It was a beautiful Fall day here in Pittsburgh today, and I had a really good run in North Park. My run was almost eight miles long, and I included six miles at Tempo effort. That was quite an intense run for race week, but I am not concerned about it.
Deciding exactly how much training to do during race week, is not an easy process. There is not a standard amount of training, as it depends on so many factors.
- How fatigued are you entering the final few days ahead of the race?
- How important is the upcoming race? Is it your ‘A’ race or just a race you are doing for fun?
- How have you responded to training ahead of races previously?
- Do you have a niggle or injury, that needs to heal up by race day?
- How much stress are you under from ‘life’ in general?
- How are you sleeping and recovering?
For me this time around, I am feeling quite good, I don’t have any niggles and the race itself (SwimRun NC) is mostly for fun. I am sleeping reasonably well and not experiencing any other significant stress. This all means that I can train quite a lot this week, and will still likely meet my expectations on Sunday.
My upcoming ‘A’ race is the Indianapolis Marathon on November 5th. I am therefore treating this week like a typical training week, except I will race at the weekend, instead of doing a long run. The SwimRun race will be a long, aerobic effort, and will give me a similar training effect to a long run.
So that’s my plan for this week. I will only know how successful it is, after the race on Sunday. I think I will be OK.
