Tata Mumbai Marathon 2023: What to do with two weeks to go – Moneycontrol
Participants running along the Bandra-Worli sea link over the Arabian Sea during the Mumbai Marathon. (File image: Reuters)
The Tata Mumbai Marathon is exactly two weeks away. If you’ve signed up and are feeling a mix of excitement and nerves, this is absolutely normal. After all, some of India Inc’s biggest and brightest leaders and entrepreneurs, started their running journey right here.
Tata Sons chairman N. Chandrasekharan, Indiabulls Housing Finance vice-president, MD and CEO Gagan Banga, SUGAR Cosmetics’ co-founder and CEO Vineeta Singh, mamaearth co-founder Varun Alagh, Starbucks India CEO Sushant Dash, Anil Ambani and upGrad co-founder and MD Mayank Kumar are regulars at the Tata Mumbai Marathon. Some of them will be lining up at the start line on January 15, 2023, when the Tata Mumbai Marathon returns after a two-year Covid-related hiatus.
SUGAR Cosmetics’ CEO Vineeta Singh
“Being excited yet nervous as the race day approaches is very common, especially among new runners and those trying a longer distance,” says Dr Erika Patel, 35, a Chennai-based gynaecologist who has run the Comrades Ultra, three full and numerous half marathons. Patel is a pacer for the full marathon at the upcoming 18th edition of the Mumbai Marathon
Patel adds: “The last fortnight is the hardest because you can’t really train. You need to stay calm, rest and not really do anything. This is called the tapering period.”
Tapering is reducing your running mileage and frequency so as to allow your muscles to rest and recover for race day.
In these last two weeks even your strength training needs to stop, says Bengaluru-based Abhishek G.S., 33, who is pacing the half marathon at the Tata Mumbai Marathon and has run five full and more than 40 half marathons.
Most runners, especially the new ones, find doubts creeping in and there have been plenty of instances of runners feeling like they have forgotten how to run, say experienced runners and coaches from their personal experience.
“This happens because over the previous 12 to 16 weeks people have steadily increased their mileage and intensity of training and now with the race day this close, they find themselves with practically nothing to do,” says Patel. “Also, with people who are running for the first time or are attempting longer distances, they already have some doubt about how they would perform and when the tapering period starts, such doubts become stronger.”
Just because you aren’t running a lot or hitting the gym in the last two weeks, it doesn’t mean you have to do nothing at all. You need to focus on your rest, sleep, hydration and nutrition.
Both Abhishek and Patel agree that if you have trained for about 10 weeks or so (for half marathon), then you have already prepared your muscles for race day. No amount of running or strength-training now will change how you perform on race day, but if you do not take the break to rest, recover and refuel in these two weeks, chances are it will hamper your race day performance. “Believe in your training, get 7 hours of sleep, eat well and hydrate properly so that you feel fresh and muscles are ready for the race ahead,” says Patel.
Three days before race day, you should start carb-loading, advises Abhishek. Carb-loading refers to increasing your carb intake because that’s the fuel that your body burns during endurance events. “You should continue to consume the same amount of calories as you are used to, but the proportion of nutrients should change so that your food has more carbohydrates compared to protein and fat. This is not a licence to eat junk food or bad fat. Stick to home-cooked meals or healthy meals if ordering from outside and avoid junk food at all costs. You don’t want to feel bloated or lethargic because of a heavy tummy before a race,” says Abhishek.
Boston Marathon qualifier Garima Dhamija, 49, who lives in Gurugram, says tapering not only helps overcome the training fatigue, but also helps retain the high fitness levels acquired during the months of training.
This is exactly what SUGAR Cosmetics’ Vineeta Singh has been doing. Between late November end and early December, her Sundays started with runs of up to 35km. In the second half of December, her Sunday runs became shorter; after the 35km Sunday, it was a half marathon the following weekend, followed by a shorter run after that. Now, she is well and truly into her tapering period, focusing on rest, recovery and carb-loading.
And for those with too much nervous energy, the good news is you could still go out and run to burn it off and to maintain your sharpness. Your mantra, according to Abhishek, should be, “Lower volumes, similar intensity.”
The best way to do this is to do your runs at your target race pace. In the penultimate week before the race, you could run three times but only short distances of up to 30 percent of your race distance. “And in the last week it’s completely ok to not run at all and have a deep tissue massage instead,” he adds. “But if you must run, don’t run more than twice in the final week.”
Shrenik Avlani is an independent editor, writer and journalist, and co-author of ‘The ShivFit Way’, a book on functional fitness.