I am curious what other people log for miles the day of and day before an 8K CC race. I find about 4-5 the day before leaves me fresh and not worried that I ran too much. On race day I try to get in 10Mi total; 2-2.5 warm up, 5mi, 2.5-3 cool down. The problem is I find it hard to maintain a weekly mileage of 80-90 during these unimportant early season races and feel training is sacrificed (70-75mpw) Other thoughts and race day /pre race routines would be of interest to me.
If these early season races are truly "unimportant", then why only run 4-5 miles the day before? Also if you can handle it tack on a couple miles to your cool down, and another one onto your warm up for the early season races. Or if that's too "junk" for your tastes, then go for another run later in the day after your race. I've often put in another 6 miles or so in the afternoon on race day, and felt great even after hard race efforts. Or start doing longer long runs. Hope that helps.
Nice thoughts there. Is this typical of most (relativley) high mileage runners? I know my team mates would think I was crazy if doubled on a race day; faster team mates at that.
It really depends. If you're at the end of the season, by all means run 3 or 4 the day before the race. Mileage doesn't matter much anymore. But if it's at the beginning of the season, I'd recommend doing a very easy 8. If you're doubling, you can run an easy 4 in the morning and 4 in the evening with some light strides. That's what I'd typically do. Make sure it's real slow.
The day of the race I would usually do 2-3 miles warmup and 4 or 5 warmdown. Then in the evening after the race, go out for an easy 3 to keep from getting too tight.
Sunday after the race was always an easy 10-11.
One thing I've noticed is that if I take the day before a race completely off, I feel flat. But if I take the second day before the race off, then run an easy 4 the day before a race I feel amazing. I only use this approach for important races because I don't like taking days off.
i have been doing 60 minute runs the day before a race and not only kept my miles up for the week but also felt great in the races, even ran PR's in some...and for the day of, i also agree that there is nothing wrong with getting in a second run in the afternoon, just make sure you keep it easy