Race week - zone 2 run

Hi there! This Sunday is the Spijkenisse Spark Marathon, where I hope to beat my personal best time!

Last few weeks I gave my body (and mind) some time to recover so I will be fully rested and ready on Sunday. Resting means running less and preserving energy, it doesn’t mean no running. After yesterday an easy 8 km, I went for an easy 10 km today, the focus of my run was to keep my heartrate at lower zone 2.

Interesting enough, the run went super easy. I could relax and had a decent pace (roughly 5 min / km) at my target heartrate zone. While these training runs don’t add extra fitness before the race, it does provide a mental boost as a good sign my body is getting ready.

Wheras my body is getting there, my mind is not that far behind. I still have some trouble with letting go negative thoughts, but I am getting more capable of pushing it aside for now. With regards to running, I feel relaxed. I know that I did this distance countless of times and that even in worse shape or with injuries I was not able to finish but more importantly to enjoy the run!

This seems contradictive as I also want to beat my PR (by quite a bit), I also know that my prep will determine roughly 70% of the chance I reach my goal time. Weather or simply bad luck will probably decide my finishing time. So while I am going to give my all on Sunday, I will definitly focus on having a great time!

Nitrate boost

My nutrition plan consists out of 2 elements. Classic carb loading from Friday onwards (tested carboloader over the weekend, doesn’t work for me => GI , so back to classic more carb approach!)
The second feature is the Nitrite stackibg from beets, rather than drinking a liter a day of beet juice like I normally do in race week. I opted for the concentrated product this time. While physically the effect can boost my performance max 0,25 - 0,5% , the psychologic effect is much bigger

Tomorrow I will a last run that includes some short marathon pacing, rest of the week will be easy + strides.

Happy running