Preserving race fitness?

4 watchers

J2R Oct 2015 12:40pm, 1 Oct 2015 164 posts	0 J2R From all I've read, it seems it takes a little less to MAINTAIN a given level of fitness than it does to ACHIEVE that level of fitness in the first place, at least for a short while (it obviously doesn't make sense that you should be able to do so indefinitely). I'm interested in hearing about others' experiences with this - getting up to a level of race fitness and then maintaining that fitness for a while without necessarily trying to build on it. The relevance for me is that early last month I narrowly (by 13 seconds!) missed out on my target time for a half marathon but the course was not an especially fast one, and I'm pretty sure that had I done the same run on a really fast course that day I'd have comfortably attained my target. I'm running another HM in 10 days time, this time on a known fast course, and since the last HM I've been doing my best to maintain my fitness levels with the minimum effort, because I came down with a respiratory tract infection immediately after the last one which has proven very hard to fully shake off, so I've not wanted to push myself too much. Has anyone here managed to do a great time in a race and then keep the fitness 'topped up', as it were, for a while, without necessarily pushing that hard (or at least, not as hard as you did to get there in the first place)?
Gobi Oct 2015 3:16pm, 1 Oct 2015 57,306 posts	0 Gobi Often but I was healthy between races so my first thought is you should probably have rested more and probably lyrics shouldn't be going at it again this soon but that aside. For short distances it is not hard to maintain a level All you really have to do is a few days easy after an event followed by a few days steady with an small speed session in there then a few days easy/steady and then races. If you have trained well for the first one you can maintain for about 6 to 8 weeks
J2R Oct 2015 3:30pm, 1 Oct 2015 165 posts	0 J2R Thanks for that. I understood all of it, I think, except the puzzling bit about lyrics...
Gobi Oct 2015 3:36pm, 1 Oct 2015 57,307 posts	0 Gobi Auto type added a word. Damn phone
D2 Oct 2015 4:20pm, 1 Oct 2015 7,219 posts	0 D2 fitness maintained but only if you sing...
Mrs Jigs (Luverlylegs) Oct 2015 5:42pm, 1 Oct 2015 22,563 posts	0 Mrs Jigs (Luverlylegs) J2R as a point of interest my time at Wissey was 1.37.30 and a week later 1.37.06 at Bristol, oddly enough Bristol had a higher hill score.
J2R Oct 2015 6:13pm, 1 Oct 2015 166 posts	0 J2R Mrs Jigs, what did you do between the two races?
Mrs Jigs (Luverlylegs) Oct 2015 7:29am, 3 Oct 2015 22,579 posts	0 Mrs Jigs (Luverlylegs) General run Monday just short of 9 miles, 7 miles on Tuesday, track intervals wednesday, rest Thursday & Friday, 5 miles Saturday including a parkrun.