Training the Week Prior to Race Day

My next race is only six days away - on Labor Day. It's called the Quarterback Club of York 5K and will be my thirty-second race I have entered in the last two years. You would believe I would have a fairly regimented approach toward training the week prior to race day. 

In the past I bave made the mistake of trying to get a fairly rigorous training session or two in the week prior to race day. My sentiment was I would be stronger going into the race because I had trained more.  One of the takeaways I had from my excellent run at the Beach to Beacon 10K was to take it easy the week prior to the race.  I only ran once in the week prior to the Beach to Beacon 10K.

Because I have had exactly one month to train for this race, I was able to complete my difficult training sessions well before the week preceding the race. I recently read in a Running Times article your body requires between 8 and 14 days to derive benefits from a specific running workout.  Little did I know when I was trying to squeeze in a decent workout or two in the week prior to a race in the past,  the workouts were of no benefit on race day.

One of the modern day features associated with this race is they have a facebook page dedicated to the race at http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/York-PA/Quarterback-Club-of-York-5k.  It appears the race field size will be in the order of 200 - 250 runners.  Also, the weather is expected to be very cool next Monday and should be conducive to producing fast times.