Long run - 12 days away from goal race - Yes or Not?

Anyone?

Nothing at this point matters all that much. You're at the end of your window for most adaptations to carry over, so there's no clearly right answer. Did 17 miles leave you really flat? How fast are you hoping to run the half (ie, are you fast enough that your race pace is WAY faster than your long run pace?).

I would cut the distance of the long run slightly and ensure that it's both at a decent pace and that you can recover well. Maybe 14 miles as moderate progression.

As for workouts, don't make them too hard at this point. They can be fast, but cut the volume. The main goal is to ensure that you go into the race fresh and that you avoid de-training. You can maintain your adaptations with less volume in your workouts than it took to get the adaptations in the first place.

Taper training is more art than science. It's highly individualized, and it's as much about making sure you FEEL ready to go as it is about actually doing things to your physiology.

I'm shooting for 1:20. My long run pace was usually 4:4x/km. It left me with my legs feeling heavier than usual for a few days. I did 10km at almost goal pace 2 days ago, it went well but i'm afraid to not overdo it and screw a whole summer work.

I'd say skip the long run. The adaptations from long runs are important, but they take too long to show up to do you much good for your goal race at this point. With a big HM pace workout just a few days ago, it's probably about time to start backing off the volume.

Maybe do an easy 90 minutes. Long enough to give you some confidence on the race distance, but not so long to wear you out. Or something.

But as others said, you've done most of the work. Pick runs leading up to the race that leave you feeling ready to go, but take absolutely nothing away from you. Better to do a little less than a little too much.

One single long run is not going to make any difference in terms of how you race in your half marathon unless maybe you get run over by a bus while your doing it. On the other hand, twelve days is plenty of time to recover from a seventeen mile run unless, again, something like a bus gets involved. So really, this comes down to what you want to do.

What makes you fitter is the accumulation of training efforts over time so it's a series of seventeen mile runs, if that's the session we're talking about, that make you fitter. Doing or not doing that one particular run will have some effect on your overall long term training, i.e., if you have another race coming fairly soon after the half marathon, but again, one run is just a cup of water in the rain barrel.

"... unless you get run over by a bus while YOU'RE doing it..."

No.

Yes, but the workouts should maintain speed while decreasing usual workout volume.

I chose to split the long run in two. Also, i will do 2 light workouts this week.

Today i did 14km at 4:40/km (long run pace). Long term approach..i want to break 1:15 next spring, or at least give it a serious shot.

As long as it's aerobic you'll be fine.........

I'm going to against what everyone is saying , and say that in the future, you should go for it. I know everyone is different, and my body might have a fast turnover, but when I ran XC I found that I would run terribly off a big taper - I ran my 10k PR at the end of an 85 mile week.

When you're talking about being a few percent faster over a long distance, 2 weeks of training that's too light can negatively effect you. A long run, unless it's something like a race pace marathon, shouldn't effect you negatively 12 days out from a race if you're fit and haven;t already bene overtraining. I would argue that it will keep you sharp mentally and keep your body ready for the effort that's to come,

800 dude wrote:Nothing at this point matters all that much.

My vote for stupidest thing posted in October.