Our team will be heading off in various directions this weekend (see “Upcoming Races” graphic below). With the return to full racing calendars, there are abundant racing opportunities week-in and week-out. Here in Minnesota, Twin Cities in Motion will be putting on the Hot Dash races, a popular season-opener for many runners. I suspect that lots of runners are excited about a full slate of races in the weeks and months ahead, so it seems like a good time to talk about race week training – what to do, what not to do, and how to get the most out of your final few days leading into a race.
Most discussion of race week training centers around the idea of not doing too much. Indeed, over-doing it is the most common mistake that athletes make. You can’t do a whole lot to improve your level of fitness in the final week, so attempts to get in one last big workout are misguided and more likely to lead you to a sub-par race performance.
However, if you are in fact early in the process of gearing up for a big season ahead, with your most important events weeks or even months down the road, it may be useful to maintain your training, rather than dramatically reducing it. The practice of “training through” a race does not mean you can’t give it a great effort. You do, however, want to be cautious about going into a race in a fatigued state, as this could potentially increase the risk of injury. For our athletes, I generally try to include a “down week” or lighter week of training every 3-4 weeks. I try as often as possible to align these down weeks with a race effort if the athlete is in their racing season at that time. This provides the benefit of not sacrificing anything in the progression towards later racing goals, but also allows the athlete to go into the race feeling a bit more fresh. I will note, however, that this “down week” still typically ends up being roughly 65-70% of the usual training load, so it’s not a rest week by any stretch of the imagination.
What types of workouts should you do in that final week? As a rule of thumb, don’t do anything totally new or different from what you have been doing, but rather choose similar types of workouts, with reduced volume (again, that 65-70% range is a generally a good range). It is well documented in the sports science literature that maintaining high intensity work during a taper is important, but if you haven’t been consistently doing that type of work, race week is not the time to start.
Adding hills, short sprints, or other hard work that you aren’t used to can leave you sore for race day, which should be avoided at all costs. However, neuromuscular sharpening is an important goal of race week training. This basically means you want to fire your muscles the same way you will during your race. You don’t need or want to do this every day, but a couple of times in the week prior will suffice. Running race pace for some short segments is an easy way to do this. Similarly, strides are a way of getting in some faster running with minimal stress to your overall body, assuming you have been doing them in the weeks prior.
If there’s an area where you can really gain an edge in the final week of training, it’s in the time spent out of your running shoes – in prioritizing rest and recovery. Protect your sleep time, avoid excessive amounts of time on your feet if you can avoid it, and focus on consuming a high quality diet, with sufficient hydration. All of these “little things” are actually the foundation of your health. They should be prioritized all the time, but if you have extra time and energy during your race week, you can feel good about putting it into these fundamental recovery strategies.
Here’s to a 2022 full of race weeks!
