It’s racing season! Are you training for a race right now? Or, are you planning to train for a race this fall?
If so, I want to share something that I don’t see talked about often: the power of the “tune up” race.
When I first started running, I’d run every race I did pretty much the same – all out! Sometimes I’d run a race and it would feel AWFUL – because I wasn’t actually training for that race, but I kind of expected that I’d just run faster every time anyway.
The thing is, when we train correctly, we just train for ONE big race at a time. Not only are we training to peak at a certain time (aka race day), we’re also specifically training for THAT particular distance. So if we go out and run a 5K 3 weeks into our marathon training, we can’t really expect to run our best 5K.
Today I want to talk about the power of a tune up race – why you want to run at least 1 leading up to your big goal race and what your strategy should be during the race.
What is a Tune Up Race & Why Would You Run One?
A tune up race is any race that is shorter than your goal race, which is run before your big race. The point of the tune up race is to PRACTICE. You will practice your pre-race dinner, race fueling, even your race clothing!
But most importantly, you’ll practice the feeling of racing. It can’t be simulated in training – the adrenaline, the feeling of running in a crowd and pushing yourself to the finish line.
Getting a chance to test drive your race ahead of time is going to allow you time to correct any mistakes, work on weaknesses and get an idea of where your fitness is leading up to the race.
What If You Race a Half Marathon While Marathon Training and It Doesn’t Go Well?
What Do My Tune Up Race Results Mean?
Although a tune- up race CAN give you some indication of whether you’re on track for your big goal race, you cannot read into your actual time too much. A tune-up race is ran before your peak fitness AND usually there is no taper, so the pace you run in a tune-up is going to be a little slower. Plus, in a lot of cases, it may actually make more sense to run your tune-up race as your longer race pace NOT your fastest pace.
For example, this weekend I ran a half marathon at my goal marathon pace. I’m 5 weeks out from my marathon, so this was considered a long run workout for me. And it was a big confidence booster too! If you want to read all the details, check out my Run the Alamo half marathon recap! I even got 3rd in my age group which was really exciting for my super competitive self!
Can you have success at your goal race without a tune up race? YES! Can you hit your goal time at your big race even if you fail miserably at your tune up? YES (This was me before my BQ at Revel Big Bear, my tune up race did not go well).
Happy running!!!
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