The Final Countdown – Things to do in the final week before your race

You’ve put in the hard work; you’ve trained for several weeks with VO2 max intervals that roast your calves and long runs that turn your blood to sludge. You are in your ‘taper’ phase at this stage wherein you carefully modulate your rest to reach the start line primed and feeling like a hound dog on a leash. The worst is behind you, but here is a list of things you need to do to ensure that all your hard work pays off:

Get your coach to hand you a race plan. Don’t go ‘blind’ into a race. You HAVE to know how you will run and what pace you will hold for most of the distance. A race plan factors in the course difficulty, the weather and the ‘RPE’ (Rating of Perceived Exertion) in your last few long runs. Without this…you are dead!

Race week:

• Get to bed early the two to three nights before the event. If you get adequate sleep these two nights, you won’t have to worry about losing sleep the night before the race – and you WILL lose sleep because you’ll likely be restless the night before the race.
• In the two days prior to your race, you’ll need to consume about 4–5 litres of water per day. You can do this by consuming a 200 ml glass at regular intervals. This will ensure that you retain the water in your body instead of having to visit the washroom! Stop drinking water about two hours before you go to sleep to prevent unscheduled wake up calls at night. Take a little extra salt in your diet so that your electrolyte levels are not compromised.
• Adhere to a taper schedule in this week; it is meant to rest you but still retain ‘zip’ in your legs.
• In the two days prior to your race, you’ll want to focus on complex carbohydrate (breads, pasta, rice, potatoes, rotis, vegetables, etc.) consumption. Aim for 600 gm of carbohydrates per day. Calculate this using any calorie counter on the internet. A primary rule: In the two days prior to your race, you should never get hungry.
• All week prior to the race, focus on your hamstrings, quads and your calves. Conduct 3 x 20-second stretches per muscle group per leg twice daily.
• Self-talk, visualize and rehearse your race 2–3 times a day in the two days before your race and especially on waking up.

The night before:

Eat well and not later than 9 pm. Eat foods you are familiar with. Keep rich, tangy and spicy sauces to a minimum. Avoid foods that cause flatulence (dals, beans, and gram), and don’t eat anything you haven’t tried before! Assemble your gear: Stop watch, Timing chip, race tee, shorts, shoes, socks, bib, GPS watch, Vaseline, deodorant, belt bag with your favourite foods, gels, sipper, bars, etc.

Race morning:

Set an alarm that does not jar you awake. Self-talk, visualize and rehearse your race, on waking up. Get your morning “fix” i.e. coffee, tea or whatever. Your pre-race meal (ensure it is at least 90 mins before your start!) should be part liquid (orange juice, sports drink, etc.) and the rest as simple carbohydrates (with little or no spice) such as bread and jam/peanut butter/cheese, porridge, corn flakes with milk, idlis, poha, upma or whatever works for you.

Avoid eating animal protein if you are not used to it since it will stay in your digestive tract for a long time. Make certain nothing you eat is new to you!

Arrive early at the start line. Keep sipping only water – no sports drinks! Use the wash-room to relieve your full bladder. Your body is now a soaked sponge. Do a light warm up for 10 mins. Rehearse your race plan.

The race:

Use the first 2–3 km to get into the groove and check your pace given in the race plan. Drink early and preferably at every aid station in the first half of your race. You should consume about 600–800 ml per hour if the weather is cool and about 1000–1200 ml per hour if it is very warm. Break this up into 200–300 ml every 20 mins.

Electrolyte Needs: For high heat or humidity, ensure you either eat salty snacks or else just drink an electrolyte drink at alternate aid stations and water at others. If you are faster than your target pace, slow down, or else you will exhaust your glycogen levels and get miserable.

Allow for the unexpected; a fall, a sudden incline, warm weather etc. If you pour water on your head, make sure you lean forward to avoid getting it into your shoes! Give maximum effort and strive to reach your predicted time at most of the mile markers given in your race plan.

During the event you need to take in carbohydrates. Aim for 60 gm per hour of running and maintain from the start. Calculate this by checking what you eat and finding out the carbohydrate content from the internet. If you take in GU Gels, since the carbohydrate content in those is 25 gm, you should ensure to consume one every 30 minutes. If you follow this advice you will not go low on glycogen and, in turn, blood sugar. If you go low on blood sugar you might as well say goodbye to the race.

Make sure you drink plain water with the Gel because the electrolyte concentration is high and it will not get easily absorbed in your gastro-intestinal tract because of the reverse osmotic gradient. You need to dilute it with water to the level where it nears the electrolyte concentration of blood plasma levels. Sports drinks on the other hand are tailored to be isotonic i.e. their electrolyte concentration is close to blood plasma levels.

Late race problem solving:

If you have seriously misjudged your pace, or did not take in adequate fluids during the race, you could end up with an empty gas tank, mounting fatigue and growing despair. Break up the remaining part of the race into segments and focus on overcoming pain. All you can possibly hope for is to finish the race. The race plan is of no use to you now!

Control your emotional response and call on your inner spirit – it defies logic and overrides the brain’s attempt to get you to give up. You will reach the finish line!

After the event:

Drink enough water + sports drink immediately on finishing and ensure that your urine is clear, i.e. the colour of lemonade and not apple juice. Eat a small easily digestible snack (biscuits, chips, crackers, etc.) since your body is craving carbohydrates at this point. There is a two-hour window within which, if you eat carbohydrates and protein, your recovery will be fast and your body will not go into a catabolic state.

Eat simple carbohydrates during this time, such as jam, honey, white rice, fruit juices, chocolate, etc. Eggs and milk/milk products are the best options in protein at this stage, for non-vegetarians and vegetarians respectively. The beers can be had after you follow the above guidelines!