Planning when to Peak

It’s impossible to stay at your fittest all year round and a common mistake made by a lot of runners. Peaking takes a lot of physical and mental strength in the build-up, as well as on the day. But it’s just as important to give yourself the rest you need after a race, break your body down and then rebuild again. A comparison I like to use is that training up our bodies is like building a house. It takes long to build it (that is the hardest part), but once it is finally built, all you need to do is maintain it to ensure it’s in immaculate condition. Your house could get damaged, it could even get hit by a hurricane (injury) there’s loads of uncertainty. It’s how we react, repair the damage and maintain our temples that’s the most important part!

Race day is the mere coat of paint on the house. It’s the victory lap of all the work that has gone into it.

If you’re a marathoner like myself it’s always great to aim to peak twice a year, once for a spring marathon and once for an autumn marathon. This works quite nicely with the way the year is planned. It means that the build-up starts pretty much at the beginning of the year.

The build up of from January until Spring marathons (things like London, Boston, Tokyo, Manchester marathon etc. It the perfect amount of time you need to get into tip top condition and give yourself the best possible shot of a PB. After this (despite the post marathon depression) it’s always a good idea to take two months or so of less intense exercising and balancing my life with some more cheat food and a couple extra treats that what you would’ve had in your marathon build. I find this two month period to be as important as the build up for the marathon. Mentally and helps you rejuvenate, and physically sometimes it's a good thing to feel slightly out of shape. That often gives you the motivation you need in order to build back up again.

I’ve found in the more recent years there’s a much bigger focus on progression runs and rightly so. I am a huge fan of these sessions and I’ve felt just how much these benefit me as well as the athletes that I coach. Another common mistake made by a lot of us runners it that we get comfortable and are creatures of habit. We find a route and pace we are comfortable with, stick to the route and pace and very rarely deviate from this. If you never progress your training, you’re never going to get quicker and you’re never going to improve your times. Adding a tiny bit every week to your training is crucial. Whether it’s a small amount of distance, pace or intensity, always make sure you’re moving forward. If you stop doing this within a build, then you run the risk of not peaking for your planned event.

A recovery week within a marathon or race build is completely fine. Especially if the mind and body really needs it. In fact this can often keep your training more productive in many ways. However in the build up to a race after this recovery week, it’s crucial to get back on the training train. Remain productive and keep building the base of yours for the big day.

Nothing is more rewarding and motivating than getting quicker, so work hard on progressing week on week, to give yourself the best possible chance. We all get comfortable and hate getting out of our comfort zones, but I’ve come to realize that it’s required in order to keep getting better.

What helps make sure you’re doing the right training is planning your training block from the very start. Having certain mileage goals to hit week on week will ensure you’re stressing your body a tiny bit more as it’s able to handle more load throughout training. A good time to taper for a race such as a marathon is around 10 days to go. What this means is that you’re cutting down on mileage and volume and just bringing the muscles and legs to life. This doesn’t mean completely stopping running. You want to keep the rhythm and flow there for race day. But you also don’t want to do anything too intense that could fatigue you and jeopardise your race. Especially after the hard work you’ve put into training. It’s probably the most important phase of the training block. Get this right and you’ll peak at the perfect time, for you goal race!