Written by Mario Fraioli for Competitor.com
Want to step to the starting line with confidence on race day? Give these sessions a shot in the week leading up to your event!
Race week can be summed up as a stressful stretch of days culminating in, at most, a few hours of extreme effort. No big deal, right?
After months of mega mileage, dozens of long runs and week after week of killer workouts you’re in the best shape of your life. All you need are a bunch of days off and one or two more really fast speed sessions in the few days before the race rest your legs and put a cap on your confidence levels.
Or maybe you don’t.
Many competitive runners have their trigger finger too close to the panic button in the final seven days before a big race. The tendency is to drastically reduce your training volume, take a lot of days off (you want to be well rested, right?) and spin your wheels so quickly when you do run that race pace feels like a glorified jog.
Woah woah woah, not so fast!
Regardless of your ability level, there’s greater potential for doing harm than good during race week. There’s no fitness to be gained, or lost, during this time. That said, the main goal of a race-week workout(s) is to keep the ball rolling (if you’re not used to taking days off in training, now is not the time to start doing it!) and get to the starting line feeling calm and confident that you’re ready to run your best on race day.
So what’s the best way to go about achieving this end? Definitely taper off your overall weekly mileage a little bit (reducing your peak volume by up to 20-30% is plenty), but more importantly try to stick as close to your regular routine and make your final workouts as race-specific as possible. Here are some examples of how to do it:
5K/10K
Sunday: 8-10 miles easy
Monday: 4-6 miles easy + 6 x 20-second strides
Tuesday: 2-mile warmup, 3 x 1 mile @ 10K race pace (no faster!) with 2-3:00 recovery between reps, 2-mile cooldown
Wednesday: 4-6 miles easy
Thursday: 2-mile warmup, 5-7 x 1:00 pickups @ 5K race pace w/1:00 recovery between reps, 2-mile cooldown
Friday: 3-5 miles easy or OFF
Saturday: 3-4 miles easy + 6 x 20-second strides
Sunday: 5K or 10K race
Half Marathon
Sunday: 10-12 miles easy
Monday: 4-6 miles easy + 6 x 20-second strides
Tuesday: 1-mile warmup, 2-3 miles @ goal half marathon race pace, 1 mile easy, 5 x 1:00 “on”/1:00 “off” @ 10K race pace, 1-mile cooldown
Wednesday: 4-6 miles easy
Thursday: 2-mile warmup, 10 x 1:00 pickups @ 5K-10K race pace w/1:00 recovery between reps,, 2-mile cooldown
Friday: 3-5 miles easy or OFF
Saturday: 3-4 miles easy + 6 x 20-second strides
Sunday: Half Marathon race
Marathon
Sunday: 10-12 miles easy
Monday: 4-6 miles easy + 6 x 20-second strides
Tuesday: 1-mile warmup, 3-4 miles @ goal marathon race pace, 1 mile easy, 5 x 30-second pickups @ 5K race pace w/1:00 recovery between reps, 1-mile cooldown
Wednesday: 4-6 miles easy
Thursday: 2-mile warmup, 5 x 2:00 pickups @ 10K race pace w/1-2:00 recovery between reps, 2-mile cooldown
Friday: 3-5 miles easy or OFF
Saturday: 3-4 miles easy + 6 x 20-second strides
Sunday: Marathon race