If you are running in the upcoming Beach to Bay marathon I wish you luck. The four-plus miles may be a little tough on you if you haven’t been putting in the miles. For a successful and less painful race I have added a few tips that will help you perform better and recover faster.
1. Hydrate: Pre-race check your urine color. You want it to be a light yellow like lemonade. Don’t drink too much and get water logged, just enough to take the dark orange color out of your urine. Research has shown that just a 2% reduction in hydration can lead to a 20% reduction in performance.
2. Roll Your Feet: While standing put a tennis ball, softball, or golf ball under one foot and roll the bottom of your foot against the ball. The softer the ball the better at first. You may want to work up to a more rigid ball later. Roll behind your toes, the arch of your foot, the outside of your foot and the heel. If you find any bumps (trigger points) roll on them for about 30 seconds until they release.
3. Don’t carb load the night before: The 80’s are over and so is carb loading the night before the big race. Research shows that we want to begin the process of carbohydrate loading several days before. For 4-plus miles you don’t really need to carb load at all. Eat a healthy non-greasy meal the night before and you will be fine.
4. Eat a light breakfast: You want to eat a light breakfast with minimal fiber. You don’t want to run on an empty stomach and you don’t want a full bloated stomach. Bananas and peanut butter usually do the trick.
5. Encourage others: Every person you pass give them “atta boy/girl” or “keep it up”, or my personal favorite, “TIGHT GLUTES, TIGHT ABS, SHOULDERS BACK AND DOWN”!!! Just kidding about the last one. Encourage those who are struggling a bit. We all need a little encouragement.
If you are not going to be running stay away from Padre Island on the 21st in the morning but go to Cole Park around 10am. It is a blast!
Committed to Your Success,
Adam
Don’t forget about post-workout! The Refuel with Chocolate Milk Tour will be at the Beach to Bay Realy passing out lowfat chocolate milk after the race. Chocolate milk has the correct 3:1 carb:protein ratio your body needs for recovery after strenuous exercise. Come see us at the finish!
Thank you for your comment about Chocolate Milk. I do offer other supplements but when price is a conflict I always go with chocolate milk. I also recommend it to all my middle school and high school athletes instead of starting them on supplements before they are 18.
If I wanted to offer single size chocolate milks to my athletes and my bootcamp clients what would be the best way to go about it? Contacting a distributor, grocer, or you guys?
Check out our story we did last summer on chocolate milk and recovery.
Thanks,
adam