My first marathon will be in autumn. I have run 10k races before, but am now starting to do longer runs.
I am planning on doing a three week taper plan before my marathon.
Is it a good idea to run a half marathon before the marathon. Let's say I make my last long run, three weeks before the race a half marathon.
Is this good practice? What do you think about running a half marathon as part of marathon training?
Thanks
Answer by Dominique:
Hi there,
Thanks for your question about using a half marathon as part of marathon training.
Running a half marathon a few weeks before your marathon is a very good idea for a few reasons.
1) You said you had some experience running 10k races, but only now start to do longer runs. This half marathon will give you a little bit of extra experience in a longer race, only a few weeks out from your big race, so excellent timing!
You could use previous 5k or 10k race results to determine your goal time, but a half marathon is closer to the length of a full marathon than a 5k or 10k race and again, it would only be a few weeks out from the actual race.
So it should give you a really good idea of what you are capable of.
Hope this helps.
Kind regards, Dominique
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