TAPERING, along with all the niggles starting to emerge, are the biggest concerns for runners across the city right now, allied health workers say, three weeks out from the inaugural Ballarat Marathon festival.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Stawell Women's Gift winners Grace O'Dwyer and Holly Dobbyn fine-tune their games for sprinting, but the principles are similar.
Both are allied health professtionals at Eureka Health - Ms O'Dwyer as a physiotherapist and Dr Dobbyn as an osteopath - where they have found a lot of patients have been training for their first marathon or long distance race and generally are grappling with load management.
"One thing we're trying to encourage is working through niggles and tightness or joint stiffness," Dr Dobbyn said. "We're mostly educating patients that it's not the end of the world. It's a long way and your body might not be ready for it.
"...Rarely are we telling people at this stage to pull back and decrease the frequency and intensity of training to take a load off for injury. You might just need some exercises or a treatment to help."
Ms O'Dwyer said if the pain was not settling within 24 hours after a run, you should check in with an allied health professional to make sure, especially this close to race day.
She has seen a string of Achilles tendon injuries and aches, hamstring injuries from runners increasing their speed or uphill training and people with knee pain. The majority of her patients tended to be experiencing muscle tightness and fatigue.
"You want to be feeling good for training and getting the best out of training as people are tapering and decreasing their distance."
Ballarat Marathon running festival is set for one month after the end of the professional running season, which finishes with Australia's richest running races, the men's and women's Stawell Gift 120-metre handicaps.
The marathon festival will feature distances from the marathon (42.2 kilometres) down to fast, elite miles (1600 metres).
READ MORE:
Federation University exercise and sports scientist Ryan Worn said this offered runners and walkers a taste of what could be possible out on course and hoped the experience would entice people to keep up running and come back to try another challenge.
Dr Worn, like Ms O'Dwyer and Dr Dobbyn, said it had been great to see more people about town running, particularly at the lake.
He too, reiterated the importance of these final weeks to race day, no matter the distance.
"For the five and 10K events, you can make the most of opportunities to practice that distance," Dr Worn said.
"The risk for injury is low and the risk for soreness is lower. Now is the time to practice target paces and even run a couple of seconds faster per kilometre.
"Marathon and half-marathon runners should have found a comfortable target pace and can try taking on gels and hydration and avoid the classic mistakes on race day."
Dr Worn said runners did not want to find their body disagreed with new gels or drinks on race day.
As an experienced marathon runner, Dr Worn also suggested runners practice grabbing drink cups on trial runs for a much smoother race day.
He said for most people on course in the marathon or half-marathon, the focus was on completion rather than time.
The inaugural marathon festival hits the streets almost five months after the AusCycling Road National Championships farewelled Ballarat, for now.
Federation University, a major sponsor for both, has adapted its successful cycling seminars to running, this time in partnership with strength and conditioning gurus at the RAD Centre.
Dr Worn said the marathon festival events would feature elites, events were far more accessible to recreational participants. He said the seminar experts, including world championship marathon contender Julian Spence, had advice that was just as applicable to beginner runners as it was to seasoned veterans and elites.
"A month out, people want to know about nutrition fuelling prior to the race and strategies for tapering well, how to manage it and pace it," Dr Worn said.
"...One thing I really like about this event is the half-marathon and marathon starting together, which will make for some interesting dynamics for pacing, especially on nice wide roads in Ballarat."
Fed Uni's virtual seminars continue on Wednesday, April 10, details here.
