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Running your race week
Follow the final stretch with the race counted inside the week's running, only a small amount of other mileage, and no last-minute catching up.
Race week is the final step down around your event, with the race itself counted as the main running load rather than added on top.
In the plan, Race Week — the week containing your primary scheduled race — includes the race distance plus only about 15 percent of peak weekly mileage as running around it. That small allowance is the useful number when you want to know how much other running to expect.
Counting the race inside the week
The race replaces the week’s long run. Easy running and any short faster work must fit inside the non-race allowance; the plan does not lay out an ordinary half-volume training week and then add the event for free.
That is why race week can look surprisingly sparse. Do not restore removed miles, add a missed long run or turn an easy day into one more test. The work that builds fitness belongs earlier in the block.
Keeping one small touch of speed
When the plan normally includes quality work and the calendar allows it, race week may keep one Race-Week Sharpening session — a short, reduced-volume touch of intensity early in the week. It is not a race simulation.
The session never sits in the final two full calendar days before the race. If there is no safe place for it, the plan drops it. A plan with no quality sessions does not gain one just because the race is near.
Frequency otherwise stays close to the pattern you already know. Your coach may suggest short strides or answer a specific question about a shakeout, but neither is a reason to expand the week’s total.
Letting the race end the block
The primary race ends the training block and takes the long run’s place. If the event is before Sunday, the plan leaves no planned workout after it in that calendar week.
Less running does not mean the plan forgot your race
The race is already included in the week’s load. Ask your coach to separate the race distance from the roughly 15 percent of peak mileage scheduled around it when explaining the total.
After the event, ask your coach to close and review the block rather than extending race-week training past the finish line.
Ask your coach
“Walk me through my race week and how much running is outside the race.”
“Why is there so little running around my race this week?”
“Can I add a shakeout or make up the workout I missed before race day?”
Related
- Tapering for your race — Reduce volume while preserving rhythm and a little intensity so fatigue can fall without trying to add last-minute fitness.
- Following a training block — Understand the dated stretch of training you are following, close it when it is finished, and carry its evidence into what comes next.
- What a session is made of — Every run in your plan is built from steps — each with a job, a length, and sometimes a pace to hold.
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