"A" Race on July 4th

Charlene_1985
Charlene_1985 Posts: 122 Member
edited November 2024 in Fitness and Exercise
Next Tuesday, I'm doing my "A" race of the summer, The Peachtree Road Race. I've trained as best I could this spring and summer and feel adequately prepared to *possibly* break 50 if the humidity is fair or better that morning. I've been eating at weekly maintenance (some days I am over some days I am under) during my training and my weight has remained steady too though I am about 3lbs heavier than where I'd like to be (and where I was in April for a different 10K). How should I eat calorie-wise this week? I'm new to "racing" and this is only my 12th formal race, 3 of which were tris. I know what'll work for me pace wise knowing the course and I know what works well for fuel in the morning: apple sauce and a Lender's frozen bagel with jelly and water. But I don't know how to eat this week. And I really want to do well, maybe even well enough to break 50:00 (50:14 for a super hilly 10K in April). I'm 31, F, 5'4", and usually eat around 2300K per day since I'm pretty active at work and at home. I also did my last hard run today and will be doing 5 easy 3 milers on Tues, Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun which is about 1/3 of my normal volume. Thanks.

Replies

  • rybo
    rybo Posts: 5,424 Member
    edited June 2017
    Eat exactly the same as you have been eating, with possibly a little less due to reduced running volume.
  • JessM822
    JessM822 Posts: 73 Member
    Not a good time to change anything. Eat how you trained. Any changes now won't do anything for you or they'll hurt you. Not worth the risk.
  • dewd2
    dewd2 Posts: 2,445 Member
    Don't worry about food too much for shorter races. It has little impact in performance since you should have enough glycogen to get you through. Agree with the previous posters - don't change anything this week. Not a good time to experiment.

    Good luck and have fun.
  • MobyCarp
    MobyCarp Posts: 2,927 Member
    Don't change your eating for a 10K.

    To tune up for running fast, consider doing one set of 15 second cutbacks on Sunday, starting at 90 seconds. That's run hard for 1:30, easy recovery run for 1:30, run hard 1:15, easy recovery 1:15, and so on down to 15 seconds. Total time required, 10 and a half minutes; total distance depends on how fast your hard running is. If you do a 2 mile warmup and then the cutbacks, you can skip the easy 3 miles you were planning to run.

    The cutbacks are great for reminding your body what it feels like to run fast without beating yourself up or wearing yourself out before race day.
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