I am about to finish week 2 of the 12 week plan for the Nike Women's Half on April 27.It doesn't suggest any races during the training sessions.
There's a local 10k I love on April 13 - plus I think it works out well timing-wise to see how I'm doing before the 1/2. I've already signed up But I feel like something is missing. Like I should have a 5 or 10k race in March sometime. What do you think?
First or last...it's the same finish line
HF #4362
I think you should do whatever you feel like.
What you'll have in your legs and gut on April 27th will depend much more on the previous months and years of training than if you raced a 10k or ran a planned workout 2 weeks before.
What is important IMO is to make it to the starting line healthy, rested and with a realistic race plan.
For me, it's more about being committed, or signed up, so I don't slack off. So I don't see a problem with doing it. Couple of points that happened with 2 different races. For my PR half, run Feb 17, 2013, I didn't race any during the 10 week cycle and felt amazingly strong during the race which resulted in the 9 minute PR. Race 2 was my marathon, and although a different distance, I raced 8 times during the 18 week plan, and couple this with the heavy work schedule of 60-70 hour work weeks for the 2 months leading to race day, I was exhausted.
IMO, the plans put the tune up races there to help establish a goal pace. And this should be done, in lieu of not knowing what pace you want to run. I don't mean just arbitrarily picking a goal pace, you should know your race pace, especially since you are a seasoned runner. Use the 10k that you love as part of your plan, swap some days around to where the 10k race will replace one of the speed work days.
I will have a similar situation coming up for a goal half I'm running on April 5. A bunch of friends want to do a half on March 8. My training plan for that week end calls for a "race sim" run of 6 easy, then 5 at pace plus 10-15 seconds. I should be able to run this workout by adding a mile to each segment.
I know it's all in my head but I just laughed when I saw that you wrote I was a seasoned runner hog4life
The "plan" for the day of the 10k:
PLAN: Today, gather all your energy together, and give this run everything you've got. Tomorrow is your rest day before Taper Week.Run 5 km at an easy, comfortable pace.Run 12.5 km, increasing pace as you go.Finish the last 1.5 km with a light cool-down.Seriously - I couldn't have picked a better day. Except of course it'll be a bit broken up.
It's about 7k from my house to the race start so I'll do 5k plus 2.5 at a faster pace aiming to arrive at the race 20-30 minutes before starting so I can go to the porta potties etc. Then 10k "increasing pace as I go" We'll see how the 1.5 light cool down works out - the finish is usually quite crowded.
I found a local 5k on March 16. It starts and ends at a brewery and, in honour of St. Patrick's day (it's called the Achilles St Patrick's Day 5k) you get a pint and a bowl of irish stew at the end
I usually plan my goal races, and then keep my eye on the calendar to see what else is available that won't interfere with my goal races. But I can also go months without a race if there's nothing that really fits. In a sense it's easier to train if I'm not needing to move stuff around to accomodate a race.
On the other hand, when my plan calls for a 4 mile "time trial", you can bet that I'll do my best trying to find a 5K rather than try to run hard all by myself!
Glad you found a race that fits the bill!
red, I got tickled, look at your sig........HF #4362. This accomplishment will not come from a beginner
Mitch
HF #5779
OK - first - what does HF mean?
I just started racing again after a 15 year hiatus - so I get REALLY nervous the week leading up to a race - therefor I have been trying to race more - and try to manage the anxiety - I try to race at least once a month - sometimes using it as a pace workout - and sometimes racing all out.
It is working - the last 15K I ran I didn't get ridiculously nervous - Of course the day of I had that anxious race day feeling going on - but it was more easily managed.
I think fitting races into a training schedule is good practice and of course you get the boost of race day magic!
Ready, go.
OK - first - what does HF mean? I just started racing again after a 15 year hiatus - so I get REALLY nervous the week leading up to a race - therefor I have been trying to race more - and try to manage the anxiety - I try to race at least once a month - sometimes using it as a pace workout - and sometimes racing all out. It is working - the last 15K I ran I didn't get ridiculously nervous - Of course the day of I had that anxious race day feeling going on - but it was more easily managed. I think fitting races into a training schedule is good practice and of course you get the boost of race day magic!
Tara, the HF stands for Half Fanatic, similar to the MM, or Marathon Maniacs. You have to do a certain number of races in a given time frame to qualify, then you pay a small due to join.
In the past I have tried not to race when training for a half, just my own quirky thing. Of course I don't do as many half's as all of you.
I am toying with the idea of committing to a half a month - problem is keeping the mileage up. I always am so tired the week after. maybe tired isn't the best word. I just feel like, I want to run easy miles and not worry about it that long run. I feel like when I sign up for a race I need to give it a 100%, but the more stuff I read the more I see not neccessarily. Lot's of runners have 1 or 2 goal races for times and the rest are just part of the plan. Not sure how I feel about that.
Run, Walk, Crawl, just Finish.
HF # 1189