Is it a good idea to do intervals 2 days before a race?

My best 10km race doing 10x400 the morning two days before the race. Took the next day off.

No. You cannot recover fully in one day, nor do you benefit from doing two hard workout (intervals and a race) in such close proximity to each other.

So I would have had a better PR without doing that? It seems hard to believe. It was a good 20 seconds too.

I think a moderate workout could help.

I don't care about you.

In general yes I think that there should be at least one more day in between. Maybe if the race is not a very important one and the training stimulus is more important and the race serves as a second hard workout for the week, but I would leave this to more experienced runners.

1st/last bump

Most kids do little, if any training over the summer.

It is only September ...

When are you and your team supposed to get in shape?

It very much depends on the importance of the race and time of year. A little be of faster twitch stimulation, early or mid season, 2 days before a race is good. But if you're gearing up for a big race, then either a lighter workout or even a rest day is can be better.

This is what I like to have runners do (for example a Saturday race):

Early - mid season (not important races)

Tues - longer reps ~race pace or threshold

Wed - distance

Thurs - up to an hour or little more with some faster reps at mile pace or so. Not big workout though (e.g., not 10-12X400, more like half that).

Fri - easy run

Sat race

If it's a bigger invite, maybe just 4-5X 300 on Thursday. A sharperner.

Championship phase shift to Monday Wednesday schedule for quality work, similar to early mid season but fewer reps, and some cut back in total volume.

Angry Willy wrote:

Most kids do little, if any training over the summer.

It is only September ...

When are you and your team supposed to get in shape?

This, I think.

As always, different things work for different people (and different teams) in different situations, but your coach may have a fairly good grasp of what s/he wants to accomplish in the month of September.

Just for comparison's sake, here's what Jim Ryun and all his teammates were doing in workouts in the fall of 1963, Ryun's junior year of high school:

Saturday (Oct 5)

AM 16 miles (hills & rough terrain)

kicking in pool [frequent post-workout activity for Ryun's team]

[Sunday Ryun ran five miles on his own. He also ran a few miles most mornings.]

Monday (Oct 7)

PM warm up 1 mile jog

calisthenics

wind sprints (4x120 and 4x60)

1x1 mile, close to all-out

calisthenics

3x880

cables [running against resistance of stretching cables attached to fence--done during recovery between reps]

4x440

warm down 1 mile jog

wind sprints (4x120 and 4x60)

warm down 1 mile jog

weights (barbells @ 33 lbs & dumbbells @ 60 lbs)

Tuesday (Oct 8)

PM warm up 1 mile jog

6x1500 (hills)

warm down 1 mile jog

wind sprints (4x120 and 4x60)

warm down 1 mile jog

kicking in pool

Wednesday (Oct 9)

PM warm up 1 miles jog

8x440

1 mile jog

8x440

1 mile jog

8x440

1 mile jog

8x440

warm down 1 mile jog

weights

kicking in pool

Thursday (Oct 10)

PM warm up 1 mile jog

10x220

calisthenics

10x220

cables

10x220

warm down 1 mile jog

wind sprints (4x120 and 4x60)

warm down 1 mile jog

kicking in pool

Friday (Oct 11)

AM warm up 1 mile jog

PM CROSS COUNTRY MEET (2 miler)

warm down 1 mile jog

So Ryun's team ran 32 quarters, two days before a meet, and 30 200s the day before. That was appropriate for them, because they had the background to handle it and because they "trained through" every meet until States.

Maybe your coach, too, is thinking a little longer-term than a meet in September, and wants you to get to a high level of conditioning before the most important meets, several weeks from now.

something like 3x300 around mile effort is far different than 10x400