Sports Chronicles [3/8]
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37th edition of the Freedom Marathon
Do you want to prepare as well as possible for this37th edition? That's a good thing! Every week, you will find our sports column produced in collaboration with the Caen Athletic Club and Harmonie Mutuelle, the health partner of the D-Day Landings Marathon. On the program, tips, advice and prevention to make you live the best possible experience on D-Day!
In order to progress in running, it is important to work on your pace. Indeed, if you always run at the same pace, you will not progress. To do this, you need to incorporate speed work into your preparation, which can be distinguished in two ways: speed (VMA) and specific pace.
KNOW YOUR VMA
To progress correctly, you must first know where you are starting from. To do this, we advise you to do a VMA test supervised by an athletics club. VMA is the speed at which your oxygen consumption is maximal. It is a figure that is specific to each person but which can be improved by training. In simple terms, by developing your VMA, you will improve your ability to run fast. It is therefore a very important concept for people who are looking to improve their performance. A VMA test will determine how fast you can run for 10, 21 or 42 km. This is a key step in improving your performance because your VMA will determine the best training plan for you.
SPLIT TRAINING, ESSENTIAL FOR PROGRESS
To work on your speed, you can do a 30/30 session which is a split session where you alternate periods of 30 seconds of running at VMA pace with 30 seconds of slow jogging to recover. Do two sets of 8-10 times 30 seconds fast - 30 seconds slow, with a recovery of 4-5 minutes jogging between the 2 sets. Gradually, you can switch to 45/45 or 1min/1min exercises on the same principle.
WORK ON YOUR PACE
Then work on your specific pace, i.e. the pace that corresponds to the time target you have set yourself on the day. After your warm-up, vary your pace by increasing it over 4 to 6 minutes.
For example, if your objective is to run a 10 km in 50 minutes, you should manage to run 4 to 6 times 1 km in 5 minutes during your session. In the period of preparation for a marathon with long outings (+1h30), do a few accelerations (over 5-10 minutes) greater than the speed you want to achieve your objective.
Please note: it is important to start slowly in order to progress over time. Nothing happens overnight. It takes several months to achieve results.
