Wanted to get some of the collective wisdom on this. I'm currently scheduled for two races: A ten miler on Sunday, 5 October and my goal marathon on 26 October. Clearly, the marathon is my goal race but I'd like to PR on the 10 miler and am considering running it pretty hard (HM - 15 seconds pace). I just did my first of what were 3 x 20 mile runs last weekend. I'm trying to figure out how to get the long runs in without compromising either racing the 10 miler or the taper. Here's my long runs between now and then: 20/21 Sept - 12 mile cutback week 28 Sept - 20 miler 5 Oct - 10 mile race 12 Oct - 12 mile LSD (starts to taper) 19 Oct - 8 mile taper "LR" 26 Oct - Race day As it stands now, I will only get 2 of my planned 3 x 20 mile runs. How would you adjust this schedule. Here's been some of my thinking: 1. Execute the schedule above. No changes. Don't worry about 20 miler one week prior to the 10 miler. Only have 2x20 prior to my marathon. 2. Do 20 this weekend (would be two 20 milers in 6 days). Then 12, then race, up the 12 October run to 15 3. Do 20 this weekend, then add a 3 mile warmup and 7 mile cooldown run on 5 October for a total of 20. What do you think?

I'd say a combination of 1 and 2. Just 2x 20+ runs but perhaps extend your 9/28 run to 22 miles. Then on Oct 12th do 15. Leave everything else the same. Give yourself at least a couple of days recovery after the 10 mile race.

I agree with jpnairn, Dave. But you know how well you recover from long runs. This is what I would do. Two weeks of solid taper seems to be enough for me.

I like Jerry's recommended schedule. I may try and tweak it a bit by moving the final 20 into midweek the week after the 10 miler to give me just a little bit more taper time.

While extra taper time would be nice, I think that gets you not enough recovery time from the 10 miler. Since you plan on racing it, I think that that would be a bad idea. The closest that I'd consider 20+ miles to a hard 10 mile race would by 6 or 7 days if not a little longer; for a 10 mile race that I treated as a fast tempo I'd take at least 5 days. (I even looked back in my log to make sure that that's what I did after my last 10 miler. Did 17 6 days after the 10 mile race.)