Forums >Racing>Do you taper for a short race?
Fairly simple question.
I'm in the middle of some decent mileage training and have a 2 mile race coming up next weekend. My current thought has always been to lay off a little on the mileage and intensity of workouts for approximately 5 days before these shorter races. I've read that others don't do that.
This isn't a huge goal race coming up, but at the same time I would like to do well in it. Right now my current plan is to do a shorter faster interval workout next week and to cut out my medium long run at marathon pace and replace it with an easy run instead.
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)
Yes, but in my experience for a 10k or shorter, a couple of days of decreased mileage is enough.
- Joe
We are fragile creatures on collision with our judgment day.
runktrun
I think you're going to hear a lot of "just a few days of reduced mileage and intensity," but you'll have to tweak that to your strengths and weaknesses. I find for 1600/3k/2mi, I need to be really particular about my routine in the days leading up to the race because I am not naturally fast and I need to do everything I can to get to the line sharp. I tend to limit any interval/VO2max sessions to 7-8 days out from an important race, will do shorter reps at about 10% faster than race pace about 4-5 days out (Tuesday), regular mileage on easy terrain with striders 2-3 days out, then 1 or 2 days before is just 30mins easy, with striders the day before to get some POP in my legs. 5k-10k I don't taper much at all because it's easier for me to "fake" those. I don't need to be as sharp to hold 5:50s as I do to run a single 5:15.
Not running for my health, but in spite of it.
Thanks for the input.
I guess my ideal race distance is a 10K, because if I put my PR 10K in the calculators they tell me my 2 mile and 5K times should be faster than they are, and they tell me my half marathon time should be faster as well. Part of that may be my HM PR is on a pretty tough course, but even if I backtrack to match up my 10K times with when I had my HM PR on an easier course it doesn't match up.
Will be interesting to see how this training cycle goes, I think I'll be able to match up with my projected HM time now, but that's with a 1,000 miles or so of training since my 10K PR back in September.
My interval workout on Tuesday wasn't a real confidence booster, but part of that was running all of my fast intervals into a 20 mph wind. I put in the effort, the split times just don't really reflect it.
I went back and looked at my build up to my PR 2 mile that was on this same course and wasn't that impressed.
2 1/2 weeks before it I had my PR HM, then just easy running and 2 interval sets before the 2 mile race that is my current PR. I even took 3 days off hunting early in the week before the race.
My experience is similar to Joe's. Usually a couple/three days of slightly reduce mileage is all I do for a taper for short races.
I have only raced distances under 5k a few times over the last few years (a couple of 3000s and a couple of 1-mile) and each time I was basically just in base building mode and not really doing any short, fast workouts. In my case, I like to do a low volume workout at race pace, whether it be mile or 3k pace, during the week of the race. Before my best mile race, I did 4 x 300 at mile pace 3 days before. The point was really just to get mentally ready for the pace so it would not be a shock when I got in the race. I have surprised myself by how well I was able to run at these short races with no real specific workouts.
Caveats:
Runners run