Race 178, Reno-Tahoe Odyssey Training Chalk Talk

While the Reno-Tahoe Odyssey is, for some, an opportunity to partake in a progressive pajama party with BFFs and a little running thrown in along the way, that experience will be enhanced and injuries avoided if consistent preparation is in place. Below is food for thought as you embark on this memorable all-night adventure.

The key to improving your experience is having an overall training plan to reach your RTO goals. One priority needs to be avoiding injury. In our experience, as runners, you insure against injury by investing in consistent purposeful hip and trunk stability exercises, global mobility (joints, muscle length, soft tissues), quality work and quality rest, and a gradually progressive training program.

There should be a clear objective to each and every day’s training session and an understanding of how that relates to your RTO goal. Empowered with this understanding, you will train more purposefully and more effectively.

Here are a few suggestions to improve your RTO preparation and race experience:

• Training Tips
  • Individualize your training and make it relative to your individual circumstances
    • A training plan needs to be based on your current fitness/past training goals, and then gradually progress as you adapt to the training
  • Toe the start line mentally and physically fit, injury free and hungry for action
    • The key to improving fitness and avoiding injury is a gradually progressed training plan
  • Balance sport-specific training with supplemental cross-training for improved performance and injury prevention
    • Focus on consistent hip and trunk stability, and general mobility
    • Cycling, swimming and hiking are good supplemental cross-endurance training tools that will provide mental and physical variety
  • Vary your training, which provides the opportunity to continue to challenge and improve
    • Once a solid endurance base is in place, systematically and consistently include speed and higher tempo workouts in your training plan
    • Train hard and rest hard – rest should be of equal importance to the running workouts
    • Quality workouts trump quantity
  • Train to meet the specific demands of the RTO
    • Run in the morning, at lunch and in the evening
    • Build up your endurance – include long endurance days and gradually build to the distance you will cover over three legs
    • Train the intensity and terrain of your segment
      • Train at the intensity you hope to hold during the event
      • If you have the opportunity, run the sections you will run in the RTO
      • Simulate this terrain in your training – uphills, downhills and flats all present different challenges
    • Use training to implement your recovery strategies for RTO
      • Use the recovery lessons learned during preparation and incorporate them between your RTO run segments. These might include:
        • Post-run segment recovery drink
          • Believe it not, chocolate milk tops the list
        • Compression socks
        • Stretching and rolling after your segment
        • Movement preparation exercises before your segments
      • Dial in your race-day nutrition strategies during your preparation, not the week or day before

• Build your bank account of sleep leading into the race

A successful training plan often needs to be custom fit to incorporate all the training components while balancing your life’s work, family schedule and your own physiology. Whether you’re looking to complete the RTO injury-free or you want to set your own personal record, Silver Sage Sports and Fitness Lab helps people at all levels of ability. If you have questions about any of these workouts or are just looking for advice, email us at jyoung@o2fitness.net.