Tapering for a 5K?

davemunger

In the past I've typically used 5Ks as fitness gauges for longer races; they haven't been ends in themselves. You know the drill: You run your best 5K, plug your time into McMillanrunning.com, and it spits out a prediction for your best marathon or half-marathon time. I've run 5Ks the day after speed work, or right before 20-mile training runs.

But what if the 5K race *is* your target race? Any tips for how best to prepare in the weeks before the race? What tapering tricks have worked for you? Do you start decreasing your mileage two weeks out? One week out? Less? Do you do a tune-up run the week of the race? How far away from race day? What distance / pace?

lorierin22

I'm not a pro at 5ks by any means...but I do run a lot of them I don't do anything differently 2 weeks out, but the week of I do not run at all the 2 days prior to the race. Not even one mile. If my race is on Saturday, I don't run Thursday or Friday. I just feel like my legs get a nice little rest and feel really refreshed after those 2 days. I'm also not sure anything I would do in those 2 days would help me run any better or faster on race day.

Again...I'm not a competetive runner...but this has worked for me. Good luck!

ETA: I'm very competetive...I just mean, I am not usually at the front of the pack :laugh:

suncluster

On a whim, I ran a 5k yesterday to start my running week. I took the day off on Sunday. I thought it was pretty hard and kept wondering if it would have felt better if I had run easy the day before. My legs and lungs sometimes forget how to work after a day off.

For an in-town 5k I highly recommend running the course before the race.

davemunger

I have a 10K this Saturday and I'm going to reduce mileage for the second half of the week. Normally I do strength training M-W-F but this week I'm just doing M-Thur, and I'm going to skip the leg work on Thursday.

But as with a marathon taper, I like to still do some high-intensity training, just with reduced mileage, so today I ran 2 miles at my planned 10K pace (rather than, say, a 5-mile tempo run or 4*1 mile repeats).

lorierin22

Sounds like a solid plan and a good way to test your theory for a future 5k. Do you have a 5K goal race set already? They are so much quicker/easier to recover from, you could do another as a trial about 2 weeks out and test your theory on that specific distance and still be fine for your goal race.
ETA: Good luck on Saturday!

davemunger

Do you have a 5K goal race set already? They are so much quicker/easier to recover from, you could do another as a trial about 2 weeks out and test your theory on that specific distance and still be fine for your goal race.

I'm thinking about the USATF Masters 5K championships in Syracuse October 5. I would not have a shot at an AG award because the field is so deep but it would be a nice opportunity to run with a very talented group. But it seems a little weird to travel so far for just a 5K -- I've never done that before!

I may try some different taper strategies this summer; there is a 5k race series that goes all summer long which would yield a lot of opportunities for experimentation.

ETA: Good luck on Saturday!

Thanks!