Janithor said:x-no-archive: yes
I was thinking of running some road races before I try my first
marathon, but now I'm thinking it's only going to mess with my training.
I'm concluding that people are right about my need to increase my
milage as much as possible. I'm averaging around 37 miles/week now, and
I'd like to peak at 45 miles about a month before the marathon, which is
on Dec. 5.
Is it just for the experience, to familiarize myself with the whole race
process? Part of the problem is that all these events are in the
morning, and I work nights. I am never awake at 8am, so it's a big deal
for me to switch my sleep to have this happen. I go to bed around 5am
usually. I can prepare for the marathon, since it's the big event I'm
training for. But these smaller races, it doesn't seem worth it right
now, even if they would be fun to run for the experience.
What time of day is your marathon? Will you have to make major sleep /
eating adjustments for it? If so, you might want to test ahead of time,
if you can - whether it's in a race or not is up to you, IMHO, but
sometimes the race-day atmosphere changes things.
I've only done a few races, and nothing near a marathon, but I've found
simulating race-day conditions as closely as possible helps on race day.
Some things can be done in training (although there might be certain
anxiety-related effects that can't be simulated without actual race
conditions): timing of sleeping/waking, eating, drinking, potty stops
before the race (from the day before up til race start and during the
race). This could be critical if you're usually sleeping at the time
your big race is scheduled to start. Your physiological responses might
be really different.
Race-day experiences that you might not be able to simulate in training
and might ease anxieties if you can get experience beforehand include
1. packet / bib pickup
2. where to stick the bib so it's not in your way (most of my races
people wear shells and peel them off part way through a race so front of
jersey isn't good and some races want them in front so we can't put them
on camelbak - frequently use number belt).
3. running your own race and not getting sucked into somebody else's
pace (the primary reason why I would run a race as training for another).
4. driving time to race (my legs stiffen if in car for very long)
The comments about fitness probably depend on how you train, whether
you're planning on racing the marathon at specific pace or just "do" it
- and how similar the pre-marathon races are to the marathon in terms of
time of day, weather, topography, etc. Running a race in cool
temperatures may provide little information for your big race if it's
hot that day. But that's just my opinion. *For me*, with my schedule and
goals and limited availability of races at times I can run them, I'm
better off using training as my fitness guides. Races are a major hassle
for me: 1st finding one, then driving time and needing to wait for race
start, etc = race time + 3 to 4 hrs in my case. (and I hate driving) No
race that I've done has ever been a useful indicator of how things would
go in another race (races are too different and too far apart), but
that's probably an artifact of running trails where specificity can be
really important, at least while inexperienced. YMMV, obviously.
Dot
--
"So many people get stuck in the routine of life that their dreams waste
away. This is about living the dream." - Cave Dog
