As we get closer to the first target race of the season (BCS Half / Full Marathon) there is a question posted every year: What should I do in the 8-10 weeks between races?
We thought it would be important as part of your runner education to post the average time that it takes a specific training session to “impact” your performance:
| Workout type | Intensity/difficulty | When you’ll see benefits |
| Speed development | Hard | 1-3 days |
| Medium | 1-3 days | |
| VO2 max/Hills | Hard | 12-15 days |
| Medium | 9-11 days | |
| Threshold | Hard | 10-12 days |
| Medium | 7-10 days | |
| Long Run | Hard or Medium | 4-6 weeks |
The main question we have received is usually how long should long runs be between races if there are only 8-10 weeks.
If you do the math, in most cases it will take 2 weeks to recover from first race, so a long run training to be effective has to be done right after the recovery weeks.
In most cases your body and mind will not be ready to do a 16-20 miles effort at that point (2-4 weeks after your first race). Also, this is why doing a good base training early in the season is so important, you will rip the benefit through the season.
On the other hand, you can see that Threshold (Tempo) workouts and VO2 max (Intervals) provide benefits within 2 weeks.
With the information above you can outline your training between races focusing on “maintaining” your base doing 12-16 miles long runs but working on your speed during the week.
Let us know if you have any question!
Daniel Benitez