things that I’ve focused on all week long. With my distance, I already achieved my goal of getting to my max training distance to 10+ miles last week. For this week, race week, it wasn’t about running long distances anymore. I ran two times this week, but only for the short sprinting and elevation work, with my last running coming on Thursday. Since my body is already accustomed to a long distance, it’s really about body maintenance and diet. By focusing on that, I’m very confident that I’ll do well on race Sunday.
Dr. James Pumarada is a licensed Physical Therapist, specializing in Vestibular Physical Therapy and Running Physical Therapy, with over 17+ years of experience. He is the co-owner of Complete Physical Rehabilitation, a Physical Therapy practice based in Elizabeth and Jersey City, NJ.