Tapering + racing tactics on the long distance

Since Monday I've been in the taper phase, that is, resting before the Challenge Roth in just under 1 1/2 weeks. How necessary the break is now, I notice that I am extremely tired and knocked out. This state should last a few days and then reverse itself. Then all you have to do is insert a few short, lively units to maintain the muscle tone, and off you go ...

For me, my first Roth experience, see picture above. By running kilometer 25, all blood had drained from my veins, chalk-white and zombie-like I was wandering towards my goal 😉

The classic reasons for failure on the long distance are:
- Gambling over
- Incorrect food intake
- Mistakes in drinking
- sodium deficiency

Wrong race classification
Gambling over is the most common reason on the medium and long haul, which thwarts a race result, as would have been expected after the training, or even forces you to give up. Most often this mistake is seen in very good age group athletes. This is no wonder, because this group has invested a lot in the form of competition - the motivation and the pressure of expectation are correspondingly high; hardly any of them are prepared to finish even a minute below their own means. With the slower athletes one finds a little more caution, mostly out of respect for the extreme challenge that the mere finishing represents.

The most common gamble is on the bike, in the first one or two hours of cycling. Of all racing tactics, starting too quickly on the bike is the most dangerous. It regularly leads to the fact that the athletes finish well below their actual possibilities. In all the cases I know of, a too brave start leads to a break-in already on the bike, usually near bike kilometer 120. From here it is still a long way to the finish. On the last 30 kilometers by bike, you usually lose a large part of the previously laboriously blasted cushion on the target time. The marathon then runs well for 15 to 20 kilometers and according to plan, after which you pay your duty. It is not a fast cycle time that breaks your legs, but a first cycle lesson that is too fast. It is worth investing some time on the first 60 kilometers for all levels of ability. A few minutes can work wonders! I know it's hard to slow down during the racing phase when you feel strongest. However, if you know how to slow yourself down and use the excess energy to cater for yourself very solidly, you will collect the interest on this investment later in the race.

What does later mean? Two things: Firstly, this tactic leads to a strong performance beyond bike kilometer 120. Already here you will catch up with many fellow combatants who have pounded past you at the beginning of the bike route. Rely on it, you collect them all again, except those who are just better than you (be glad you let them go). Everyone else becomes your prey.
Second, clever cycling tactics pays off on the running track. Not necessarily in the first half, everyone's going strong up to that point. But old hands know that the race only begins after the half marathon. Every grain, every calorie you saved up to this point in the race is now worth gold. Because difficulties in the marathon cost a lot of time. It is impossible and impossible to combine a good bike time and a bad run into a good overall time. Problems with the marathon always cost more time than the time cushion that was previously driven out with the bike split. Specifically: If you over-gamble by 5 minutes on the bike, you will get twice or three times as much in the marathon.
This is simply due to the fact that the air resistance when cycling 90% eats up the energy invested, only 10% benefit the athlete in terms of propulsion. So it is an investment at an extremely bad exchange rate. Later, at the marathon, you can do better business. Good for those who still have something in their bag.

The marathon
The marathon is also often over-gambled. Two phases of the run are particularly prone to tactical mistakes:

the first 5 kilometers of running
Running kilometers 5-15.

The reasons for an excessive choice of pace on the first 5 kilometers of the marathon are usually the following: Misleading feeling of pace after cycling. After the landscape flew past you at a rapid pace for many hours, almost every running pace feels very slow on the first kilometers of the marathon. This leads to misjudgments of the pace.
The barrel form as a weapon. This happens especially to strong runners. After the first two disciplines, the cream of the crop comes for them. Here they want to throw what they can do in terms of running. With the feeling "I'll show you" they run out of the transition area and set a pace that is just a tad too high even with a very optimistic assessment of their own performance.

Influence of the audience. No sooner have you left the second transition area and taken the first, undoubtedly heroic, steps into the 42-kilometer-long gladiator arena, when the spectators shout everyone who can stand upright. Staying cool here is difficult; often, in favor of the show and self-esteem, you set a faster pace than would be advisable. For viewers, however, this type is very easy to recognize and regularly creates amusement.

The second critical phase comes somewhere between kilometers 5 and 15 of the marathon route. In this section you often correct the running pace of the start phase upwards. The reasons for this are easy to understand: Here the legs have found their rhythm, the machine runs well oiled and euphoria exudes its fatal poison through the cerebral cortex. This leads to the fact that one overestimates one's actual productivity for the hours that lie ahead.

Backgrounds:
Physiologically, this means that you consume more carbohydrates than your body can provide from storage and food supply to your destination. One empties the tank gram for gram, without realizing it, until it suddenly runs out. Disastrously, if the carbohydrate stores are empty, it is no longer possible to obtain sufficient energy from the fat stores. Because fat burning also needs carbohydrates (glycogen). If this path is blocked, the body breaks down protein, in English: it digests itself. No wonder that the organism pulls out all the stops to stop this condition. The athlete can only defend himself against pain and fatigue with extreme willpower, and even this only at a significantly reduced pace. In short: an only slightly excessive running pace (synonymous with a slightly excessive consumption of carbohydrates) makes the second half of the marathon an ordeal. And often on a hiking day.

Therefore the urgent advice to run until kilometer 15 or half marathon at a comfortable, easy pace. If you feel the need to run faster, you should only really do it after this mark (if you still feel like it).
Between running kilometers 5 and 15 people like to gamble over.

The unconscious influence of the brain
One last tip on this topic: the brain works completely unconsciously in most of its physical functions. For example, the chemical miracles that our liver performs every second does not penetrate into our conscious experience. Nevertheless, the brain knows exactly what is going on there, after all it controls these processes taking into account countless other processes that take place somewhere in the body. The brain is also very precisely aware of the level of glycogen (carbohydrates), fluids and minerals in the body, albeit on an unconscious level. With this information, it controls the pace possible for you. In other words, if the brain thinks it is enough, it will turn you down until you leave.

You can use these relationships by always providing the brain with information on how far it is. Because with this knowledge, the top control center can control your subjective perception of stress and the unconscious willingness to perform of the body, better than you could yourself. So the task is: tell your gray matter how far it is to the finish line. A simple way to do this is to count the racing kilometers backwards. At 40 km you say to yourself: “Another 140 kilometers at racing speed, that's four and a half hours. Then a run of 42 kilometers, that makes another four hours. So another eight and a half hours! ”. In the marathon, you count backwards: “Forty more!” Instead of “Already two!” On the second kilometer sign. Only in the final phase of the marathon is this tactic reversed. You hide the fact from your brain that there are still 10 kilometers to go and shout to it, “Only up there to the bend, then we'll see”. It goes without saying that you have to act with caution and common sense when trying to dupe your own brain.

http://www.triathlon-szene.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=845&Itemid=14

When, after reading this report, I recall my first Roth experience mentioned above, I realize that I have actually made all the mistakes at once have made. Much too quick to start on the bike, and then I ran the first 10km like the devil 😉

good training!

krelli