If you are lacing up your shoes for next week’s City2Surf event, these 5 tips by On ambassador Pat Nispel will be helpful to not just finish but enjoy the experience. City2Surf is not only known for its fantastic ambience but also its challenging 14km course with plenty of steep uphill section and fast downhill runs that both hurt your legs with hardly any flat road in between to give your muscles some recovery.
- SPECIFIC TRAINING: With 10 days to go, your training should be into a specific phase while avoiding overtraining. A final session to prepare for the hilly course could be run this weekend but no later than Tuesday: Start with a 15 minutes warm up run at a slow pace. Move into a 30 minutes tempo run effort over some undulating hills at your goal race pace. This will teach you maintaining a good rhythm to become comfortable and efficient at race pace while judging your intensity running both uphill and downhill simulating the City2Surf course. Continue with a 15 minutes cool down run at a slow pace again and conclude with minimum 10 minutes of stretching to make sure you are not pulling up sore from your final workout.
- TAPERING: The final 7 days are too late to gain fitness from training, hence most runners will taper off their training by reducing the overall training volume. Consequently, more rest, body maintenance and healthy nutrition can get you a performance boost for race day. Find some extra time to sleep each night. Use your foam roller to get on top of any niggles or book in a massage a few days out. Eat healthy to avoid any colds but also plan your weekend meals ahead to make sure you include plenty of carbohydrates and water before the event.
- PRERACE: You will probably head to the expo to pick up your race number which always comes with plenty of pre-race excitement but can also leave some runners a bit nervous. Make sure to head to the On running stand to check out some of the new On shoe models and colours. Otherwise, you want to spend most of Saturday resting up and conserving energy, but a short run to loosen up your muscles and take some pre-race nerves will leave you confident for Sunday. Most my coached runners will go for an easy 20 minute jog the day before their main events such as marathon or Ironman. Include a few gentle stretches and foam rolling again but don’t overdo it. More importantly, prepare yourself mentally by going through your race plan in your head, recall some of your tough training sessions leading up to City2Surf.
- WARM UP: It is hard to warm up when toeing the line with 80’000 other runners but never less you should make an attempt to be both physically and mental ready to give your best. Walk to the start to get some blood flowing. If that is not enough, jog for 5 to 10 minutes before you get to the start area. Plan your toilet stop before you line up and avoid drinking much water in that final 1 hour prior to race start as this will guarantee that you will be looking for a loo right when the gun goes off. Do some dynamic stretches to loosen up and keeping warm while waiting for the start.
- RACE: Once you get across the start line you will build some nice speed while running downhill for the first bit. This can be dangerous as a fast start can hurt you later during the race. Start carefully and reduce the impact of downhill running by focusing on landing softly under your hips and avoid overstriding which creates breaking forces that will hurt your legs more than the uphill sections. As practiced in training, maintaining a good rhythm over the hills will be key especially on those first 6 kilometre that can be deceptive on how hard they are. Once you get to Heartbreak Hill, focus on good running form by maintaining a high cadence or leg turnover as well as efficient arm movement. A tall posture with a slight forward lean will help you to get uphill efficiently. Work hard on those last few kilometres no matter to pain because as soon as you can spot Bondi Beach you are almost finished with just a final burst of energy needed to get you across the finish line. Make sure to soak up the post race atmosphere and get some hydration and nutrition (carbohydrates and proteins) into your body as soon as possible to start the process of recovery and muscle repair from those hills.
Best of Luck!
