Why is Eliud Kipchoge able to outlast his competitors in a marathon?* Why was Sifan Hassan able to drop a 64 second lap at the end of the 10000m to win the world championship? Think about the last time you watched a major marathon, the last time there was a major marathon. Typically, there’s a pack or runners, fairly large at the start, then gradually whittles down throughout the race. Those able to stay in the lead pack are better able to resist the fatigue than those who fade.
Fatigue resistance is the ability to produce speed and power, to “perform in a fatigued state, rather than a fresh state.” That ability may be more important to performance in long events than VO2Max, LT, and similar traditional fitness markers. That’s the inference in a recent article by Alex Hutchinson. The science is emerging, but I think the principle is important and worth exploring.
Fatigue comes from the three Ms:
- Metabolic – the ability to supply your muscles with the energy they need. When your blood glycogen levels fall, hitting the wall, your muscle power drops.
- Muscular– the ability of your muscles to produce powerful contractions.
- Mental – Your body follows your mind. If you are mentally fatigued, stressed, or sleepy, it will impact the signals sent to your muscles.
Increase your training volume. Volume includes the sum of your runs not just the long run. The accumulation of volume over weeks, months, and years matters more than the long run in a training cycle.
Lower effort, long runs train your body to metabolize fat more efficiently. This slows the demand for glycogen allowing you to go further and faster before hitting the wall. This also builds muscle strength and endurance allowing you to go farther and faster, and to go faster when you go farther.
Run fast when tired. For example:
- Embedded striders in the middle or medium and longer runs. This will help you to maintain a more efficient short, quick stride rather than the ultra shuffle. Every ~30 minutes, do 4-6 striders of 15-20 seconds or 25-40 strides (L-R = 1 stride), followed by 40-45 seconds easy.
- Striders at the end of long runs.
- Progression runs – Longer runs where you increase the pace. The traditional version of this is, on a 2-hour run, do the first hour at your long run pace, then increase the pace over the second hour. For example, do the first hour at 9:00/mi, then do 15min each at 8:45, 8:30, 8:15, 8:00.
- Intervals when you’re tired; e.g., the day after a long run. Don’t try to hit the same splits as when you are fresh. Run them by effort rather than pace. Pay attention to how your legs feel and back off if you feel too much of a strain. This should be done infrequently.
- Long runs the day after a hard workout.
Fueling properly will forestall fatigue. Practice fueling in your training including the type, frequency, and amount of fuel. Some of this should be done at race effort. There’s a skill to opening a gel and drinking from a cup at ½/full marathon pace. And, your body digests calories differently at race effort than it does when running easy.
Pace properly. If you start too hard, you will fatigue early. It’s said that every 10-sec/mi too fast in mile 1 of a marathon will cost you 1-min/mi the last 6.
Sleep well in the days leading up to a big race. Try to schedule important work and family events away from a big race, where possible. Practice meditation, mindfulness, calm breathing, EMDR, etc. in training so you can use them leading up to and during the big race. Yes, caffeine helps you stay alert in ultras.
*At the recent NN Marathon, where Kipchoge ran 2:04:30, his first 5km was 14:54 followed by 14:21. The succeeding splits were progressively slower: 14:31-14:43-14:48-14:53. The pack slowly whittled down until there were three left through 30km. Kipchoge didn’t speed up – his next two 5km splits were 14:52 and 14:56 – the others slowed down. Kipchoge won by 2+ minutes.
References
The New Science of “Fatigue Resistance” | Outside Online
Here’s What We Know About Mental Fatigue | Outside Online
Train smart. Have fun. See you on the trails and roads.
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