Race Week Workouts

Is there a magic formula for doing just the perfect race week workout?  There may not be an exact formula for the ideal race week workout, but there is a smarter way to train race week. The race week workout is important to stay sharp and to hopefully add just that little last bit of confidence going into your big race. Many times runners fall into the trap of doing too much just so they can feel at ease that they are fit and ready to go for their race.

For example let's say you have a 10k race on Saturday?  What day of the week should you be doing your race week workout? What kind of interval/workout volume should you log? What about pace of the workout?  Some general direction I can give is to make sure the workout is not too close to your just completed Sunday long run or previous weeks' race. The best day to do the race week workout would be Tuesday and as a backup day on Wednesday.  This should allow for enough recovery on both sides of the Long Run and before race day that week. It would be great if your workout goal would be to hit race pace splits, but make sure to give adequate rest between intervals. If you normally take 60 seconds rest in between 800m repeats race week take 2 minutes. If you normal volume of workout mileage is 4-5 miles drop that to 2.5 or 3 miles so you can still get in the work to stay sharp but not overdo it.

Error on the side of taking "too much" rest and doing "too little" volume and you will be fine for your weekend race.  Make sure to give yourself that best chance to race well and this does not come from doing 20 x 400m or some type of time trial the week of a huge 5k or 10k race.

Bad Weather Long Run Modification - just roll with it

With the Wisconsin Blizzard we had mid - week and the snow and ice across the US all winter, runners have had to be creative getting in runs outside. The tough running surface with ice and snow presents issues with your stride. Your stride is shortened and you end up holding back on the pace sometimes putting on the brakes just to stay upright. All bad habits that runners do not want to get into day to day.

A modification on your long run over this weekend that works great and is fun yet challenging is to split the long run in half. Log half of the miles outside then switch into a faster pace by getting inside on the treadmill or if in the Milwaukee area the Pettit Center. Use your long run this weekend as a confidence booster with that last half faster when you can finally get onto a normal running surface off of the snow and ice. I am sick of running outside and am totally looking forward to the mini long run workout and this is going to get me through my Friday and Saturday runs outside before the pre-Super Bowl long run on Sunday.

Workout Quiz - What Would You Do?

All runners have been in the pickle where you start your workout and get through one or two intervals and you know it is not going to be your day. This could have happened for any number of reasons, but we are not going to focus on those. I want you all to take a little test to get everyone thinking of possible options/solutions to when you might do the next workout to redeem yourself.

1. Do the workout the following day.  Will the workout be the exact same or less volume?

2. Do the workout two or three days later in the week and look to do the exact same workout as you crashed    and burned on?

3. Schedule the workout for say 6 - 7 days later.

Think about what solutions you have done in the past if this happened to you and feel free to post your thoughts.

Is it necessary to do your HARD workout on the same day every week?

Each week runners have certain key workouts they want to complete within their training schedule. It is these workouts that will give you the most physiological benefits in training as well as the confidence that will come from accomplishing that specific workout - such as a long run, tempo run, or an interval day.

Some runners feel they are required to do these workouts on the same day of the week, every week.  Actually, you might receive more mental and physical benefits by staying flexible. If you have 7 or 10 days in your training week/cycle and one of those days has to be a workout day or hard day give yourself the best chance at making the workout a success.  This may require you to be flexible with the day you choose to run your workout.

Training is hard enough on its own but then adding in work, family, and unexpected circumstances can make finding time to train and sticking to a strict routine challenging. Allowing yourself some flexibility within your weekly training and scheduled workouts will help more than derail you. For example if your workout is scheduled for a Tuesday and your legs feel like garbage, you are tired or work just got in the way it is okay to just push the workout to later in the week, like Thursday or Friday. That will hopefully give you the best opportunity at maximizing your workout effort, confidence, and mental focus.

A few things to keep in mind when adjusting your weekly workout days:

 - Make sure to allow adequate recovery time before your race. (Do not run a workout the day before a race!)

- Do not run two workouts too close together. Allow yourself adequate recovery time or your workouts will not be effective.