Thinking about adding a half on the 8th..

natalie412

I don't feel the need to taper, since I don't get any soreness or anything from my long slow runs, so I am planning on running 13 miles on Saturday, which would be a week before the race. I will plan on running a little shorter on my Tuesday and Thursday runs - maybe 3 miles each instead of 5 miles. This would be my first half, and I should be able to do it in under 2:30 at my training pace.

Does anyone think this is a bad idea? (to run a practice half a week before the race) I ran 12 last weekend with no soreness (except for immediately after the run!).

Oh, and I am already signed up for a half on Sept 29th.

BrianSharpe

I'm not sure I'd recommend doing the full 13 a week out from a race, the whole idea behind tapering is to negate some of the fatigue that has been accumulating as you pile up the miles preparing for the race, from a fitness point of view there is no value to a 13 mile run a week out from race day. (Don't compare your LSDs to race day unless you plan on treating it like a training run - with another coming up on the 28th that actually may be a good idea.)

Some people don't taper, some do.

MelisRunning

I agree with BrianSharpe.

tbuchin

I think that with this being your first half you might want to lay off the week before the race. If you feel you need to get more miles in before the race, maybe try only doing 7 or 8 miles, enough to get some solid miles in, but not so long that you wouldn't be able to recover in a day or two.

natalie412

Well, based on your input, I guess I will just do 8 miles this weekend! I don't feel like I need recovery time, but I am sure there is muscle fatigue. I don't want to kill myself on my first half - I am going to try to start slow and then speed up towards the end if I can.