How evil is racing a 10k eight days before a marathon? (Read 708 times)

Well, considering that my training schedule has the Thursday before the marathon workout as 2wu+8(400@5kw400r)+2cd, I wonder how much harm I would do by racing a10k five days before that.  I guess as long as I can still hit my paces I'll be OK.  I've never done speed work that close to a marathon before anyway.

Once you alter the program (like adding a 10k race 8 days before), you'd also need to adjust the rest of the plan.  i don't know the Hanson's plan that you've been following calls for a hard effort of 10k-ish, race or even time trial or tempo run, but it not, you'd better adjust the Thursday's workout.  Otherwise, just as you had suspected here, chances are that it'll be too much to do both.  If they put down a hard effort 3 days before, there's got to be a reason for it.  If there's NOT another hard effort 5 days before that, again, there's got to be a reason for it and, now you're adding a hard effort, even if you're not running it all-out, you'll need to adjust this 8X400 workout accordingly.  You can't afford to change one thing and not to adjust the rest; that's just a poor application.

PS: By the way, it is not "evil" at all to race a week before the marathon.  In fact, if you've done everything correctly, it's not rare at all that you'd PR and then go on and do really well in the marathon.  Frank Shorter did it in the Olympics (27:51 for 5th in 10 and 2:12 for gold).  Tea Olive set her 10k PR by more than a minute a few weeks before her first marathon.  Another guy I know, following the same program, set 45-second PR in 10 (I believe) a week before his first sub-3.  

PS: By the way, it is not "evil" at all to race a week before the marathon.  In fact, if you've done everything correctly, it's not rare at all that you'd PR and then go on and do really well in the marathon.  Frank Shorter did it in the Olympics (27:51 for 5th in 10 and 2:12 for gold).  Tea Olive set her 10k PR by more than a minute a few weeks before her first marathon.  Another guy I know, following the same program, set 45-second PR in 10 (I believe) a week before his first sub-3.  

MTA: Second marathon / Running Wizard cycle:

>4min 13.1,    >1min 10k,   5min 26.2 

Four weeks: 

All PRs off Nobby's Running Wizard training plan.    

Okay, the 50k Fat Ass was my first so it was going to be

a PR regardless

Why do you run?  Unless you're someone who gets paid to run and win and wear logos -- probably because it's fun and at some level, you enjoy it. Right?  You like the 10K, run the 10K. If the marathon's a bigger goal, then dial in the 10K effort to the level that reflects your focus on the marathon the next week.

 

Of course, you could twist an ankle, fall, or whatever -- but that's the same risk you take just out jogging on your own.

Also, 10ks are not so easy to come by.

Hey!  Thanks for chipping in!!  So how much of a PR were those?  Or were they a PR?  I vaguely remember you had something like 50-seconds PR in 10k or something with the first marathon...???  How about these for the second marathon?  I though you said your half was a PR...

 

And how are things going nowadays?

Hi, Nobby - I have amended the above with times.

Yes, all were PR's last spring during my second marathon training cycle.

Looking back through my log I think that the 10k during the first marathon cycle was

close to two min PR.

Sorry, Nobby.  I don't have Face Book account.  

Every time I think that I might create a Face Book account,

they do something that  I find sneaky / creepy.

MTA:  Feel free to quote though.