So my friend has another question. OK, it's me. I have a half 6 weeks before my marathon. I plan to race it all out; the main goal is a fitness test to see if my marathon goal time is achievable. Want to give myself a good shot, without sacrificing too much of marathon training.
Plan:
Mon - easy
Tues - Strength: 4 x 1.5 miles at MP-10 (+wu/cd)
Wed - rest
Thurs - Tempo: 9 miles at MP (+wu/cd)
Fri - easy
Sat - race
So my thought is to keep Tues as a quality workout, and make Thurs easy. But is it better to keep Tues as Strength, or do the Tempo/MP workout instead? For reference my HM pace goal will be MP-20, but may end up closer to MP-15 (or maybe MP-10 in which case I will be changing MP).
The Hansons seem to discourage racing during training, so the one example in the book is not particularly relevant.
Dave
Do you really want to race the HM all out as a test of your fitness? If so, then you need to treat that race almost like a goal race and taper appropriately. The Tuesday workout looks OK but I'd cut it to maybe 3 repeats and then I'd run easy on Thursday with just a few strides. Actually, I wouldn't run easy on Thursday. Both Thursday and Friday, I'd run about 30-45 seconds slower than easy pace and I'd limit myself to four miles on Thursday and three on Friday. I'd still do the strides on Thursday.
I have tried to hold my regular training volume and intensity leading into a non-goal race and the results have been awful. My race results suck because I'm fatigued and trying to race on those fatigued legs leaves me so spent that it takes me forever to recover and I lose valuable training time.
Short term goal: 17:59 5K
Mid term goal: 2:54:59 marathon
Long term goal: To say I've been a runner half my life. (I started running at age 45).
I run easy at least three days consecutively before any event, goal race or not.
About the fastest I run for my Tuesday (non-Hanson) workout is tempo pace in the form of repeats or steady state for 3 miles max. I tried a VO2 max workout (around 5k pace) once on a Tuesday before a Saturday race and you can just about imagine how that race went.
Full disclosure; my speed work days are normally Tuesday and Saturday anyway so nothing changes for me except Saturday is now a race.
There have been a few occasions where I have foregone the Tuesday workout and ran easy all week leading into the race with great success in certain instances. YMMV.
I'm jealous of all these Saturday races. That's great, because you can still do a long run on Sunday. Sorry, carry on.
Yeah this is probably why they discourage it. Because I haven't even gotten into the post-race schedule - another hard workout of course comes around the next Tuesday. Guess I'm trying to have it both ways. Training for the marathon is the priority, but it's still pretty important for me to get a HM time at current fitness, because it will determine how I race the marathon.
Can't you get this from a 10k?
There are a million races here on Sunday, there just happens to be a million on Saturday as well. Except a few of the premium ones which are usually on Sunday.
Honestly, you don't need a race to tell you how to run the marathon as key workouts can indicate it just as well - if not better. Hell, I have never run a race just to see how to run another race. Too many variables involved to let your performance on a single day dictate how you'll race months later. Instead, I take the sum of lots of workouts and those workouts give me a really, really good idea about what I can do. For example, for my first marathon, I told my wife I'd finish between 3:10 and 3:15 and I finished in 3:11. I didn't run any "predictor" races.
That's not to say that a race can't provide valuable information but it should be just one more piece of information rather than something you rely on exclusively.
I can think of 2 Saturday races around here (including my upcoming goal race). It's surprising that this upcoming one is on a Saturday given that it is a marquee race. I guess it's easier to get permits for Sundays. Once again, sorry, carry on.
Honestly, you don't need a race to tell you how to run the marathon as key workouts can indicate it just as well - if not better. Hell, I have never run a race just to see how to run another race. Too many variables involved to let your performance on a single day dictate how you'll race months later. Instead, I take the sum of lots of workouts and those workouts give me a really, really good idea about what I can do. For example, for my first marathon, I told my wife I'd finish between 3:10 and 3:15 and I finished in 3:11. I didn't run any "predictor" races. That's not to say that a race can't provide valuable information but it should be just one more piece of information rather than something you rely on exclusively.
+1. I like how Mizuno runner Dylan Wykes put it in a recent blog post:
“I am not sure of the value of racing while you are in marathon training, to see where your fitness is, because it doesn’t really tell you a lot. You can try and rest but you are still tired from the (marathon) training. But it’s good to go through the motions of racing and realizing you are going to do this for real five weeks later.”
I also like to get one race in, but I train through it and it's mostly to practice my race day morning routine and to help minimize race day jitters, especially if I haven't raced in a long time.
Back to your friend, I would just can the Thursday workout and do 3-4 x 1.5 as lth suggested. Then race that mofo all out, but realize with a half distance raced all out you will have trouble getting after that next SOS on Tuesday.
Wow, you poor mistreated soul. And yet your mileage still kicks ass; BAMF yo.
Well yes. The idea is that the longer race will be a better predictor. Of course also the bigger potential training interruption.
If you actually read the book, it tells you exactly how to adjust the schedule when you are racing. You substitute the tempo run for the easy miles from the day of the race. And keep the strength workout as is.
Yes I actually read the book. Mostly. But the example they show is during a week when Tuesday is speed rather than strength, and the race is a 5k or 10k rather than HM. So didn't know if either of those factors would make a difference.
I agree as well. I can hardly ever run a predictor race because of the timing of our races but with key LR and certain tempo workouts, we have predicted my MP well.
Damaris
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