Half mara 4 weeks before full?

RubyK

Looking for some advice please. I was too late in registering for the Athlone half, which would have been ideal for to fit in with training for DCM, being 6 weeks to go. I can't do the Dublin half or Charleville the following week, but there is a half in Ferns on 29th Sept, which is 4 weeks before the marathon. Is this too close to do? If I was to run it, should I just stick to marathon pace rather than racing it? Or should I just forget about it, and just concentrate on LSR.

Thanks

career_move

I think 4 weeks is too close to a marathon to race a HM. Could you do the Athlone 3/4 the week after (Oct 6th). I did it last year and found it a great prep for DCM

drquirky

career_move wrote: »

I think 4 weeks is too close to a marathon to race a HM. Could you do the Athlone 3/4 the week after (Oct 6th). I did it last year and found it a great prep for DCM

Wouldn't really agree- I think 4 weeks is probably at the limit though. I'll be racing Athlone 4 weeks from my mara this year and based on the fact it takes me a week or so to properly recover from a HM I'm not too stressed about racing it. A lot depends on knowing your body and how quickly you recover.

blockic

career_move wrote: »

I think 4 weeks is too close to a marathon to race a HM. Could you do the Athlone 3/4 the week after (Oct 6th). I did it last year and found it a great prep for DCM

My own opinion is that while it is borderline I think 4 weeks before is fine to race a HM but nothing closer.

I know there are many of us are racing Athlone HM next week, 4 weeks before Chicago.

P.S.. sorry to disagree CM again , I'm not doing it on purpose!

Clearlier

drquirky wrote: »

Wouldn't really agree- I think 4 weeks is probably at the limit though. I'll be racing Athlone 4 weeks from my mara this year and based on the fact it takes me a week or so to properly recover from a HM I'm not too stressed about racing it. A lot depends on knowing your body and how quickly you recover.

The good doctor is getting closest to what I think is the answer.

There's a guy I help a bit with his training who's looking for 2:30'ish in Berlin, running 100mpw+. If he asked me should he run a half all out 4 weeks before I'd advise against it. It's a good time for a 10k but much more than that and he compromises one of his last weeks of marathon specific work. Marathon pace - absolutely, faster - don't take the risk.

Now that's me knowing his motivation is Berlin. If he were doing the marathon as a club race (it does happen) and he wanted to do a good half then it would have been straightforward enough to tweak his training around to do both with greater emphasis on the half.

If you recover well and ideally are doing relatively high mileage then you could race it and expect to recover. I think that the cost of recovery from it generally outweighs the training benefits but if you do recover well then it's not going to make a huge difference.

RubyK

Thanks for the replies and advice, I have a bit of thinking to do alright

career_move wrote: »

I think 4 weeks is too close to a marathon to race a HM. Could you do the Athlone 3/4 the week after (Oct 6th). I did it last year and found it a great prep for DCM

I have a 22 miler to do that weekend, so that one is out too.

Can't believe how quickly the weeks are going by :eek:

blockic

drquirky wrote: »

A lot depends on knowing your body and how quickly you recover.

Clearlier wrote: »

If you recover well and ideally are doing relatively high mileage then you could race it and expect to recover.

Yeah I think this probably nails it here. All about how your body normally recovers and doing what you know works for you!

RubyK

blockic wrote: »

Yeah I think this probably nails it here. All about how your body normally recovers and doing what you know works for you!

Yep, and tbh, my gut feeling is that it's too risky to race it with 4 weeks to go. I think I'll just stick with the training plan, and forget about the half.

purceninho

RubyK wrote: »

Yep, and tbh, my gut feeling is that it's too risky to race it with 4 weeks to go. I think I'll just stick with the training plan, and forget about the half.

Would you consider a 10 miler that weekend. P&D recommend a race of 8k to 15k four weeks out so 10 would not be too much beyond that. Eco 2 run maybe ?

RubyK

Thanks for that purceninho something else to think about alright.

ThePiedPiper

I think it probably depends also on how much experience you have, and whether you recover quick after races. If its likely that you'll still feel the half marathon in your legs a fortnight afterwards, then you'll have compromised your training for those last two weeks. If you can do the half, and after a couple of easy days, get back to proper marathon training, then it's a great way to experience the race environment, and a brilliant tune-up.