Suddenly it's here - the marathon season. You have hardly any kilometres in your legs, but are all the more panicked about your first race? Stay calm! We'll show you how you can get into shape with last-minute preparation.
We have developed plans for you that focus on three areas: training, tactics and nutrition. Only when the training structure, the right choice of food and the right tactics are right can the long haul be a success. In this journal, we show you how you should proceed. We have interviewed experts and put together some crucial tips for building up your form. Coach Lea Feder explains how structured but specialised training intervals can help you to improve your performance curve. She also created the training plans for our online page, which takes three marathon types into account.
But good training only works with the right fuel, which is why nutritionist Michelle Red helped us to develop an optimised diet for endurance athletes. The focus here: fuelling during training and competition, but also in everyday life. This journal is rounded off with real insider knowledge: Ex-professional cyclist Moritz Milatz explains how you should approach races and which tactics he used in his successful career. With this package of professional knowledge, 2018 can be your best marathon year yet.
Have fun optimising your shape!
BASESTONES
If you want to get up the mountains quickly, you first need to know where you stand and how you can improve. We will show you how the performance leap works.
For some bikers, training means rolling through the neighbourhood for hours on end. Others, on the other hand, only feel satisfied when they are lying in the corner sweating and panting. This is what training can look like, but not everything that is called training is training. Otherwise, even galley slaves would have been top athletes - but they weren't, because they worked themselves to the bone. "Training has to be targeted," explains sports scientist Lea Feder and advises marathon runners to focus particularly on their functional threshold performance. In other words, the performance that can be maintained for one hour. With this key figure, ideally recorded with a watt meter, climbs can be tackled evenly.
"This allows bikers to master the mountain in a controlled but fast manner and not burn off their energy after just 20 minutes. Athletes should also be able to utilise their fat well under higher loads so that they can save energy while on the move," says Feder. The path to improving this threshold performance and improving fat burning involves various stages: Basic endurance, Vo2max training (very hard training) and threshold blocks (intervals in the threshold range). "Nutrition has a very special and important role to play here." Without the right fuel, progress can quickly turn into regression, says Feder. You can find out more here->
The individual training blocks build on each other so that you can achieve a significant increase in fitness after eight weeks. Important: There are no shortcuts. Each block should be run. We have provided you with online examples of what such block training can look like for three different types of marathon. We have taken into account the time budget and fitness of the individual types - so that everyone can find the ideal plan for themselves. www.bike-magazin.de, webcode #38401
STRUCTURE
THE TACTICS QUESTION
Have you steeled yourself for months? Then not much should go wrong on race day. The tips from multiple German champion Moritz Milatz will give you the final fine-tuning.
Payday for your body: now you can see whether the countless hours of training were worth it. You should be in top form. But bad tactics can ruin everything. "A week before the race, I took a close look at the altitude profile and planned my tactics," says Moritz Milatz, one of Germany's most successful professional mountain bikers for many years.
As an amateur cyclist, you should get into the starting block in good time to secure a good position. When the starting gun goes off, stay in the slipstream to avoid wasting energy unnecessarily. "It's not just fitness that makes a successful marathon runner, but also experience and judgement of your own body. I have always tried to save as much energy as possible. Not making too many moves, staying in the slipstream and not following any attacks. It was only from the middle of the race onwards that I focussed on decisive situations that influenced the race," says the multiple German champion.
Start off cautiously, especially on long Alpine climbs. Try to stay around five per cent below the threshold range right from the start. At the summit, take a big drink and a gel or bar. Depending on the weather, put on a wind waistcoat. Shortly before the downhill, sprint to the front of the group so that you are the first to start the descent. Ride downhill in a controlled manner and announce overtaking manoeuvres with "Left!" or "Right" - for the side you want to pass. The descent is usually followed by a stretch of flat road. Try to catch a good slipstream group here. There are usually refreshments at the bottom of the second climb. Park your bike away from the tables so that it doesn't get in the way of others. Unless there is little going on. Fill your bottles. Avoid the carbohydrate drink if you don't know what it is - it could cause stomach problems. Rather just take water and eat something savoury or sweet.
"The best way to take in calories is via drink powder, which works best during hard efforts," advises Milatz: "On extreme distances, you can push yourself towards the end with a caffeine booster." After the refreshments, turn up the "gas tap" a little. From halfway up the mountain, you should cycle at your limit, but in such a way that you can hold on to the finish. Tip: Take a gel 15 minutes before the mountain tops: The sugar increases your concentration on the descent.
With a tactical plan you can get the best out of your form:
MORITZ MILATZ REVEALS: HOW TO MAKE IT WORK ON DAY X!
Meal the day before
Eat a lot the day before the race - especially carbohydrates. Start with a big breakfast (oatmeal, bread, etc.). Lunch and dinner should be based on rice or pasta. But don't eat so much that you can't sleep at night. Just eat until you are normally full.
Sleeping
Getting a good night's sleep before a race can be difficult - especially in a strange bed. To improve the quality of your sleep, you should switch off your mobile phone, laptop, TV etc. in good time. The blue screen light is highly stimulating and delays the time it takes to fall asleep.
Breakfast
Have breakfast three hours before the race. Make sure your diet is low in fibre: white or grey bread, oatmeal and sweet spreads. Warm up easily about an hour before the race. Maximum 30 minutes and no real intervals.
Start phase
Get to the starting block in good time to avoid crowds at the start. It can make sense to ride with fast groups right at the start in order to benefit from the slipstream - especially if the first climb comes later. However, try not to waste energy unnecessarily.
The finish
Most crashes happen in the last hour of the race. The reason: fatigue and lack of energy. Avoid this problem with the right nutrition (See article "Faster biking with the right food") during the race and keep reminding yourself how important concentration is during the race.
Interview with Lea Feder, sports scientist and active biker herself:
"First look at where the weaknesses lie."
Turning the tide so close to the end: can it even work?
Yes, but a targeted approach is needed. It is best to complete performance diagnostics that show exactly where your weaknesses lie. Spiroergometry with determination of the maximum lactate formation rate is ideal. This shows how big the engine is - i.e. the maximum oxygen uptake. This allows conclusions to be drawn about the athlete's economy.
What conclusions, for example?
How fats are used to provide energy, for example. You can also recognise the optimal training zones. If you want to do it perfectly, use a watt measurement system during training so that you can stimulate the muscle in exactly the right training zones. I would start with basic kilometres. I recommend four weeks, perhaps spread over five weeks. This means: ride a lot for a fortnight, reduce the volume to 60 per cent for one week, then ride again for a fortnight. This will give you a foundation.
What happens next?
The goal and the requirements determine the training. With the data from the diagnostics, it is important to make the right adjustments: Do I need to become more economical and simply improve my oxygen intake? If you want to become more economical, you can try rides with fewer carbohydrates and higher gears on the climbs. Another thing that works is fasting rides in the morning. Duration: a maximum of two hours. Hard intervals are very good for improving oxygen uptake. A classic interval would be seven minutes with 30 seconds of exertion and 30 seconds of release. The 30 seconds of exertion are very hard, but not the maximum. You cycle at the wattage achieved during spiroergometry.
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