Forums >Racing>If following a marathon training plan, should I avoid other races?
I am in the first week of the Hal Higdon Novice 1 marathon training plan, culminating in my first marathon on May 1. There are a lot of 5k's in the spring that I would like to do at least a few of. Should I avoid doing other races if they fall in the middle of my marathon training? If it is ok to do them, would you do them in addition to the weekend long runs in the training plan?
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Definitely don't avoid races. They're great to squeeze into your training. 5K's are good for your speed work and halfs are good training as well. If you do a 5K on Saturday and your long run on Sunday, it will only make you a stronger marathon runner because you'll train your legs to run while tired.
Great job signing up for your first marathon. Good luck!
Definitely don't avoid races. They're great to squeeze into your training. 5K's are good for your speed work and halfs are good training as well. If you do a 5K on Saturday and your long run on Sunday, it will only make you a stronger marathon runner because you'll train your legs to run while tired. Great job signing up for your first marathon. Good luck!
Thanks, that is good advice! The training plan calls for a long run on Saturdays, and cross training on Sundays. I figure I could do the 5K instead of cross training.
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The Novice 1 plan is (appropriately) very light on miles as the target audience is the lower-miles runner, and the Sunday cross-training is to allow for rest and recovery. There are patterns in the weeks, so I'd recommend you skip the 5K and get the rest/recovery on the longer miles weeks. On at least some of the fall-back miles weekends, you should consider doing both the 5K and the cross-training.
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Definitely don't skip races at other distances. They're a great training stimulus, they help you gain racing experience which will help in the marathon and, most importantly, they're fun! One caution though, if you are racing on a particular weekend, don't try to do a long run the same weekend. That's a lot of stress in a short period of time and will take quite a while to recover from and could lead to injury. Just skip the long run that week and carry on with your program.
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I'll be contrary. Run the 5K with a short warmup/cooldown on Saturday, and carry on with your long run on Sunday. But focus on effort rather than pace. So you may do the long run slower than on weekends when you don't run the 5K.
The 5K is not a replacement for marathon training. But it is certainly supplemental. The pace of the long run is not a deal-breaker. So you should be able to do both. If you can't, I'd be concerned whether you are really preparing for a marathon. Admitted, I am not one who supports running marathons off 30-odd miles per week, regardless of pace.
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I'll be contrary. Run the 5K with a short warmup/cooldown on Saturday, and carry on with your long run on Sunday. But focus on effort rather than pace. So you may do the long run slower than on weekends when you don't run the 5K. The 5K is not a replacement for marathon training. But it is certainly supplemental. The pace of the long run is not a deal-breaker. So you should be able to do both. If you can't, I'd be concerned whether you are really preparing for a marathon. Admitted, I am not one who supports running marathons off 30-odd miles per week, regardless of pace.
Agree
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Rob
Can you clarify what you mean by "I am not one who supports running marathons off 30-odd miles per week"?
runktrun
The long run is pretty much the SOLE marathon specific workout in a lower mileage/novice marathon training program. I also will disagree with the recommendation to race shorter distances but skip some long runs. I agree with spaniel that it is not just OK, but actually beneficial to run some of your long runs the day after a race. This will help your body learn to run while fatigued and help you make greater gains during your taper. You will really need to run almost all the long runs in your training program to get to the start line ready to cover the full distance.
Also, hard effort 10ks are great to add into marathon training as well.
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The long run is pretty much the SOLE marathon specific workout in a lower mileage/novice marathon training program. I also will disagree with the recommendation to race shorter distances but skip some long runs. I agree with spaniel that it is not just OK, but actually beneficial to run some of your long runs the day after a race. This will help your body learn to run while fatigued and help you make greater gains during your taper. You will really need to run almost all the long runs in your training program to get to the start line ready to cover the full distance. Also, hard effort 10ks are great to add into marathon training as well.
OK, that makes sense to me. I wouldn't dream of skipping the long runs, maybe just switch it from Saturday to Sunday if there is a race on Saturday. To replace say a 12-miler with a 3 mile race just wouldn't make any sense to me.