When Athletics Canada released the Rio 2016 Olympics qualifying criteria for the marathon back in the Spring of 2015 I remember being really excited. The standard was 2:12:50, 1minute21seconds slower than the time needed to qualify for the team back in 2012. When I initially looked at the criteria I didn’t even look at the timeline for qualifying. It reads Jan 1, 2015 to May 29, 2016. This seemingly little tidbit (which is also a change from the 2012 criteria, where the final date to qualify was something like April 20) is my saving grace at the moment. I can get out of bed every morning and still believe that there is a chance I can achieve that standard in the next 11 weeks.
The 4-5 extra weeks afforded to us marathoners this time around will be crucial for my training and preparation, because not unlike much of the past four years I currently find myself in the unenviable position of building back up from an injury. I was sidelined with a nasty bout of achilles tendon soemeorother for about 4 weeks in February. It derailed me training and I had to skip one of my favourite races on the local road race calendar, the Pacific Road Runners First Half ½ marathon. That was not fun, but I threw a lot at it to get back to 100% including a week in Phoenix with guru John Ball and a round of ridiculously painful injections of WD40 with Dr. Gilles here in Vancouver – basically just oiling the chain (joking – it was D5W – 5% dextrose solution).
I’m out the other side of things now and find myself in the planning stages of a marathon buildup. I have a long way to go physically to get in shape and to start proper marathon training. But there are a lot of things that need to be in place, besides a training plan and doing the actual training, to get rolling with a marathon training cycle. I thought I would share some of those things today. They might be useful for you to consider next time you decide to start training for a race.
- Physio, Chiro, Massage – It’s important to be proactive with this sort of stuff and not reactive. Even though my life schedule is a little hectic these days with a toddler running around like a maniac and a wife starting a new fellowship at UBC, I need to make the time each week to get massage and physio. Even if I’m feeling great and seemingly have no injury issues there is always something that can be worked on.
- Fueling – I’ve worked on my fueling protocol for the marathon pretty extensively, although with inconsistent buildups the past few years it hasn’t been as good as it could. But, more so than making sure I have a good plan heading into this marathon buildup I first need to make sure I have the right products on hand. I’ll be using a combo of CLIF energy gels and Cytomax sports drink in my training. So I need to get orders in for those products and be sure I’ll have enough to get me through an entire buildup.
- Footwear – Mizuno has me sorted in this department! But again I want to make sure I have all of the shoes I plan to use during the training and racing as soon as possible. I’ll be wearing the Wave Rider for most of easy days. For some longer runs and tempo runs I’ll wear the new Wave Catalyst and Wave Sayonara. For racing I’ll wear either the Wave Hitogami 3 or a pair of custom made racing flats that are similar to the ones I wore in the London 2012 Olympics. I’ll likely wear through 4-5 pairs of shoes during the buildup and I find it’s important to keep a good rotation of shoes going. So I’ll have two pairs of each model on the go at all times.
- Heat Acclimation – this is something that is going to be new to me. I know, I know you’re probably thinking – why is he trying something new now, that seems a bit risky!? But there has been lots of good research and anecdotal evidence over the past few years about the benefits of a heat acclimation protocol for boosting performance and adapting to racing in the heat. Since I’ll likely be targeting a race in May, the weather might be hot or at least warmed than conditions I will be training in here in Vancouver. Even if race day is not a hot day, a heat acclimation protocol can still have lots of benefits. I’ve had some communication with the main man in endurance exercise physiology in Canada – Trent Stellingwerf – and am sorting out the logistics of performing a short heat acclimation phase close to my race. You can do heat acclimation by either sitting in a sauna for X amount of time or by exercising in a climate controlled facility – a small room with a space heater, a hot yoga studio, or better yet an actual heat chamber.
- Childcare – Oh man, how life has changed, but in a good way of course! The life of a freewheeling full-time ‘professional’ athlete that I lived for many years has gone by the waste side to make room for my amazing (and growing) family. Priorities shift and commitments are a plenty. I’ve become better at saying ’no’ to a lot of things that sound like fun or would be good to help me engage in the community. It’s a hard balance, but I’m learning. I’m lucky to have a flexible schedule in my work as a coach and an athlete, and therefore get to spend a ton of time with my daughter. But, I haven’t mastered the Chariot running stroller yet and neither has Sasha. So, to make sure I have the time and energy to train and be a good dad and husband having a few extra sets of hands around to allow me to get out for a training run or get in an afternoon nap is key and money well spent. Along those lines, Forerunners has come through a lot for me lately, not just with their great support of my running, but by providing a social outlet from me and a playground for Sasha. When the weather is crap (as it has been a lot lately) and the hours between snack time and dinner time are too many, Sasha and I often head over to the store. She gets to run around, charm the pants of people and try to fix the stores fax machine. And I get a few minutes to chat with other human beings who can communicate in ways other than grunts, groans, smiles, frowns and the odd cry!
Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more updates!
Dylan Wykes (born June 6, 1983 in Kingston, Ontario) is a Canadian long-distance runner. He represented Canada in the marathon at the 2009 IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Berlin, Germany as well as the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England. He is a sponsored athlete of both CLIF bar and Mizuno. In April 2012, Wykes ran the Rotterdam Marathon in a time of 2:10:47 and qualified f or the 2012 Summer Olympics. With this mark, he is currently the third fastest Canadian marathoner of all time.