One Week Away from Loch Ness Marathon:
Pre-Race Preparation

As I sit here, exactly one week away from the Loch Ness Marathon, the excitement and nervous anticipation is certainly building. One week from today, I’ll have crossed the finish line and will hopefully be celebrating a new personal best. For those of you who are into running marathons or have plans to take on this incredible challenge, I thought it would be useful to share my own pre-race preparation strategy as I build up to race day.

My Mission and Motivation

Firstly, a bit about why I do this. You may know that my mission revolves around saving the lives of children through running. My ultimate goal is to complete the most extraordinary ultra-marathon challenge by run vlogging on consecutive days, covering the distance equivalent to a lap of the world, all while running barefoot. If you support this mission, please do subscribe, share, like, and comment on my videos. The more people we reach, the more funds we can raise, and the more children's lives we can impact.

Training Adjustments and Strategies

Generally, in a traditional marathon training programme, you'd start tapering about two to three weeks before the race, reducing your mileage significantly to ensure your legs are fresh. However, my case is slightly different as I’m committed to a running streak, which means I've been running every single day without a break.

I follow a training strategy called Tanda, which is an algorithm that takes into account your weekly mileage and average pace over the past eight weeks. This helps me determine the right pace and target for my marathon. Unfortunately, my recent training hasn't been ideal due to holidays and injuries, which has forced me to recalibrate my goals. But that's a topic for another day.

Week Before the Marathon

Now, let me take you through what my week leading up to the marathon looks like:

Reduced Pace: Over the past few weeks, I've been running at a pace of around 4:30 to 4:40 per kilometer. This week, I’ve dropped to around 5:35 to 5:40 per kilometer to ensure that my legs are as fresh as possible.

Shorter Distances: My runs this week are also shorter. I’ll do my usual daily runs of about seven kilometers but at a much slower pace. On Tuesday and Thursday, I'll do two quicker runs at marathon pace to keep my muscles familiar with the target pace.

Carb Loading: I’ll also focus on carb loading starting from Friday. While I've been following a different eating regime through the Zoe app, I will switch back to my traditional high-carb diet leading up to the marathon to ensure my body has the fuel it needs.

Rest and Recovery: Friday and Saturday will be minimal effort days, with just five-kilometer runs at a very slow pace, around six minutes per kilometer. These runs are more about keeping my legs loose and aiding recovery rather than training.

Final Preparation and the Big Day

The day before the marathon will be all about rest, stretching, and ensuring my body is loose and ready for action. Fueling and kit preparation are other critical aspects I'll talk about in detail in upcoming posts.

For now, if you have any questions or comments, please drop me a line. I respond to every single one of you because your support and interaction mean the world to me. Additionally, if you haven't already, please consider supporting my mission by subscribing, sharing, liking, and commenting on my channel. Every bit of support gets us closer to saving more children's lives.

Stay positive, stay happy, and keep running!

Kevin Brittain