Half Marathon 2 weeks before Full one?

hybie

Hey,

I'm doing the Amsterdam marathon (I live in the 'Dam) on October 18th but I was hoping to fit in another one sometime between Sept and Nov. Dublin is only a week later so not enough time and other ones don't suit for various reasons.

Then I saw that the Brussels one is on two weeks before the Amsterdam one. I was very tempted to sign up for the full one but as all my friends etc will be in Amsterdam, I need to concentrate on that one to be my main one. So, I got to thinking about doing the half-marathon in Brussels.

I doubt it will have any effect, just one of my long runs but does anyone have any comments on doing a half, or even a full one, two weeks before a full marathon.

Thanks!

Krusty_Clown

Most schedules would have you doing a long run of around 13 miles two weeks before your goal marathon (depending on the intensity of the program), so it shouldn't be a problem, as long as you run it at the suggested pace, rather than PB territory.

TFBubendorfer

I wouldn't do it. If you ran it strictly as a training run at your normal long run pace it would be ok, but anything faster and you will pay for it during your marathon.

I ran the Cork-to-Cobh 15 miler last year 3 weeks before Dublin, and I'm pretty sure it hurt my marathon performance, even though I did nort race all-out. I won't be doing that again.

Oisin11178

Im in a similar position. I have the frank duffy 10 miler a couple of weeks before the longford marathon. Ive resigned myself to doing it as a training run but there is still a part of me that wants to run it fast.

Krusty_Clown

Oisin11178 wrote: »

...but there is still a part of me that wants to run it fast.

Better off not doing it at all, if Longford is your real goal, and you have a sneaking suspicion that you might throw caution to the wind, and run it at more than LSR pace.

Peckham

+1 to above comments. Trying to do a race at LSR pace requires an amazing amount of self-discipline that most of us don't have! When in training, races are for simulating race day preparation/pace/psychology. Is very difficult to keep yourself going slow when the world and his wife are overtaking you!

hybie

Yeah, I know myself, I'd wrong it as a proper race and not as a training purpose but as it's only 13 miles...I'm still unsure if it'd make a big difference for the one two weeks later.

TFBubendorfer

hybie wrote: »

I'm still unsure if it'd make a big difference for the one two weeks later.

That's what I thought . Believe me, it does.

On the other hand, I didn't listen to wiser voices either and had to make my own mistake to learn from it ...