There are a number of reasons people sign up for a race. It may be to have a family outing on or near a holiday. It may be motivation to train and get in shape for a certain distance. It may be that a friend has signed up for something and wants you to join them. If people are aiming for a personal best time for a distance, like a 10K, they will likely run several 10Ks in the few months leading up to it to prepare themselves.
Professionals pick certain races for time or place goals and train around those. Though they\u2019ll still be pushing hard in these advance races the taper for them, if it exists at all, won\u2019t be as significant as it is for the main event.
Though the vast majority of us are not professional, we also can benefit from tune-up races. Like so many things in life, mimicking a high-adrenaline, stressful event in practice is difficult. With running, typically the more you race the better you\u2019ll be at it. This isn\u2019t just a case of the physical exertion. It\u2019s also learning how to handle race-day nerves and the atmosphere, and the stress those can place on brain and body.
If you\u2019re aiming for a specific time and\/or distance, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. If your goal is a certain time in a 5K or 10K, it\u2019s good to run other races at that distance in the weeks leading up to your circled event. With the rule of thumb that you need one day of recovery for every mile of a race, in theory you could do a 10K the week before a race. That being said, giving yourself a two-week buffer also works. If you\u2019re going for a longer distance, you won\u2019t want to match that distance too close to your main race, but you can still go for shorter races to at least get or regain the feel for race day atmosphere.
I\u2019ve signed up for a 10K in July; this is well before my marathon in October. In addition to this, I\u2019ll find a few other races before then. Though I\u2019ve done many races over the years and a number of time trials over the past year, getting back into, or staying, in race mode is key to having a successful goal event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There are a number of reasons people sign up for a race. It may be to have a family outing on or near a holiday. It may be motivation to train and get in shape for a certain distance. It may be that a friend has signed up for something and wants you to join … <\/p>\n