So hypothetically speaking...

[Ironboy]

... if someone had a 15km race coming up in two weeks and wanted to give a well trained, rather quick chick a run for her money and had a stellar first half of the year but the last month and a half were plagued by illness and travel, what kind of training would you do to maximize your performance?

Hypothetically speaking.

[jgore]

If you can somehow arrange a cold front, perhaps with a freakish mid-summer snow storm, the race is yours.

Have a friend set up a display of hot shoes at the side of the road somewhere along the course.

[ultraslacker]

it's been nice knowing you, IB.

[HCcD]

If you can somehow arrange a cold front, perhaps with a freakish mid-summer snow storm, the race is yours.

Have a friend set up a display of hot shoes at the side of the road somewhere along the course.

CinC mentioned something about "...a baseball bat behind the knee..: a few months ago, if I recall

[QuickChick]

Not a baseball bat, a tire iron.
James, just run! And run and run and run! And maybe don't taper at all. LOL.
Seriously though I will be in Ottawa Sun-Wed if you wanted to do a track workout Tuesday night... see I'm the worst at trash talking, eh??! I wouldn't even trip you. Dave's family's place is really close to a high school with a track- Immaculata I think it's called. I'm not sure it's bang-on 400m, but if you know of a better one that's cool too.

[Jwolf]

Well, Pat gave digirat some great "crash-training" advice that worked well for him before Vancouver half and the 10K the next month. Not sure if he's going to give advice to Lisa's competition, though.

[QuickChick]

Well, Pat gave digirat some great "crash-training" advice that worked well for him before Vancouver half and the 10K the next month. Not sure if he's going to give advice to Lisa's competition, though.

Pat really likes my chocolate chip cookies, and I'm sure he still wants to be allowed to eat them, so I think James is SOL.

[HCcD]

Not a baseball bat, a tire iron.
James, just run! And run and run and run! And maybe don't taper at all. LOL.
Seriously though I will be in Ottawa Sun-Wed if you wanted to do a track workout Tuesday night... see I'm the worst at trash talking, eh??! I wouldn't even trip you. Dave's family's place is really close to a high school with a track- Immaculata I think it's called. I'm not sure it's bang-on 400m, but if you know of a better one that's cool too.

Hey, if you are downtown on Monday/Tuesday morning ... how about a morning run along the Canal ... think Marg should be back in town this weekend ... I am usually, up by 4:30-5:00am ... and, can make it downtown early for run

eta: Probably, the Terry Fox Track and Field location is a better place for your workout, as the track at the HS is pretty choppy, imo ..

[Jwolf]

Well, Pat gave digirat some great "crash-training" advice that worked well for him before Vancouver half and the 10K the next month. Not sure if he's going to give advice to Lisa's competition, though.

Pat really likes my chocolate chip cookies, and I'm sure he still wants to be allowed to eat them, so I think James is SOL.

[QuickChick]

Not a baseball bat, a tire iron.
James, just run! And run and run and run! And maybe don't taper at all. LOL.
Seriously though I will be in Ottawa Sun-Wed if you wanted to do a track workout Tuesday night... see I'm the worst at trash talking, eh??! I wouldn't even trip you. Dave's family's place is really close to a high school with a track- Immaculata I think it's called. I'm not sure it's bang-on 400m, but if you know of a better one that's cool too.

Hey, if you are downtown on Monday/Tuesday morning ... how about a morning run along the Canal ... think Marg should be back in town this weekend ... I am usually, up by 4:30-5:00am ... and, can make it downtown early for run

eta: Probably, the Terry Fox Track and Field location is a better place for your workout, as the track at the HS is pretty choppy, imo ..

Hehehehe... you want to see sloooooow Lisa- let's run in the morning. Ugh.
Yeah I'm way better in the evening, which is why I'm so stoked about this race!
I'm sure Dave knows where the Terry Fox track is- that would be cool too.

[HCcD]

Not a baseball bat, a tire iron.
James, just run! And run and run and run! And maybe don't taper at all. LOL.
Seriously though I will be in Ottawa Sun-Wed if you wanted to do a track workout Tuesday night... see I'm the worst at trash talking, eh??! I wouldn't even trip you. Dave's family's place is really close to a high school with a track- Immaculata I think it's called. I'm not sure it's bang-on 400m, but if you know of a better one that's cool too.

