Marathon Race Week Strategy
For the week of your marathon, you will be cutting back your mileage quite a bit. Typically, one short speed workout four days out followed by a tempo run of short time and distance. A good example of marathon race week might look like this:
Sunday: 10 mile run
Monday: Off
Tuesday: 15-to 20-minute warm up followed by 8 x 1 minute at half marathon pace with 90 second slow jog recovery. 10-minute cool down
Wednesday: 15-minute warm up followed by 10-minute tempo at marathon goal pace plus 15 to 20 seconds. If your goal pace is 8:00 then your tempo goal pace is 8:15 to 8:20. Cool down for 10 minutes
Thursday: Off
Friday: 4-mile run (can be switched with Thursday)
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Race
Some coaches don’t like taking back-to-back days off. Some like getting in a run the day before the marathon. In the end, and as previously stated, find out what works best for you. To check out some of my marathon programs, click here.
A common mistake is to get too nervous about losing “it.” The “it” is the edge and fitness levels you would have achieved up to this point in training. How to avoid that from happening? One word: Relax. Or two words: Chill out. If you start to feel lethargic and “out of it” in the several days before your marathon, that is actually a good sign that you are tapering well. You should notice a marked rise in energy starting the day or two before the race. Just be patient.
Just remember that the taper is your friend. Don’t make it your enemy. Use it wisely. Embrace it. And my last words of advice, don’t use this time to tweak things. Look at this time of rest and rejuvenation as something you’ve earned that will help you have a great marathon day.
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