Warmup before race.

In article <[email hidden]>,

Anthony said:

I have a 10.45k (6.5 miles) cross-country race this Friday.
Due to various constraints Friday is also the only day this week
I can get in my long run.
My other constraint is that I can't stay too long after the race
to do a long cool-down, say a maximum of 8k (5 miles).

So - Can I lengthen my usual warmup without impacting my
race performance? I usually run about 3-4k as a warmup,
but I'm thinking of going for 8-10k this time.

Well, I can't answer that for you, but I'd say that doing 14k one week
for a long run instead of 18k probably isn't going to kill your training
plan. If you really feel strongly about it, you could do a short run in
the afternoon to bring your total to the 18k.

--Harold Buck

"I used to rock and roll all night,
and party every day.
Then it was every other day. . . ."
-Homer J. Simpson

Anthony said:

I have a 10.45k (6.5 miles) cross-country race this Friday.
Due to various constraints Friday is also the only day this week
I can get in my long run.
My other constraint is that I can't stay too long after the race
to do a long cool-down, say a maximum of 8k (5 miles).

So - Can I lengthen my usual warmup without impacting my
race performance? I usually run about 3-4k as a warmup,
but I'm thinking of going for 8-10k this time.

Seems to me like you're trying to do too many things at once -- you want to
race at 100%, train at 100%, and all this while taking care of your other
constraints. You can't go at everything 100% all at the same time, so you've
got to make some tough choices somewhere. If your marathon training is more
important to you, get in the extra miles. If the race is more important, go
into the race fresh and you'll still finish with a solid workout.

If both the race and marathon training are really, really, really important to
you, *and* you absolutely have to take care of the other stuff, then most
likely you'll end up doing your long run at midnight or something crazy like
that.

Either way, tough choices (that you have to make) and no easy answers.

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi
http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~elflord/

Anthony said:

I have a 10.45k (6.5 miles) cross-country race this Friday.
Due to various constraints Friday is also the only day this week
I can get in my long run.
My other constraint is that I can't stay too long after the race
to do a long cool-down, say a maximum of 8k (5 miles).

So - Can I lengthen my usual warmup without impacting my
race performance? I usually run about 3-4k as a warmup,
but I'm thinking of going for 8-10k this time.

With 8 weeks to go until your marathon, I would bag the race unless it
is a tune-up race for marathon preparation. Of course, we know tune-up
races don't happen until early March for a mid-April marathon.

I do understand that there are some races that are just too hard to
resist for one reason or another.

Phil M.

"Harold Buck" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

Anthony said:

I have a 10.45k (6.5 miles) cross-country race this Friday.
Due to various constraints Friday is also the only day this week
I can get in my long run.
My other constraint is that I can't stay too long after the race
to do a long cool-down, say a maximum of 8k (5 miles).

So - Can I lengthen my usual warmup without impacting my
race performance? I usually run about 3-4k as a warmup,
but I'm thinking of going for 8-10k this time.

Well, I can't answer that for you, but I'd say that doing 14k one week
for a long run instead of 18k probably isn't going to kill your training
plan. If you really feel strongly about it, you could do a short run in
the afternoon to bring your total to the 18k.

Thanks Harold. I may have been a bit unclear in my original question.
I was looking to do about 26-28k overall 8+10.5+8 maybe...

If I could fit in another shorter run sometime in the day I might, but
it's unlikely.

Anthony.

"Donovan Rebbechi" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Anthony said:

I have a 10.45k (6.5 miles) cross-country race this Friday.
Due to various constraints Friday is also the only day this week
I can get in my long run.
My other constraint is that I can't stay too long after the race
to do a long cool-down, say a maximum of 8k (5 miles).

So - Can I lengthen my usual warmup without impacting my
race performance? I usually run about 3-4k as a warmup,
but I'm thinking of going for 8-10k this time.

Seems to me like you're trying to do too many things at once -- you want
to
race at 100%, train at 100%, and all this while taking care of your other
constraints. You can't go at everything 100% all at the same time, so
you've
got to make some tough choices somewhere. If your marathon training is
more
important to you, get in the extra miles. If the race is more important,
go
into the race fresh and you'll still finish with a solid workout.

You're right, but I was trying to get in a reasonably long run while not
giving up a soild race performance. So in the end I'll probably do about 8k
really
easy as a warmup and see how it goes...

Quoted message said:

If both the race and marathon training are really, really, really
important to
you, *and* you absolutely have to take care of the other stuff, then most
likely you'll end up doing your long run at midnight or something crazy
like
that.

Not that crazy.

