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Races
The races that are scheduled for every third week of the program are
almost as important as the long runs. It's been my experience that if I
didn't race often enough before a marathon, I wouldn't feel "race
fit" when I needed to. I was fit enough, but the shock of racing left
me with dead legs way too early in the marathon. I knew this could be a
problem going into the '80 Olympic Trials, so as part of my preparation I
raced every week for 18 weeks.
Even though I had a race scheduled for the weekend, I still did my long
runs every Thursday. Some of my races were good, but others reflected that
I was still tired just a couple of days after a 2-hour run. But my goal
was the race at the end of the plan--the Olympic Trials--not these
"training" races. It must have worked because at the Marathon
Trials, I ran a PR by 3 minutes to finish second and make the Olympic
team.
That's why I believe that if you have to choose only two workouts to do
other than easy runs, do a weekly long run and race often. Try not to
become too concerned about your times at these races because you'll be
fatigued from the hard training. The schedule is flexible. It doesn't have
to be exactly a three-week cycle; you can swap a weekend race with a long
run and be fine. But don't drop the long runs entirely in favor of racing
because they're more important in the overall plan. If you have time
during the week to do your long run, consider swapping Thursdays' workouts
with Sundays' to get in a long run even when you have a race planned.
Credits:
Text copyright © 1996 by
Benji Durden
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