Race-Specific Preparation

The race-specific phase

The race-specific phase is the stretch between your last big block of base building and the taper, about the last two months before a marathon or half marathon. Until then training built fitness. In this phase it makes that fitness look like the race: its pace, the length of its effort, its shoes and its food. Add nothing new in these weeks, no new strength routine, no diet change, no new kind of workout, because a new stress this close to the race costs more than it can give back.

• Marathon: race-pace work in pieces, for example 2 to 3 x 2 miles at marathon pace with 2 to 3 minutes easy between. The easy minutes make you lose the rhythm and find the pace again, which is what you will have to do when the race goes wrong. Speed work in these weeks stays at 10K pace, for example 800s with short rest, and does not go faster, because your legs are already carrying the fatigue of long runs. Some race-pace work can go inside a long run (see the guide on the long run).
• Half marathon: half-marathon pace in pieces of 2 to 3 miles, for example 3 to 4 x 2 miles with short rest in the last 4 to 6 weeks, no more than once a week because each one is a hard session, with speed work at 5K pace.
• 5K and 10K: sharpen, do not build. VO2 max work, hill repeats and hill sprints belong in the last 6 to 8 weeks, because they help you express the fitness you have and do not build it.
• Trail and ultra races: train on ground like the course (its climbs, descents and altitude), practice eating on the move, and rehearse aid station routines, gear changes and night running if the race has it. See the guide on ultra training.

Rehearse the day itself

Use your longest runs and race-pace workouts as dress rehearsals: the shoes you will race in, the clothes, the breakfast and the fuel, on ground like the course. Wear racing shoes for race-pace runs, some threshold work and race day, and keep an ordinary trainer for the rest of your training, because your legs need the resilience an ordinary trainer builds.

Start the fueling rehearsal early. Practice near your race-day carbohydrate rate for a month to six weeks, and not with one or two gels on a long run, because the gut adapts slowly and a two-week cram causes stomach trouble. See the guides on training your gut and carbohydrate during exercise.

For a marathon, run one dress rehearsal three to four weeks out: 90 to 100 minutes straight at marathon pace, in race shoes with race fueling and your race breakfast, on ground like the course. Do it only after you have run 60 to 70 minutes straight at marathon pace. In the last three weeks you only sharpen and recover, so find out at 70, 80 or 90 minutes that the pace is not sustainable, not on race day. It should feel a little scary. That makes you start the pace slowly, which is practice at overriding race-start adrenaline.

The taper

Taper longest for a marathon and shortest for a 5K or 10K, as Chris McClung and James Dods do for recreational road runners; Greg McMillan prefers a shorter marathon taper. A taper that has worked for a runner is the one to repeat, as Jason Koop and Megan Roche do. An experienced runner can try a shorter taper at the next race and keep it only if it works.

What you cut is volume. Keep your run days and your hard days, make every run a little shorter each week, and cut the long run most. Stopping doubles or adding days off is the big mistake: if you run six days a week, keep six, and if you do two hard workouts, keep two and make them a little more moderate, because a smaller hard session still maintains your fitness.

The hard sessions get smaller: fewer repeats and shorter pieces. Race-week work builds no fitness, so choose what makes you feel sharp.

If you get sick or hurt during the taper, run the minimum to arrive healthy. Taper nerves are normal. Write down your race plan: your pacing, your nutrition and hydration (practiced, and adjusted for heat), what you will think in each segment of the race, such as a mantra or a person, and your logistics. Then read through the training you did, not the training you missed.

Race week and race morning

The day before, run a short, very easy run with 4 to 6 strides of 20 to 30 seconds, or take the day off. Run the strides uphill if you can, because the injury risk is lower. The aim is pop in the legs without an injury.

The shorter the race, the longer the warm-up. A 5K is at pace from the gun, so warm up in this order: dynamic mobility, two easy miles, then 4 to 6 strides finishing within 5 to 10 minutes of the start, so you line up slightly out of breath and sweating. In 85 to 90 degree heat use four strides, so your heart rate does not climb before the start. In a marathon the first miles are the warm-up.

Pacing on the day

Start the first miles a little slower than goal pace and bank energy, not time. Coaches differ on how much slower. Left alone, most runners slow in the second half, newer and lower-mileage runners most. A 47/53 plan for a 4:00 marathon (1:52 then 2:08) is a bad plan. Aim near 49/51, a first half of about 1:57 to 1:58.

In a big, crowded race, a runner finishing in 3:45 or slower should start about 20 seconds per mile slow for the first 5K to 10K and pass people in the last 5K, because the early miles cost the most and the crowd will not let you run your pace anyway. Plan a window of 5 to 10 seconds either side of goal pace, and plan to slow 5 to 8 seconds per mile late in the race. Carry a pace band built from the course profile, take splits by the clock because GPS drifts from the mile markers, expect the hills to be slow and run hot days by effort. Hold back before second-half hills, and start more conservatively in heat, adjusting your goal. The guide on race-day pacing goes deeper.

When the second half falls apart

The size of a late slowdown tells you what went wrong. Losing minutes a mile at the end, such as 10:00 miles when the goal was 8:00, is a bonk, and it means you went out too hard. A fade, slowing by 15 to 20 seconds over the last 10K, points to leg resilience (weekly volume and strength work) and fueling.

The late slowdown known as the wall has several causes working together: running low on fuel, heat, dehydration, an upset gut, tired muscles and nerves, form breaking down, and pacing errors¹. Fixing it takes more than a carbohydrate load: a start you can hold, fuel from early, hot days run by effort, and legs built by weekly volume. If the last 10 miles go wrong and you cramp or cannot take fuel in, alternate 5 minutes at marathon effort with 5 minutes easy to stop the bleeding.

Related guides

For the taper in more detail, see tapering. For the long run that carries race-pace work, see the long run.