What Should My Running Program Be Just Before My Race?
There is this race in my local area which I think I can win. I want to know what I should do in my running program the last few weeks to be optimally prepared.
Last year I ran it as well, but ended up in second place. I did 6.5k in just over 23 minutes. I had only run a few times before that race. Of course, I had not just gone from couch to getting second place, I have been riding my bike pretty much every year for the past decade, so in pretty good general shape.
Now, I ended second last year and since then I have been doing a lot more running so I am hoping I am in with a chance to win the race this year. I have done longer runs for up to about 17k, which take me about 70 minutes.
My running program for last week has been as follows:
Mon - Rest
Tue - 16k pretty fast
Wed - Rest
Thu - 16k pretty fast
Fri - Rest
Sat - 17k pretty fast
Sun - 14k easy + 2 hrs bike
Now what should I do in this week, the final week before the race (race is on Sunday). I know they call this the taper period, so I guess I should be decreasing the distances I run? Should I also take the intensity down a notch? How about resting before the race?
Answer by Dominique:
Hi there,
Thanks for your question about your running program and what to do the final week. I think your running program looks pretty good, fast longer runs are pretty tough generally so it's good you are able to fit that many into a week. I guess the decade of bike riding has given you some pretty strong legs.
Now, taper is only really an issue for marathons and, to a lesser extent, for half marathons. For shorter races you will probably just want to be careful with two things:
1) Tough training sessions close to race day.
Try to avoid very tough training sessions close to race day. Make sure your last really hard day is at least three days out from your race.
2) No running at all in last few days to rest the legs.
One of the worst things you can do is do no running at all. This is probably a little bit dependent on the individual, but I find that my legs become really sluggish if I do that.
It is far better to spend the last 1-2 days doing 30 minute easy runs. With that time and intensity it is just enough to get your legs warmed up, but not too much so you feel repercussions from it the next day.
With that in mind your running the last week should probably be something like this:
Mon - Rest
Tue - 16k fast
Wed - 10k fast
Thu - 10k Intervals
Fri - Rest
Sat - 30 mins easy
Sun - RACE
Wishing you a lot of luck. I hope for you that the level of competition is about the same as last year and then you might have a really good chance to win it this time!
Cheers, Dominique
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