Base training and racing

If there's only three weeks to go I wouldn't change much if you are not 100% comfortable you can do the distance without problems. I'd think volume is more important than speed work in your situation.

Edited by Dnn 2013-06-03 5:36 AM

Until you have a solid base, do not add speed work. It's tough on your body and can easily result in reduced quality of your base work load.

This is why it's so important to have a periodized training plan... you need to have recovery weeks and recovery days (or day) to accommodate heavier loads.

3 weeks out and I wouldn't do any speed work... you really only have this week, after that, you need to taper.

How long have you been training and what is your racing experience? If you are very new to endurance sports, then I would keep things mostly easy, focus on volume and then just see what happens on race day. If you have some experience, then there would be nothing wrong with doing a harder workouts in the next couple of weeks.

As to the notion that you can't do harder efforts during base training - there is nothing wrong with doing base training at a variety of intensities. It doesn't all need to be easy and slow and the idea that this is required is based on a misunderstanding of periodization and physiology. Aerobic adaptations happen across a wide variety of intensities.

Shane

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