Training question

[Ed]

I have been thinking about this for some time now. 

Is it better to have your long runs or speed training days fall on the same day of the week as your goal race?  It might not matter much but the more I think about it - it seems that if you have a regular schedule (same training each day of the week) an LSD run on race days might train your body for that time of the week for LSD.  Whereas speed training on that day might train your body at that time of the week for speed.

What are your thoughts?

[tgrunner]

For me, I do not find that as necessary as having the hard workouts falling on a day of the week I am fully rested. By friday, I am so wiped from the work week, I usually incorporate something easy into the routine - leaving the speed/distance workouts for days when I have the energy to maximize them......

[Ed]

That is a very good point - I might (in six weeks) start shifting the speed training around to days I am feeling the most rested and recovered. 

[tgrunner]

To the point of your question, "rested days" usually fall on a weekends, which coincide with races anyway....

[Ryan]

For me, it's more about the time of the day I'm running and the distance of the race. If I'm keying on a relatively early morning race, I want to do some running at around race pace for shorter races or of long distances if keying on a longer race. For later morning races, I want to do the same thing but later in the morning. Since my weekday runs are late morning runs and my weekend runs are more early morning, I plan things according to that schedule.

Basically, my body doesn't care what the day of the week is but it does get into a routine in regards to time of day where (most often) it may not like to run fast early in the morning.

[Ed]

That is what I was thinking about - but instead of time of day I was thinking of time of week.  I'll pay more attention to how I feel day to day (after about 6 weeks of base) and do a couple of solo time trials - I am curious if I'll be more attuned to time of day versus time of week.

I'll post something reagrding my findings at that point.

Thanks to all for the info.

[sueruns]

let us know what you find.  I'm NOT an early morning runner.  However, for a few years I would run early with a group on Sundays...sometimes getting up at 5:00.   I don't use an alarm and I would wake up on Sundays early every week and only Sundays