Quoted message said:

Either way, tough choices (that you have to make) and no easy answers.

Thanks for your input.

Anthony.

"Phil M." <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Anthony said:

I have a 10.45k (6.5 miles) cross-country race this Friday.
Due to various constraints Friday is also the only day this week
I can get in my long run.
My other constraint is that I can't stay too long after the race
to do a long cool-down, say a maximum of 8k (5 miles).

So - Can I lengthen my usual warmup without impacting my
race performance? I usually run about 3-4k as a warmup,
but I'm thinking of going for 8-10k this time.

With 8 weeks to go until your marathon, I would bag the race unless it
is a tune-up race for marathon preparation. Of course, we know tune-up
races don't happen until early March for a mid-April marathon.

I do understand that there are some races that are just too hard to
resist for one reason or another.

This race is the National cross-country championships, and our club
likes to have a good representation. And it is close to early
March...:-)

Anthony.

Anthony said:

This race is the National cross-country championships, and our club
likes to have a good representation.

This strikes me as a situation where the group is more important than
the individual: when you put on your club colours, you give 100% for
the team goal (which may be on the podium, in the Top 20 or just
beating the old archenemies wearing those eyesore singlets).

Besides, skipping one long run at this point will not effect your
performance in London one iota (but I understand perfectly how one can
worry that it could).

Anders Szalkai´s advice to those who follow his sub-three program for
the Stockholm Marathon and want to race on one weekend (at about the
same point) is to skip the long run and to replace the next "quality"
session (on Tuesday in his program) with a "semilong run".

Anders

"anders" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Anthony said:

Quoted message said:

This race is the National cross-country championships, and our club
likes to have a good representation.

Quoted message said:

This strikes me as a situation where the group is more important than
the individual: when you put on your club colours, you give 100% for
the team goal (which may be on the podium, in the Top 20 or just
beating the old archenemies wearing those eyesore singlets).

You may have something there.

Quoted message said:

Besides, skipping one long run at this point will not effect your
performance in London one iota (but I understand perfectly how one can
worry that it could).

Yeah - you know how it is - following a program, and wanting to run all
the long runs...

Quoted message said:

Anders Szalkai´s advice to those who follow his sub-three program for
the Stockholm Marathon and want to race on one weekend (at about the
same point) is to skip the long run and to replace the next "quality"
session (on Tuesday in his program) with a "semilong run".

Actually - I do a "semilong" run most weeks also - but perhaps I'll
try and stretch that 1 out a bit longer.

Anthony.

"Anthony" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I have a 10.45k (6.5 miles) cross-country race this Friday.
Due to various constraints Friday is also the only day this week
I can get in my long run.
My other constraint is that I can't stay too long after the race
to do a long cool-down, say a maximum of 8k (5 miles).

So - Can I lengthen my usual warmup without impacting my
race performance? I usually run about 3-4k as a warmup,
but I'm thinking of going for 8-10k this time.

So - I posted this question on the London Marathon Forum -
there's a "hard training" thread there which is run by
Mike Gratton, the winner (2:09) of the 1983 London Marathon -
very interesting thread BTW.
It's on Runners World UK.
Here's Mike's reply:

Hi Anthony, a lot depends on how important the race is to you - if it is not
a high priority, but you need to do it then there are two options - a) get
up early and do a 5 miler before going to the race and then do a long warm
up (2 to 3 miles) + the race and short cool down (1 mile) and you have a 14
mil or so run (broken into segments, but I think will still count for a
longish run), or b) arrive really early for the race, do a 10km warm up
timed to finish on the start line just before the race starts so that you
don't get cold from the warm up, plus as much cool down as you can.

If the race is near home why not run there just in time for the race, finish
and run home - I used to do that for the Aylesham 10 miles in Kent (4 miles
to the race, race 10 miles, 4 miles home) and won it in 49mins and bits
having been really warmed up for the uphill start.

If the race is important, then just sacrifice the long run and get the most
out of doing the race.

Anthony.

"Anthony" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I have a 10.45k (6.5 miles) cross-country race this Friday.
Due to various constraints Friday is also the only day this week
I can get in my long run.
My other constraint is that I can't stay too long after the race
to do a long cool-down, say a maximum of 8k (5 miles).

So - Can I lengthen my usual warmup without impacting my
race performance? I usually run about 3-4k as a warmup,
but I'm thinking of going for 8-10k this time.

Anthony.

To me, that is way to long of a warmup. Twenty minutes of warming up should
be sufficient. After that you probably are not going to get any more
benefit and might run the risk of fatiguing yourself.