Hi everyone,
On Sunday 14th I set my hm PB (1.16.31). I want to set another PB in hm by the end of September 2019.
Meanwhile, I want to take part in some local races (1-2 races per month) but I don't want to taper for those races.
I was running 60-70 mpw till now, but I'm thinking to increase my mileage up to 80 mpw. The problem is that I want to run 80 mpw constantly, I don't want to taper dropping my mileage for a 8-10k local race!
What can I do? Can I consider a local race as a fast tempo?
Not sure why everyone is afraid of racing during training.
Last fall I had HM November 10th and ran races:
September 1- 5K
September 7th- 4-Miler PR
October 14th- 10K PR
October 28th- 10K PR
Find races and treat those as Tempo/Threshold type workouts and make sure you adjust your schedule accordingly. This might mean switching a long run to a weekday where your workout days were normally.
You should never do a race as a tempo. That's where that slippery slope excuse begins.
Just run it hard and know you are not at your best.
Do your best wrote:
You should never do a race as a tempo. That's where that slippery slope excuse begins.
+1
Dude just race it. You don't need a "taper" for every race
Just train through them. I've done it twice this year - once for a 10K, once for a half marathon. With local races it is an incredibly convenient way of getting a really hard training effort in. For the 10K I did an hour at an easy pace before the race and before the half I did 45' or so. Easy 10 miler the day before the race, like I would do the day before my long run or any hard session. I wouldn't travel to a race to train through it but if it's within running distance of your house or a short drive away, why not? You'll probably run a crappy time but who really cares?
I use races as workouts routinely. It's a tried and true method of training, especially for people with full time jobs who have a hard time meeting up with people of similar abilities at the track on a regular basis.
I would never consciously "tempo" one of these races, but I also don't kill myself. No vicious kick if I'm winning easily or if nobody is around me. I also don't try to "go to dark places," in these races. I'm not sure what the difference in time would be if I truly put out a maximal effort (maybe 10 seconds in a 5k), but it's enough to make these races a lot less scary. It's still hard enough that I could never in good faith trot out the "it was just a workout" excuse. I think besides being great workouts, frequent races help you to get very comfortable with pain and make it easier to dig really deep in the big races.
Actually, I'm going to amend what I just said about NEVER consciously tempoing. I will do it on occasion with long races in marathon training. I've done HMs at MP or slightly faster (though at high mileage with no taper, it still feels hard), and I've even done full marathons at 90% effort. One marathon actually turned into a PR when I decided to go for broke in the last 10k after realizing how fast and easy I was going up to that point. 10 mile races and under are still pretty much flat out, though.
I agree with everyone else. When you toe the line, give it a full race effort. That doesn't mean that you have to reduce your workload (subject to the note below) in order to race. It just means that when you step to the line, regardless of what else you have done that week, you respect the ritual of racing so that it remains as a hallowed event in your mind. As another posted out, once you view racing as something you can do at less than a full effort, you have taken the first step down a slippery slope.
My one qualifier is that you obviously need to integrate the races into your training pan. While there was once a time when it was fairly common to do a track session, a tempo session, a race and a long run in one week, the conventional wisdom today is that this is too much work for most people in one week. so you will need to use your race to replace one of your workouts. My rule of thumb is that a 5k replaces a track session, anything longer than a 10k replaces a tempo session, and 10k can go either way. As to 10ks, I would have them replace a track session if race week is supposed to be a less intense week on my calendar and I would have them replace tempo sessions during more intense weeks (I try to cycle through different mileage amounts during my cycles, and I make my high mileage weeks less intense and my lower mileage weeks more intense).
Finally, no matter what you do, never, ever say to your competitors before or after the race "I was just using this as a tempo." Show them the respect that they deserve.
Yeah I know very little about running but if your going to sign up for a race; just race. Seems reasonable to me.