How to Use Tune-Up Races During Marathon Training

During marathon training it can be fun and helpful to run other races, such as a 5k, 10k, or half marathon. These shorter races can offer benefits such as seeing where your fitness is and just getting used to being in a race environment. However, you want to make sure that you can still follow your training plan effectively. If you are racing every weekend, or running tune-up races too hard, you may compromise your marathon training. Let’s talk about some ways to use tune-up races during marathon training.

How to Use Tune-Up Races During Marathon Training

Plan Out Your Races

As you start developing your training plan, consider any tune-up races you plan to run and how they will fit into your schedule. If you are doing multiple races during your training block you need to make sure that you can still get in your training mileage. Make sure you don’t schedule a tune-up race too close to your goal race. For a marathon, running a half-marathon at least 4 weeks before your race is ideal. If you are planning to use a tune-up race as a test of your fitness, don’t run it too soon in your training cycle (unless you are getting a baseline for starting training).

Don’t Race Too Close to Your Goal Race

When you are training for a marathon you will be doing your longest long run about 2-3 weeks before your race and then tapering. Running a tune-up race during this period can interfere with your peak weeks of training. If you are racing a half marathon as a tune-up race you should consider that you might need some recovery after that race and not schedule it too close to your important peak weeks.

Use A Tune-Up Race as a Training Run

If you have the self-control to not “race” a tune-up race, you can use it as a training run. In some cases this may mean adding miles on before and/or after the race. For example, if you are running a half marathon but have a 16 mile long run in your schedule, you can run a 2 mile warm up, complete the half marathon, and then run a mile cool down.

During the race portion of your run you can either keep the pace easy or use it as a workout, adding in some marathon or half marathon pace miles throughout the run.

Run a Tune-Up Race to See Where Your Fitness Is

In the middle of your training cycle you can run a tune-up race to test your fitness and to give you a better idea of how you should pace your marathon. The half marathon will give you the best information for this (vs a 5k). The closer the distance is to your goal race, the better. After you run your tune-up race you can plug your results into a running calculator like VDOT or McMillan to see your marathon prediction.

Practice Racing During Your Training Cycle

Tune-up races are great opportunities to practice racing. They give you a chance to get used to the racing environment, to troubleshoot any issues, and to work on mental strength. Try to plan out your morning the same way you would for your goal race. If possible, test out your race outfit to make sure it feels good. Practice your fueling and hydration strategy by either taking water on the course or carrying your own and using the fuel you will use for your goal race. Learn from any issues you have and tweak your strategy before your goal race.

You may also like:
Half-Marathon Training Tips for Beginners
How to Choose a Running Goal Time for a Race
How To Train for a 10k Race: For Beginners to Advanced Runners

Do you ever run tune-up races during marathon training?

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