speed work question.

[JamesP123]

So , im running a 10km race on Sunday and I did a few speed workouts last week, and one the other day. But my friend I run with wants to do a speed workout tomorrow..I was just wondering if too much speedwork is bad, and also if a speed workout tomorrow would help me at all on sunday.

thanks!

[Nicholas]

Too close to race day. You could do a "sharpening" or reduced speed session (e.g. 4-6 X 400) today but your legs need to rest up for the race. A hard workout breaks down the muscles and then they repair even stronger...but you need time for the repair cycle to take full effect.

[Tri_K]

There are people on here that know a lot more about training programs than me but my best answers are: yes too much speedwork is bad and no it will not help you for Sunday. If anything, you'll actually hurt your performance on Sunday by stressing your body out too close to the race. There are lots of great (FREE) online training programs available that will give you an idea of how much of each type of workout you should be doing. Friday should be an easy run though, not speed.

[scrumhalfgirl]

At this point, you won't gain anything. Generally your body needs 10-14 days to make any adaptations to the stresses you put on it in training. And as the others have pointed out, you run the risk of tiring yourself out.

[Jwolf]

Before a 10K my last workout is usually 4 days before, and it's a light workout. That is, a short tempo with strides at the end. Strides are short accelerations (100-150m) that get you moving fast but don't get you into VO2max, so you're not stressing your system.

If you do a hard speed workout today or tomorrow you'll most likely make your race worse. At best it won't really help you.

[Ed Fizz]

If you do a hard speed workout today or tomorrow you'll most likely make your race worse. At best it won't really help you.

Or get a stupid injury...and really ruin the race.

[La]

The time to start speed work was 6-8 weeks ago. Not now.

Listen to your elders. We know what we're talking about.

[chunkymonkeymelonhed]

As has been said, whatever you do now is not going to help your race at this point and may in fact hurt it.
Good luck with your 10K.
Cheryl

[Jwolf]

The other thing is that you'll benefit most from speed workouts (that is, intervals or reps) if you do them roughly once/week, not every other day. You need to let your body absorb the training effect and then be able to gain more the next time. Doing them too often will lead to plateaus and decline in performance.