Long run or race? (Read 94 times)

So, I'm just right of the middle of my Hanson's training plan, for my next marathon - Three Bridges Marathon in Little Rock on 12/19.

I've had a few uneven weeks in this one, mainly due to illness and life/work.  Nothing drastic...a couple of 39-mile weeks that should have been in the neighborhood of 50.  And, I wasn't able to do my long run on Sunday...so I went out for an easy 10, with the idea of shuffling that long run to this coming Sunday.  It would make for back-to-back long run weekends (Hansons has you do them only every other weekend), but I figured that would be better than ditching it entirely.

At the same time, I've been a little anxious about the fact that I haven't raced...at all...for a very long time.  Like, I guess since my Spring marathon, yeesh.  I'd been kind of thinking of running one on November 21, but the location of that one would also require a hotel stay, and it would be cutting it a little close to the goal marathon for me to do anything to adjust my training if the race showed me something that needed adjustment.

Looking through Marathonguide.com, the Fort Worth Marathon is this coming Sunday, and it's the only realistic option for me other than the race I already mentioned.  Kind of pricey for the half (IMO), especially this late, but we have friends in Fort Worth we could stay with, so no hotel stay.  And it would give me six weeks instead of four (including the taper) to adjust my paces if necessary.

I'd miss that long run, though, and while Hansons doesn't have you do them as often as most plans, they're still pretty important...probably more so than most plans, because there are so few.

So what do you guys think...which would be more valuable to my training at this point, getting a race in, or getting the long run in?

MTA for clarification:  I'm talking about racing the half at Fort Worth.

I think that with the Hanson plan you don't have to really worry about knowing "where you are at".

If you are hitting the paces on the interval workout and the MP Tempo run and then keeping the long run at the pace they recommend you should know where you are at.

If you want to race for fun then go ahead, a half marathon 6 weeks before the goal race shouldn't hurt anything.

My 2 cents.

....oh, I didn't catch that you were talking about doing the 1/2 in Fort Worth in my first read, that's different.

 

You know what?  Totally not your fault.  I mentioned the word "half" exactly once, in a throwaway comment about the price.  Fixing it after I hit "Post..."