Advise me on my upcoming race please. (Read 804 times)

If you were sluggish last night, then go real easy (if at all today) and then see how you feel tomorrow. If you feel all right, get a good warm up, then do a few short repeats at race pace with full rest and then cool down. if you still feel sluggish, then do an easy run of just a few miles. Friday and Saturday I'd keep to easy runs of a few miles a piece. If you decide you want a day off, I recommend Friday over Saturday (I hate not running the day before a race.) Thursday can be easy or short repeats depending upon how you feel tomorrow night. That should give you some good rest. Make sure you eat plenty of food and drink plenty of water. You'll be in good shape come Sunday. 1 sharpening workout won't overly fatigue you and will keep your body making adjustments and you'll have plenty of time to recover from the minor workload. If you still feel tired and lethargic, take time off and don't worry about getting anything quick in until race day. You might want to do some striders after a few of the easy runs (short pickups of less than 100m and slower than race pace - can practice high knees / butt kicks / etc if you want and it loosens you up.) My 2 cents.

I'd definitely take it easy this week. You've got a solid base, so just rest up this week and you'll do great. Run some easy, low miles this week. I would agree with RunToWin and rest Thrus, run a couple easy on Friday, as like to get out there the day before a race as well. Then give it all you got on Saturday and give your brother a run for his money! (If i remember right from your comments, he's a running powerhouse, so just hanging in there will be a triumph!)

BTW, there is a huge hill at 3k that lasts about a k in length. Should I therefore go out faster than I normally would do to make up for the deop in pace up the hill? How do you guys address hills? Lean into it, short strides etc? Recovery at the top? Do you keep going with the same exertion once you have peaked the hill, and let the flat bring your breathing back to normal? Sorry for going on, you can tell I am nervous. this is the route by the way.

No pressure Eddy. You are going into this without huge goals so let race come to you. For hills, just run. I think people "think" too much when hill running. Keep the effort constant. At top, you will know if you need to take 30-60 sec. to bounce back. You will be fine! Good luck! If you don't run FRI, do some cardio (not hard) to keep blood volume high.

Was watching the Boston coverage last night on Tivo, and heard the announcers say this about Cheriyot (sp? - the men's winner) As he was heading up the Newton hills, they said they had once asked A. Salazar about how he handled them, and Salazar's response was that his coach told him to do four things - 1) shorten his stride a little, 2) try to stay perpendicular to the hill (i.e. not lean into it), 3) swing his arms a little more and a little more forward than normal, and 4) only focus about 10-15 feet ahead. (I'm thinking this last part is so you don't get pscyhed out by the size of the hill and just keep working). As they said this, and commented that it looked like Cheriyot was doing just that, it occurred to me that I do exactly those things! (Thank you, Mr. High School Cross Country Coach!!!) Hopefully those tips should help get you up that hill, and if they don't, remember - they came from Alberto Salazar's coach, not me! And if it gets really tough, you can always walk part of that one hill. Michael