Marathon XCM
Training for a marathon:
1. Build endurance and aerobic fitness by doing easy rides that develop your technique and physiology to be as efficient as possible.
2. Build your ability to ride hard and fast by doing short interval sessions and short hard rides so that you increase your average riding speed and your ability to tackle steep sections
3. Improve your skills by riding technical terrain, learning appropriate skills, so that you don’t waste energy and go faster without using more energy.
4. Develop a nutrition and hydration strategy that works for you and practice it so that eating and drinking the right amount becomes a habit.
5. Thoroughly research the route so that you know what to expect, where you can refuel if you need to and when to expect the hardest and most technical sections.
6. Take your time and be consistent with your training: getting fit is a gradual process that requires small incremental steps over time, trying to do everything at once or doing some super long rides without adequate basic fitness will just wear you out and could make you ill or injured, or both.
Find Success with a Coach
A good coach is someone who is an expert in their field, who facilitates two-way communication with their athletes, and who uses an outside perspective to schedule their athlete’s training, plan periods of rest, and do everything they can to ensure their athlete performs at their full potential on race day.
Nutrition:
1. It's RACE DAY. It's 90 minutes to race time and you ate your breakfast one or two hours ago (allowing two or three hours post-breakfast for digestion). You've been following a sound nutrition plan and you have rested and fueled properly in the last 48 hours to assure your glycogen reserves are full.
2. With 90 minutes to go, you should be mainly focused on hydration, carbohydrate intake, caffeine, and beet juice. Now is not the time to eat high-fat or high-protein foods as they take more time to empty out of your stomach and won't serve you during your event. The focus would be on easy-to-digest carbohydrate-based foods or sports drinks.