Do I or don't I?

Hi there,

I have spent the last 8 weeks training for a 10k race in the attempt of beating my PB, the race is on Sunday and I'm wondering how much, if any, running I should do between now and then. I have trained every day this week finishing this morning with a 6 mile run 2mins over my target time.

Your thoughts and advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

The training plans I've followed suggest you take it easier than usual in the days leading up to race day, so you're feeling as fresh as can be considering you've trained hard for x number of weeks before..

Thanks Alistair, would taking it easy mean no training at all or just half your mileage? I'm unsure.

Victoria - a good bit of advice i read is that by this stage there's no amount of training you can do to improve your race but plenty you can do to ruin it.

 Sounds like you've done the hard work and if it was me i'd do a short jog to loosen up and turn the legs over if i was climbing the walls but otherwise chill out for a couple of days and make sure you get to the start refreshed.

Good luck on Sunday.

Normal advice is to do your normal intensity but over shorter distances, so two weeks before you may only do 75% of your normal mileage and the week before only 50%.  If your weekly schedule includes runs of different intensity (e.g. intervals on Tuesdays etc) then continue to do them - just less of them.

As its Thursday and your race is Sunday, I'd recommend just taking the next few days off, although I tend to have a short run at low intensity on the day before just to keep myself ticking over (but thats a perrsonal preference)

Don't rest all week, just reduce training time a little bit (possibly 20% less) compared to your previous 8 weeks. So I wouldn't recommend you do much more before Sunday. Good luck in your race.

Thank you all for your very good advice, Mace that is a great quote that I need to bear in mind now and in the future.

I'm sure as keen runners you'll empathise with me when I say this, but the thought of 2 days of no running at all is a little unnerving to me. I may do as Stutyr suggests and take it easy, but just go for a light jog on Saturday around my local park.

Thank you for the well wishes, I'm nervous which is strange as I'm only trying to beat myself!

Two days to go and pb chasing, no more than a couple of miles v.gentle jpg of anything at all would be my plan. What time are you chasing? In perspective, i do nothing if I'm looking ofr pb in the last 3 days (Sub 40 these days) Light jogging if I'm chasing sub 45 and no change if planning anything over 50. For me though, every race is not a race.