GIOVANNA VOLPATO GIVES US PRECIOUS ADVICE

 

Less than 3 weeks to go to the Marcialonga Running Coop and the italian athlete Giovanna Volpato suggests you how to properly train in order to achieve a successfull performance. 

Giovanna Volpato, born in 1975, is an italian athlete specialised in the long distance races and in the marathon. During her career, she achieved important results: she was 2^nd in Maratona di Venezia in 2004 and 1^st in the Maratona di Firenze in 2008. She took part twice in the European Championships in 2002 in Germany and in 2006 in Sweden, where she ranked 8 in 2h32'04" and got the gold medal with her team. Moreover, she participated in the World Championships in 2003 and 2007. Among her results, it is relevant to mention also her 1^st place in the Maratona di Sant'Antonio in 2002 and the 2^nd place in the Treviso Marathon in 2006 where she did her personal best time. Thanks to her experience and professionality, she is the testimonial of Mizuno and she continuously witnesses her passion in sport and her willingness to transmit it to others and share it with the runners. 

Giovanna will be present at the Mizuno Day of the 14. Marcialonga Running Coop and will join all the participants of The Mizuno RUN on Saturday. 

In this interview she aims to help you in organising your next training sessions in order to efficiently handle you performance scheduled on September, 4^th. 

How should the preparation look like? Which are the main issues you have to focus on?
Let's go through the precious marathoner's advice. 

Marcialonga Running Coop is getting closer and the pressure increases. How should the last training sessions be faced before the race and which are the main issues to focus on? 

Less than three weeks to go to the Marcialonga Running Coop and my advice is to continue the preparation with the metabolic development by increasing the number of kilometers during the training sessions without neglecting the muscular part as we have to consider the peculiarity of the course: 26000 meters, where the first 21k slightly downhill with final uphill in the remaining 5k.

As Marcialonga is a 26k race, should the runner get used to cover long distances during the training? 

It is not necessary to run 26k in every training, but the runner must be able to run 20-22 k. Indeed, it will be the sum of the kilometers run during the weekly training that will give the possibility to finish the race.

What's about the pace that you recommend?

The training pace depends on personal ambition: there are those who put a target on lap time and those who want to cross the finish line without timing goals.
For all those who want to qualify the training my advice is to enter a weekly session where you give more importance to the specific aerobic capacity. In this case then I would suggest: 3/4x4000m with 1000m recovery or 2x5000m and 2x3000m with 1000m recovery. In alternative to this, I would suggest 4/5x3000m tests with 1000m recovery, in which the long tests need to be run at a pace which should be a bit faster than the competition rhythm while the recovery (1000m) should be run at a rate of 10 "/ 15" slower than the race pace.
On the other hand, for those who has no ambitions concerning the time lap, the main focus should be on the aerobic capacity. In this case, therefore, it will be appropriate to cover long distances (18/22K) at least once a week and 12/16K for at least the two weekly remaining training sessions

In addition to the aerobic capacity, are there any other issues to focus on in order to handle a good performance on a mixed course as the one which characterizes the Marcialonga Running Coop?

For this type of race, it is also important to take care of muscle part in order to avoid any unpleasant accidents and to have a good neuromuscular efficiency in the most challenging part of the course. Those who live in the mountains can take advantage of this and train on similar course to the one they will face during the race. For others it will be appropriate to run once a week on mixed routes with ups and downs and, where this is not possible, try to place a flyovers to be repeated several times.

In conclusion, I highly suggest you to follow these simple but very useful advice and you will tackle the race in the most successfull way, for sure.

Good luck!