10K pre race prep

aneary1980

Hi

I have my first 10K race coming up and I just wanted advice regarding the week before, at the moment I'm aiming for 3 short runs (4/5k) and one longer run a week. This week the longer run will be 8k next week 9K and the week after is the actual race.

The race is on a Sunday at 2pm should I do my last short run on the friday or thursday?

thanks

GillianMcK

It's all personal choice, the more of these you do, the more you'll figure out what works for you, for a 10k, personally I would only take the Saturday as a rest day, if it's your first race you may want to take the 2 days.
My biggest issue with a race start at 2pm would be figuring out when to eat, morning races are easier, as it's a case of have breakfast and run, 2pm, I would probably want to have breakfast a bit later than normal and have a snack, couldn't have lunch and then run.
Run your 8k with 1 day rest and your 9k on 2 day rest and see which feels better to you and decide from there.

aneary1980

It's all personal choice, the more of these you do, the more you'll figure out what works for you, for a 10k, personally I would only take the Saturday as a rest day, if it's your first race you may want to take the 2 days.
My biggest issue with a race start at 2pm would be figuring out when to eat, morning races are easier, as it's a case of have breakfast and run, 2pm, I would probably want to have breakfast a bit later than normal and have a snack, couldn't have lunch and then run.
Run your 8k with 1 day rest and your 9k on 2 day rest and see which feels better to you and decide from there.

Thank you. That all makes sense.

I was thinking of having a full irish breakfast at about 9/10am so that by 2pm I won't be staving but I won't have a stomach full of food.

Dichotomy1976

I'm doing a 10K next month and have been training for it by running further than the 10k required (currently 11-12k a run) so that I'll have the stamina required on the day to post a decent time. I personally find that, when I'm not used to it, an extra km added to a run is draining, but if you can go from 8 to 9k without issue then I guess it won't be a problem for you. A bit of interval training/tempo running rather than 4-5k runs may help you get a better time, but I don't know what your goal(s) is(are) for the run. I'd also consider running 10k+ at a leisurely pace instead of running less than 10k at a faster speed to get a feeling for the distance.

Rest days tend to be a personal thing and differ depending on the individual, just go on how you know your body has reacted in the past to rest or lack of it. Most of all, have fun with the day and enjoy your first 10k

aneary1980

I'm doing a 10K next month and have been training for it by running further than the 10k required (currently 11-12k a run) so that I'll have the stamina required on the day to post a decent time. I personally find that, when I'm not used to it, an extra km added to a run is draining, but if you can go from 8 to 9k without issue then I guess it won't be a problem for you. A bit of interval training/tempo running rather than 4-5k runs may help you get a better time, but I don't know what your goal(s) is(are) for the run. I'd also consider running 10k+ at a leisurely pace instead of running less than 10k at a faster speed to get a feeling for the distance.

Rest days tend to be a personal thing and differ depending on the individual, just go on how you know your body has reacted in the past to rest or lack of it. Most of all, have fun with the day and enjoy your first 10k

I did want to do 10k before the race but I don't really have the time now.

Moving from 5k to 6k was easy 6k to 7k wasn't but I was ill (cold/flu thing) and hadn't exercised for a week so running at all was hard.