Situational training is an effective way to prepare you for unique events. The most common form of situational training is to visit a race location and following the race route to get a preview of the terrain and atmosphere that you will encounter in the race. Also, doing some research of the fluids that will be provided during a race and only training with those fluids are another. A third method is to train in the same environment of your goal race. Many competitors Badwater Ultra will train in high heat conditions and some have even been known to place a treadmill in a sauna to simulate the heat of the race conditions. The final method is to train at the same time of your goal event for example if a future 5K has a 7:00 A.M. start time, it may effective to always complete your training at or near 7:00 A.M.. This final method is especially true if you are not accustomed to being active at those race times. Situational training allows the competitor the opportunity to training in a simulated environment based on the theory that the more you experience a situation, the better you will be able to perform when that situation becomes an actual event.
Situational Training
- Visit the site of an upcoming race. If the opportunity is present, run the course.
- Train with only the support provided during your event: Hydration, food sources, etc…
- Train in the same or simulated environment as your goal race
- Train at the same time as your event.
Last evening I decided at the last minute to go on a night time run yesterday evening. I proposed that it would be a good opportunity to place myself in a training environment that I was not accustomed to. It was very hot and humid and outside of my 4:00 A.M. runs, I can’t recall the last time I ran at night. How else do you train for an event that is projected to last more than 24 hours, right?
At 9:00 P.M. I set foot out the door to see what it would be like to run in the dark while tired (It was after long day of work) and on a relatively empty stomach (I had a very small dinner). It was quite an experience. First, I was amazed at how active everything was outside. Because of my early mornings, I’m typically in bed or quickly gravitating towards bed by 10:00 PM. To my surprise the neighborhood was still buzzing with activity. The community pool was still full, families were still active in their yards, and the streets were full. I’m sure they were all thinking the same thing I was “What is this person doing out at this time?’ I was wondering this about them, so active when I’m typically winding down, and they were probably just as curious about this person running so late in the evening.
The run itself was very easy. As I stated in past articles: I am more concerned with time and effort than I am distance. My goal for this workout was to begin to understand what it is like to run when I should be sleeping. I kept the pace a very consistent but easy pace, primarily because I didn’t have a set duration to run, just that I was going to run for a few hours. For hydration I brought with me my Camel Bak filled with Coconut Water and for fuel had prepare some potatoes and also had a few bananas waiting for me at a checkpoint within my route. All in all the run was uneventful, nothing hard about the run at all. What I found most interesting was the thought of being able to go to bed once I completed my run. I found this to be both a great motivator and at the same time, a huge distraction. It’s very odd to know that your next step after training is to sleep and in the end, I found it very difficult to fall asleep.
In the end what I accomplished for my first night run was 3 hours from 9:00 – Midnight. I think that next time, I will stay up until 11:00 and then go out for a 3-4 hour run. This will really test my devotion to this goal. Last nights run wasn’t too challenging but I would imagine a run in the middle of the night would be.
9:00 P.M. / 2:58:40 / Easy Run / 2:58:40 / San Antonio, Tx
