Getting ready for a marathon or other athletic event? Don’t forget to do your cerebral training too!
Elite athletes know all about pacing, you should too. Plan your event, strategise when and where to speed up or slow down. Don’t be afraid to drop to a walking pace, rebalance energy and motivation levels and then move on. This is your finishing strategy.
Do not get demoralised by other athletes moving away from you. Race your race at your pace.
Finishing is a great motivator in the preparation for better future performances.
This from livescience:
Think that slowing down and walking a little during a marathon will ruin your time? Maybe not: A new study finds that among amateur runners, those who walked for part of a marathon had similar times compared with those who ran the whole way.
In the study, 42 recreational runners from Germany, who typically ran between 6 and 12 miles (10 to 20 kilometers) per week, volunteered to run a marathon. The participants underwent three months of training to prepare for the marathon (which is 26.2 miles, or 42.2 km) in Kassel, Germany, in May 2013.
Full livescience Article: A Bit of Walking Takes Strain Out of Running a Marathon