I have my A race which is a marathon in 2 weeks.
Should I:
- run a relatively easy 18 miler on my own this weekend?
- enter and run hard an official half marathon this weekend?
- something else? If something else what?
Thanks
Rest.
An easy 13.1 is far better than either of the other options.
You needed to be asking this question about 2 weeks ago! Most plans have you running an easy 12-14 miles for last long run 2 weeks before.
That was my original plan, but I feel good and wanted to try and PR my Half marathon.
Easy - go for 2.5 - 3 hours and don’t worry about distance. Keep your hr low and your pace should be well below your 10k pace.
8-12 (depending on your level of experience you could go to 14) at easier pace. 2 weeks out is the beginning of a marathon taper.
FWIW, my marathon plan would have me do my biggest milage long run 3 weeks out (about 20-22 miles); two weeks out would be a 13 miler at long run pace (about a minute slower than goal pace); one week out an easy 1 hour run in the long run time slot…
That was my original plan, but I feel good and wanted to try and PR my Half marathon.
NO DON"T DO THAT!!!
i mean, do it if you want, but you will pay for it come marathon day. 26.2 is a long time to suffer. keep your head down and focus. do NOT race a 1/2 if you feel you will be tempted to run faster than you should. just by you’re saying you want to, my advice is NOT to participate in that half marathon, as you will be too tempted.
feeling good now is exactly what you want. remember, you’ve worked your ass off for this point to feel good on marathon day–YOUR A RACE. do not blow months and months of work and miles just to PR an impromtu half marathon. otherwise, you will be posting on here and licking your wounds with regrests. trust us, be smarter than that, it is NOT worth it…
A friend of mine who is a respected coach has this saying, “If you are fit today, find a race to use your fitness…you never know what happens tomorrow”. I guess the main question is what is more important to you? The previously established “A” race which was the marathon, or a new half marathon “A race” PR attempt, followed by a marathon 2 weeks later that would then be icing on the cake following a PR.
Looking forward to Feb, which option would you prefer: Half Marathon PR, Marathon OK, but not steller Training run + Marathon PR Training run + Marathon finish but no PR
Let me just say this. The variables in your control for a half marathon are much greater. The longer the distance the greater the chance for breakdown. You might end up with no marathon PR and no half marathon PR.
I’d take option 1. You never know, you might nail both races. If you take option 1, immediate ice after the race. All the best.
In July, I did the Peterborough half Ironman and although a “B” race, I had a great event, and was 4th overall and first amateur. 2 weeks later, I had Ironman LP. The day before the race, I already knew that whatever, happened on race day, I still got to “use my fitness” at the half. As it turns out, I did an Ironman PB at LP also, and got a Kona slot…so I got both!
For some reason, people think that marathons and Ironmans have to be A races. Half marathons and Half Ironmans can be A races, with the longer one turning into a B race. It all depends on what you want and nothing wrong with changing your new definition of “A” race. Finally, racing the half will mentally sharpen your game for marathon day. If you are well trained, you have a good chance at nailing both.
Dev
“If you are fit today, find a race to use your fitness…you never know what happens tomorrow”.
the problem with this rationale is that someone could have a very long term focus and work very hard in preparation for something. then because they feel good one day, they go out and kill it in a race 1 or 2 weeks away from that A event. so, essentially, all that they worked for was spent on some impromptu race. and they race the event they’ve trained for, and the result isn’t as good as they hoped. then the person feels grave regrets. (we’ve seen this time and time again when people get anxious or loose faith during a taper. they go out and kill it, then pay the consequence come race day.)
there is such a thing called focus. and having the outlook “i don’t know what will happen tomorrow” is not a good outlook. it’s important to have faith in the plan and work it. it is important to believe that tomorrow everything will be ok! Additionally, staying on course yields the greatest results, as evidenced by many people’s achievements on this board.
for someone as experienced as you, it may not be that big of a deal to gamble on truly racing a half marathon 2 weeks out. but for most of us (from novice to advanced), that is a bad idea, otherwise more training programs and coaches would recommend it.
so, ultimately it comes down to what a person wants, as you suggested. but expecting a half PR, and to nail the goals on a marathon 2 weeks out is an unlikely gamble. if someone doesn’t care how they do in the marathon, well, i guess that is another story. but i’m assuming that when someone says the marathon is my A race, but gets sidetracked with an impromptu event, that person is loosing sight of all the work they’ve put in for the goal of the marathon. things change along the way, i understand, but most times these situations end up in regret.
