Would running a 10k 1 month out from my target marathon be a good thing to do?

More than enough time to recover and you'll benefit from the stress. But why not a semi? Greater predictive power, and probably better targeted stress.

No. It is better to do an ultra a month after your first marathon. Good luck! Let us know how you get on :)

You would be fully recovered from the 10K by marathon day. So don't worry about that.

However, if you're going for your best possible marathon, there are far more beneficial things to do. I say just do marathon specific training instead.

A 10K right in the meat of marathon training has 2 major drawbacks:

1. You are missing out on a high quality high volume marathon specific workout. You're replacing with something that has almost nothing to do with a marathon.

2. The fatigue from the 10K will hang around long enough to interfere with important workouts at least a week later.

Skip the 10K. Just be patient and trust your training. The 10K won't tell you anything at all about your marathon fitness. They're completely different races.

It’s an excellent idea. I would push the 10K to 3 or even 2 weeks out from the goal race. You find this sort of thing in Lydiard marathon training.

Run it all out. Why would you get hurt sprinting the last quarter mile but not the ret of the race.

To the poster who said you are giving up a workout, ideally you have enough base it doesn't matter. I generally skip a long run, and do a longish (5 mile) warmup for the race. Get 14 miles for the day and move on.

Really I prefer a 15k or 10 miler for this if I can find it. I ran my half PR 4 weeks from a target marathon, but then bombed the marathon. Not sure if it was related.

If you are in great shape go for it but if you need fine tuning still, then training sessions will be more valuable.

+1 to the comments emphasizing marathon specific workouts...as long as you’re not removing a key marathon session to fit the race in, I don’t think it’d hurt you. I, personally, wouldn’t be able to run a 10k hard enough during peak marathon training to end up being sore/fatigued for more than a few days.

I like doing my “big” marathon workouts every other week, alternating It with a plain steady long run ... w/ the last one 2-3 weeks out.

Definitely do it and race it all out. You could walk away with a new 10k PR! Race when you’re fit. It’s fun. You can still do a long run the day after.

Yes, more than enough time to recover... great test of fitness.

It would be ideal.

Here is an old article you may find interesting. No matter what you do it isn’t going to make a big difference in the marathon.

https://www.hillrunner.com/jim2/id64.html

Six days before I ran 2:41, which at the time was a nine minute PB, I ran the AAU national cross country championship, 10,000 meters. Shorter used to do that and then run Fukuoka. You'll be fine.

Assuming people will be at the 10 km, it will provide a social "goodie" to your season. Just don't try to peak for it (i.e., don't taper in order to run your best 10 km). It then follows that you shouldn't expect a particularly fast 10 km time regardless of effort, as you'll be beat-up a bit from your marathon training.

Where and when is the marathon?

Yea that's fine

I've done a 10k about two weeks before the marathon. Would be hesitant to do a HM less than three weeks before the marathon. FWIW, Pfitzinger (which a bunch of us train by) also recommends a 10k two weeks before the marathon.

runnER/DR wrote:

You would be fully recovered from the 10K by marathon day. So don't worry about that.

However, if you're going for your best possible marathon, there are far more beneficial things to do. I say just do marathon specific training instead.

A 10K right in the meat of marathon training has 2 major drawbacks:

1. You are missing out on a high quality high volume marathon specific workout. You're replacing with something that has almost nothing to do with a marathon.

2. The fatigue from the 10K will hang around long enough to interfere with important workouts at least a week later.

Skip the 10K. Just be patient and trust your training. The 10K won't tell you anything at all about your marathon fitness. They're completely different races.

I agree. Happens all the time where folks end up with a 10k PR but a disappointing marathon. My theory is lost training with 10k taper and recovery, plus the usual marathon overtaper, all atop insufficient mileage in the first place.

It is fine, but do not taper and run an easy 10K warm up before the race.

You won't run your best 10K time, but overall it would be a good marathon training session.

Marathon Debut wrote:

I am planning on running my first marathon this fall and hope to run about 2:35ish. Was thinking that running a 10k 1 month out would be a good final fitness test to see where I'm at. I thought I'd essentially race the 10k just without sprinting at the end (wouldn't want to somehow injure myself that close to my target marathon). 10k to marathon isn't a great conversion, but if I'm in marathon shape (rather than specifically 10k shape), I still feel like it would give me a good indication of where I'm at and what also give me confidence in my training.

Thoughts?

I think it's fine & am thinking about doing the exact same thing. Looking for 2:35ish & found a 10k 4 weeks in advance. I think it works out. I'm probably not going to do a workout until 8 days later. Race is on. Saturday. 8 days later do my MP simulator (25k @ GMP). That's 3 weeks out. Light workout 2.5 weeks out. 2 x 5 or 6 @ GMP 2 weeks out.

Some pros do 10k's as close as 2 weeks out. I think a lot of big MP runs will come 12 weeks to 4 weeks out. Nothing wrong with a hard effort. It'll let you know you're fit without draining the bank. I get that 15k-half is more specific but if you don't do those at pace & race them it can prolly set one back more than a max 10k.

My advice is to just make sure you recover. Some people throw a race in in training and then act like they didn't just race, which can lead to an injury.

It's fine. I prefer a half marathon 5 weeks out, if I have the ability to pick races. I don't peak for the half, just take a couple light days before it.

If you run a 10K, and it's on the track, it would be good not to wear spikes unless you race in them regularly. I made that mistake once running a 10K a month out from my goal marathon. Ended up with an amazing 10K PR but a hamstring injury cropped up a couple days later, which prevented any real training and I ended up jogging the marathon 7 minutes slower than my goal.