Can someone explain the "you shouldn't race a half a month out from your marathon" logic?

Come to think of it Greg Meyers ran his 10k PR 3 weeks,before winning Boston, 2:08:59, also a PR.

Took me 2 minutes to find where Bill Rodgers ran a 10 mile race 6 DAYS before winning the Amsterdam Marathon in 2:12.

Is this Greg Meyers that you speak of know Greg MEYER?

1. If it goes poorly the runner's confidence is shot.

2. If it goes poorly they most likely still put in too great an effort during the 1/2 due to training fatigue, over-training, not tapering, all of which will take some time to recover from (more than a few days, which most runners cannot do for fear of detraining).

3. If it goes well they may have extended themselves too much and have left their marathon on the 1/2 course.

4. A 1/2 is still a long race, demanding sufficient recovery, if proper recovery is not given then they may train harder than they should too close to the marathon and get to the starting line flat and not fully rested.

5. Most runners do not taper for the pre-marathon 1/2, increasing their likeli hood of all of the above.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with it. In fact, you don't want to go into a marathon without getting some sort of hard effort in prior to it (10k or half). 4-5 weeks out is perfect. You can race prior too, but you want a hard long effort a few weeks out from your marathon or you'll go in and most likely hit the wall. Most of these people against it have never coached the marathon. Sara and Luke have great coaches that know more than these randoms on LetsRun. A 10k or Half won't tire you for 4 weeks. It's smart on Sara and Luke's part rather than just doing gruelling workouts, it's nice to get some competition in.

I'm too busy to look it up right now, but back when I was in grad school there was someone advocating really hard efforts a short time before the race. It may have been Dr. Eric Bannister, but totally not sure. The logic went something like if you are trying to peak, you are going to be at your fastest right after you have trained hard and have the benefits from those really hard training sessions - and before the benefits begin to fade with time, even ever so slightly. It would seem to me that it would have to be done a few days before the race where your body actually had time to recover and adapt from the training session.

Note: I have never tried this. If I have time later I may try to find the source, but it may well have be something I read on pub med back in the day.

Hopefully Puskedra qualifies for Rio so all the people bashing him for running a HM can eat their words..... At or least change their username and pretend they weren't against it to begin with. If he doesn't make it of course every one of them will think running the HM is the only reason.

I'm a little cornfused..... wrote:

banana boat wrote:

The problem is not that they ran a half-- it's that they ran a FAST half. This shows they aren't properly trained for the marathon.

/End

So everybody that ran a slow half today are properly trained for the marathon?

You don't think that Estrada could run 60-61 if he wasn't focused on specific endurance for the marathon?

If you look at the results from this weekend,, probably half the trials field raced.

I guess it's just how fast he did it. I've followed plans where the half marathon was 10K at marathon pace, then finish fast. It's great passing hundreds of people as they slow down.

But I guess there's still enough time for him to recover.

you don't run full effort two weeks out 10k and up. because it can take off the edge a bit or a lot.

and what use is a fast 5k or less full effort race in the prep? not much.

superfit epo guys don't need to obey this rule however.

you can run hard in a 1/2 marathon however weeks out, if you are comfortable up to 10 miles, then you can race to the finish but its not that wise.

not in favor of 18 miles at race pace 2 weeks out either. better a number of 10 to 12 k runs at marathon pace finishing with gas in the tank.

basically the work done in the 12 weeks before the marathon is the focus.

the last weeks, don't blow it running too hard.

Do you mean 2 weeks?

I'd suspect it depends largely on one's ability to recover from hard work-outs and races. And amateurs are poor at recovery, so of course they are advised to not do such a thing.

Doclove wrote:

Do you mean 2 weeks?

Really.

Who says half a month?

Not a freak wrote:

1. If it goes poorly the runner's confidence is shot.

2. If it goes poorly they most likely still put in too great an effort during the 1/2 due to training fatigue, over-training, not tapering, all of which will take some time to recover from (more than a few days, which most runners cannot do for fear of detraining).

3. If it goes well they may have extended themselves too much and have left their marathon on the 1/2 course.

4. A 1/2 is still a long race, demanding sufficient recovery, if proper recovery is not given then they may train harder than they should too close to the marathon and get to the starting line flat and not fully rested.

5. Most runners do not taper for the pre-marathon 1/2, increasing their likeli hood of all of the above.

I have a different take than "Not a freak"

(1) If it goes poorly it's no big deal - they're training for a different event at a different point in time and confidence "should" remain intact.

(2) If it goes poorly, it's probably because they didn't rest up for it, as planned. If they are training-fatigued, overtrained, whatever, they are doomed for the marathon in 4 weeks anyway, and not doing a half won't change that.

(3) If it goes well, it's a bonus -- if they run a good half when prepping for a marathon, just imagine what they'll do in a marathon

(4) Agree about recovering. Just as from a super hard non-race workout. But bad tapering / obsessive last-minute training would be a risk for that type of runner regardless.

(5) If racing a half increases risks, they are not properly trained for the marathon so it just doesn't matter.

Friends are you? wrote:

Is this Greg Meyers that you speak of know Greg MEYER?

Yes, i've known him since high school.

The point is that everyone knows that he doesn't have an "S" in his name