That was my original plan, but I feel good and wanted to try and PR my Half marathon.
That’s a very cool thing, but what’s more important to you? A half marathon PR or running a strong marathon?
For most of us going balls to the wall in a half two weeks out is probably going to negatively impact our marathon performance, so it’s up to you.
for me…my taper is two weeks…and so i would be willing to (and I am) racing a half marathon two weeks out…
I agree with Dev. If you feel good then go for a good 1/2 marathon. If you trained right then you should recover in time to race the marathon. Any active recovery should be on the bike though. The marathon is too hard to nail right even if you did taper by the book (or vacuum).
Hokey Hey!!
Hi Kittykat…I hear your points. My main point is that I see way too many people focused on so called “A” races. Then they blow their A race and spend the next 6 months in shoulda coulda woulda post race pseudo depression mode.
I think people in general would enjoy things more if they actually did stuff a bit more impromptu and experience the journey along the way. There is much more to life than marathons and Ironmans. After all, none of us are Olympic athletes who really need to focus on so called “A” events. These restrictions we place on ourselves are simply self imposed cages that we chose to live within.
The coach I refererred to went 10:20 in his so called “A” race. Then three weeks later, he said, “screw it, I have the fitness” and goes 8:41. He could have sat around all winter wondering what he could have done given his amazing fitness that did not translate into the desired result, but instead jumped into a second Ironman in three weeks againsts all conventional wisdom, because he had the fitness and the race was somewhat local.
Now, I see lots of people doing so called “make up races” when they blow their “A” race, but not that many people willing to take the “risk” of adding in races when they feel fit. The main reason most programs don’t suggest it, is because there is a likelihood of blowing the ensuing A race. I understand that, but you can also just as easily blow the A race without having race 2 weeks out. On the up side, if you have a fantastic “B” race a few weeks out, it gives you huge confidence mentally going into the A race, and if nothing else the mental edge gained should never be underestimated 
great points, dev. btw…nice piece on you in the paper
Personally, I would run the half: But I don’t know if I would try too hard to PR. I would try to nail my marathon goal pace for the first half, then step it up to half mara. goal pace for the second half. After that its all taper until the race …
Well would these be the last races of the season? I found that after IMC (my very first) I wasn’t quite ready to take it easy, so I did a 5k race 2 weeks after and a half marathon the weekend after that. Both of those were races I didn’t particularly train for or psych myself up for, just spontaneous fun, and I did well (for me) in both of them - but NOW I don’t feel like doing anything at all, so I’m waiting for the urge to get out there to come back.
IF this is your first marathon, AND you know you are not prone to injury, AND you are willing to run a steady, conservative marathon, by all means have fun with the half, taking it easy at the beginning and pushing later. If you’re really aiming to PR in the marathon, and have run a few already, you should have some idea of what is going to work for you. For a high mileage, relatively young runner, the half would sharpen you nicely - otherwise it may just be another opportunity to not make it to the start line. Halfs can tear you down too, especially if you race them hard.j
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Thanks for your advice.
I landed up bagging the half marathon, only because it was kind of far away to drive. Would have been stuck in the car round trip 4 hours. Just couldn’t get away.
I ran an easy 16 miler on Sunday and then today because I was sort of kicking myself for not running the race, pushed a hard 13.1 mile training run.
Amazingly, even without the crowd and race environment and though it was a “training run” I managed to PR my half marathon time which is now at 1:43. I felt like I could have gone somewhat faster if it were truly a race, but decided that I didn’t want to injure myself so close to the full marathon.
Now off to my taper.
Anyway, How do you think I should pace my marathon.
I know go easy at first, etc. I am looking for a more concrete pacing strategy. I am not worried about finishing the race, but I always feel that I leave too much on the table when I run this standalone races. I always fear the big bonk, but I guess if one really wants to race fast one has to risk it. Anyway, any pacing advice.
Thanks.
What is the point of asking for advise when you obviously completely ignored everyone’s advise regarding your original question? Pretty much everyone said you should do neither of the options, and you did both! Why would you listen now?