Essential guide to tuning up

How to get ready for your key race during the final fortnight of preparation

nce you’ve completed a solid base and build period of training, there isn’t much more you can do to get faster by race day. However, there are quite a few ways you could get slower. The key is striking the right balance between fine-tuning your legs and getting neither too tired nor too rested.

Dani King of Rowe and King Coaching explains: “At this point in training, it is no longer about becoming fitter but about becoming fresher and peaking for the event. Looking at the big picture, training should involve overload in the months leading up to an event, followed by tapering in the final week to 10 days.”

Exactly how to train in the run-up to the race depends on how the rest of your preparation came together. King says, “Preparation in the run-up to an event can come down to personal preference, but as a rule of thumb, both intensity and duration should decrease, though you still need an element of intensity so your body doesn’t shut down.”

A classic taper effort the day before an event involves 60-90 minutes with two 10-minute tempo intervals with a good recovery in between, followed by three to six 90-second ‘race effort’ intervals. The number of these latter intervals should be determined by how you feel. It’s important not to ‘psych yourself out’ of the race at this point. Weary-feeling legs the day before don’t mean you’re destined to have a bad race.

And what if you haven’t done the training you would have liked in the final weeks before the event? “You can make some gains at this point, but it’s limited,” says King. “If you’re lacking fitness from limited training, you should train hard and then rest for the final few days. You can afford a shorter taper, as you won’t have such deep fatigue to recover from.”

Peaking for a certain day is notoriously difficult; even the pros get it wrong sometimes. Some people race better on what feel like moderately tired legs, while others perform better off a longer period of rest. Experiment to find out which routine works best for you.