Forums >Racing>Another - help me adjust my plan to fit in a race thread.
Okay, I'm sure you guys get tired of these, and I've been trying not to ask, but really would appreciate any input.
I'm going to be running a 14K race next Saturday. I'm in the middle of my marathon training plan and it probably won't make much difference on how I do this, but I would still like to stick with the plan as much as possible.
The plan calls for Monday - 6 miles easy; Tuesday - 4 X 1.5 mile intervals at 8:30 pace with 800m recoveries (plus warm up and cool down); Wednesday - 3 miles easy; Thursday - 8 miles at MP (8:45) plus warm up and cool down; Friday - 6 miles easy; Saturday - 10 miles easy; Sunday - 10 miles easy.
I'm currently planning on swapping Thursday's MP Tempo workout with 8 miles easy and then running the 14K race on Saturday. Keep everything else the same. I've thought of running the race as my MP Tempo run and trying to keep it at 8:45 pace, but I would really like to push it a bit and see if I can knock 1 minute per mile off my time on this race last year. (Last year I ran it at a 9:09 avg pace).
Does it really make any difference? What if I swapped out both Tuesday and Thursdays workouts for easy runs that week? I'm not super set on this race as a big goal or anything and don't want to mess up my training plan, but I've been following it pretty closely so far.
I also think it would be a nice time to get a feel for my fitness level and to see if the last several 50+ mile weeks have done much or not. Of course without a taper I won't be expecting a miracle, but I'm thinking I should be able to get close to an 8:00 pace if things go well.
Any thoughts?
Thanks, Nathan
Age: 50 Weight: 224 Height: 6'3" (Goal weight 195)
Current PR's: Mara 3:14:36* (2017); HM 1:36:13 (2017); 10K 43:59 (2014); 5K 21:12 (2016)
Sounds fine to me (it's what I would do) but you might also want to consider that if you do end up running it fast, you'll need a few days to recover. I would plan on running very easy the next few days after the race, and perhaps make the following Tuesday an easy day instead of a workout. It might sound overly cautious, but I've just found that racing a race (as opposed to running it as a workout) in the middle of a training cycle is a good way to get run down if I forget to account for recovery. In addition, I find it very difficult to run a race as a workout because I get into adrenaline/ego mode and end up running faster without even trying - which is why I'd assume you might even end up running faster than your "1 min/mile faster than last year" goal and thus needing more recovery than you would from a normal workout.
Those are my insufficiently caffeinated thoughts Have fun!
(modified to correct typos)
Does your plan call for a race next Saturday? That is the first question, I think, since that's the whole point of having a plan. I usually make the two days before a race easy days, a mini-taper of sorts. If you take Thursday's MP workout and change it to 7 +5 easy, then maybe rest on Friday or do 4 recovery miles, this should bring you to the race pretty well rested. I say that, but then today I am doing 10x800 before my 10K on Saturday because it's in my plan.
Yeah just change things a bit so you have a few days without anything too hard on the couple of days prior to the race. If you're not especially bothered about the time for the race then just treat it as your MP run and switch things around accordingly.
I have a similar situation next week. I'm racing an HM on Sunday which I would like to do at full effort. I'm also following a marathon training plan for a marathon at the end of May. My plan calls for intervals on Tuesday, a marathon pace run on Thursday and easy runs of 11 and 13 km on Friday, Saturday.
I will move everything back one day next week, so that I have 4 days between the last hard workout and the race. So I won't have anything specifically planned for the Saturday - I'll see how I feel, probably just an easy 5km.
Does your plan call for a race next Saturday? That is the first question, I think, since that's the whole point of having a plan.
Nope. No races at all in the plan, but they say that you can modify the plan if you really want to throw a race or two in there. I probably should go back and read that chapter again now that I think about it!
I didn't think about needing to skip a hard workout after the race for recovery. The plan calls for 10 easy on Sunday and 6 easy on Monday after the race so I thought that would be enough easy days to get me back on track.
I did a 2 mile race this month and just substituted my speed interval workout for the race, and with it only being a 2 mile race recovery was minor so I didn't need to adjust anything post race, I think I actually bumped my easy run scheduled for Sunday from 10 miles to 12 miles to make up for being short on my miles the day of the race.
I'll probably be modifying the plan again next month for a local half marathon as well.
Right now I'm getting overconfident on my marathon training, I feel like I've adjusted to the increased volume and am hitting all my paces on the workouts easily and my HR is coming in under expectations on the workouts as well. My biggest problem right now has been not pushing the pace on the workouts as I feel like I could run them much faster.
For now I think I will keep the strength interval in the plan the Tuesday before the race, but be prepared to swap the strentgh interval the following Tuesday for an easy run if I'm not feeling up to it.
Your whole following week should be an easier recovery week, IMO. I usually keep the mileage up, but do it with doubles. The interval workout is fine, maybe swap it with Wednesday's or Thursday's run if you aren't feeling up to it on Tuesday. Basically just be extra cautious not to fry yourself in the week after, you still have more training to do.