Hey, if you are downtown on Monday/Tuesday morning ... how about a morning run along the Canal ... think Marg should be back in town this weekend ... I am usually, up by 4:30-5:00am ... and, can make it downtown early for run

eta: Probably, the Terry Fox Track and Field location is a better place for your workout, as the track at the HS is pretty choppy, imo ..

Hehehehe... you want to see sloooooow Lisa- let's run in the morning. Ugh.
Yeah I'm way better in the evening, which is why I'm so stoked about this race!
I'm sure Dave knows where the Terry Fox track is- that would be cool too.

Well, there happens to be the Xerox 3K / 10K on Tuesday evening at 6:30pm, at the Experimental Farm if you are interested ..... http://www.ottawakiosk.com/events/xerox_10k.html

[QuickChick]

Yeah James! You should do the 10K for sure!

[Irongirl]

Yeah James! You should do the 10K for sure!

he was considering it.

[HCcD]

Yeah James! You should do the 10K for sure!

If only I did not have a scheduled 90 minute session with the MoP at 4:15pm on Tuesday ...

[Ironboy]

Actually I will do the Xerox 10km. A bit long, but a good TT 4 days out from the race.

Now I'm glad we had that "Shock" training discussion a while back. Hold on to your socks QuickChick, I may be buying you a beer yet!

[VeloCarrie]

Hey! That track by Immaculata is not far from my house! Too bad I'm working into the evening .

[QuickChick]

Actually I will do the Xerox 10km. A bit long, but a good TT 4 days out from the race.

Now I'm glad we had that "Shock" training discussion a while back. Hold on to your socks QuickChick, I may be buying you a beer yet!

Um seriously though James, that's probably not the best way to have your best race on the weekend.
The 5K might be OK, but I wouldn't do that if I were you.

[Irongirl]

Actually I will do the Xerox 10km. A bit long, but a good TT 4 days out from the race.

Now I'm glad we had that "Shock" training discussion a while back. Hold on to your socks QuickChick, I may be buying you a beer yet!

Um seriously though James, that's probably not the best way to have your best race on the weekend.
The 5K might be OK, but I wouldn't do that if I were you.

QC is scared that this will put you in tip top shape!

[Jwolf]

Actually I will do the Xerox 10km. A bit long, but a good TT 4 days out from the race.
Now I'm glad we had that "Shock" training discussion a while back.

I don't remember that being one of the suggestions. If you really want to do your best in the 15K race, then a 5K all-our TT would make more sense at Xerox.

[Ironboy]

Actually I will do the Xerox 10km. A bit long, but a good TT 4 days out from the race.
Now I'm glad we had that "Shock" training discussion a while back.

I don't remember that being one of the suggestions. If you really want to do your best in the 15K race, then a 5K all-our TT would make more sense at Xerox.

I like to think of that last hard run as a harsh reminder to the body of what's in store. I feel that the more similar the last meaningful effort is to what you are aiming for in the upcoming race, the better off you will be.
The fitter you feel you are, the more intense and longer in duration you can make that effort.
I only do a single run(no repeats). A race is a single run after all.
Since most races seem to fall on a Sunday, I will do everything I can to run a borderline TT on the Wednesday before a key race.
For an 800 I would do a 500-600m tt
For a 1500- 1km
For a 5k- 3-4km
For a 10- 5km
For a half -8km

So 15km would be somewhere between 5km and 8km. There is only a 3km and 10km option at Xerox.

I'll have to go easy the first 2 or 3km and then turn up the speed.

[Jwolf]

Well, yeah-- I remember that part. But not a 10K race. Notice that the time trial recommendation length percentage decreases as the race distance increases. So I still say 5K would be ideal. If you can discipline yourself to only TT the second half of the Xerox course, then that would work.

That recommendation list was also a bit out of context of the rest of the "shock training" discussion. It was in answer to a specific question about pre-race workouts, and did assume more regular training. If you haven't been used to doing hard efforts lately, even 7-8K might be too long to make sure you're fully recovered by Saturday (although with your experience and the full four days between, you'll probably be ok).

The fitter you feel you are, the more intense and longer in duration you can make that effort.

It's a recommendation for "one last hard run" before a key race. If it's your first hard run in a while (or if you haven't done much), the recommendation will be different.

I usually do a pre-race 5K race pace tempo before a half-marathon, too. That's even what coach Pat recommended to me for my last half.

[garth]

Want to win

Ask Tonya and Jeff http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonya_Harding