Time-trials for marathons

There are times in your training cycles when it’s common for a coach to push you through a time trial. It works so well mentally and if all goes well, is a huge confidence booster! 

Yes, you have other speed training methods like intervals, hill running etc as well, but nothing gives you as much mental boost as a time trial. Immaterial of the race distance you’re training for...irrespective of the level of runner, these time trials give both you and your coach invaluable information. 

You can term it as a practice race so that you can put yourself through a sort of litmus test to gauge your weak spots so that they can be addressed. Without mincing any words, let me put it that time-trials are not easy...not meant to be!

From there, consider what, exactly, you hope to accomplish. With a time trial, you can:

• Benchmark your starting point. The Tragars Running Club didn’t have access to outdoor running at all until June end. So, after a bit of base-building & strength training, time-trial can be viewed as a chance to see where our fitness stands. It also makes sense if you’re just starting out or returning from an injury or a break.
• Track & Milestone the progress.  Time-trials are a good way to judge how well has been your progress given the effort you have put in since the previous race or time-trial.
• Set a personal best. Irrespective of whether you take it as equivalent to a race PR, slogging to get the best out of yourself feels good, right? 

To summarize, time-trials are needed to set realistic, attainable goals to work towards your next race by establishing a baseline to work from.

Logistics first!

1.    Visualize. It prepares you psychologically. You have a route earmarked by now. You are one day short of running your TT. Now, it’s time to sit down in a peaceful space inside your house and run through the route in mind. It may sound very trivial but visualization works! Go through the struggles and win them mentally as you run through the route mentally. Especially, win the last stretch when the body is down and out and it becomes all about your mind to push and get the something extra out of you – that extra you always have but did not discover yet!

2.    The night before. Prepare your dress including shoes. Keep them ready. Kit up your kitchen on what you usually take before a race. Do not eat heavy, spicy, oily food and do not overeat!

3.   Morning rituals. Get up early! At least 2 hours before the start time. Add commute time to these 2 hours. Drink plenty of water. Snack on some complex carbs like dates, cold-pressed extra virgin coconut oil, organic jiggery, honey, broken wheat porridge, banana – whatever suits you. The list is not exhaustive. Stay calm and relaxed! Anxiety is only going to let you down. Believe in the training and hard work you have put in – it’s all about execution now! No overthinking! Meditation works very well in such times.

How to Execute a Time Trial

Step 1: Route.

A flat route or a track would be ideal for your time trial. If constraints keep you from being able to do one on a track, try to find a flat loop. Ideally, choose a place that you can revisit for another time trial again in the future.

Step 2: Complete your warm-up.

Let me say this at the cost of repetition again - DO NOT run your time trial without warming up first! It does not matter what weather it is, how fit you are, how well trained you are! That would definitely be a recipe for injury. Some well-defined dynamic stretching sequence for must be in place. Try what works for you. Just as a template, see the following:

• Easy walk - 5 mins.
• Brisk walk - 5 mins.
• Straight toe walk - 25 m.
• Inward toe walk - 10m.
• Outward toe walk - 10m.
• Walking Lunge twists - 10-15m.
• Shoulder rotations - both sides - 10 each.
• Neck rotation slow - 2-3 each side. 
• Jumping jacks - 20.
• Skips on the spot - 30.
• Leg sways - forward/backward & sideways - 5 each.
• High knees - 20.
• Butt kicks - 20.

Step 3: Conservative start, aim for Negative Splits.

Ideally, a pretty even pace with slight 5-10s variance is what is desirable throughout your time trial, but you don’t want to go out too fast initially. If it is a 10k time-trial, it makes sense to avoid hard pace for initial 2-3 kms. Thereafter, one can start picking up the pace (assuming you feel good and can). Once you’ve hit half-way mark, it’s time to bring out the best pace. Don’t save it all for the last km, or you might end up having too much left in the tank – which won’t give you an accurate picture of what you’re capable of. Finish hard. You should be out of breath at the end! As simple as that!

Step 4: Cool down.

You just completed a high-quality, hard effort run. Walking straight to your car immediately after you complete your time trial isn’t smart. Cooling down with a 15-20 minute jog will help your body fight off fatigue caused by lactic acid build-up during your run and begin the necessary recovery process required after a tough workout.  

Step 5: Analysis.

Ok, you have done the hard work, now it’s time to do some analysis and talking to your coach. Doing nothing with your results will have missed the point. Sure, you’ll still have gotten a great workout, but a time trial serves a greater purpose. Digging into your results can really help you in your training going forward.  

Ending notes!

On the day of the time trial, try to remember that there isn’t really that much pressure to hit the goal. You are not competing with anyone here! It is a benchmarking exercise.

Also, remember that time trials also offers you and your coach chance to experiment.

Drop the expectations, run for the joy of it, and, as the Nike ads say, just do it.

The worst that can happen is that you might end up reattempting some other day.  

Training is a wonderful journey and we keep building mile after mile, day builds on the prior days, week on the previous weeks, month on earlier months, and each year builds on the years prior.