{"id":1254,"date":"2022-11-03T11:31:33","date_gmt":"2022-11-03T08:31:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stage.runzy-run.com\/blog\/?p=1254"},"modified":"2022-12-23T14:39:02","modified_gmt":"2022-12-23T11:39:02","slug":"should-you-run-the-day-before-a-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runzy.com\/blog\/should-you-run-the-day-before-a-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Should You Run the Day Before a Race?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>All running training programs are geared toward eventually leading athletes to the desired race where they want to show their best. Does pre-race running help or hinder this? Let&#8217;s figure it out in this article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Why Running a Day Before a Race May Be a Good Idea<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Some athletes are afraid to run the day before the race for fear of getting tired out, making it difficult to perform on X-day. If you are one of them, let&#8217;s ease your concerns with some benefits of pre-race jogging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>A race is a big deal, and therefore it is normal that you can worry the day before. However, stress and anxiety can lead to mental fatigue, which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.running-physio.com\/stress\/\">negatively affects<\/a> your physical performance, whereas running the day before a race <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/abs\/pii\/S0005796718301190?via%3Dihub\">can help<\/a> you deal with anxiety, stress, and other mood disorders. Besides, being calm helps you sleep better, and good sleep, in turn, <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/29135639\/\">improves<\/a> athletic performance.<\/li><li>If the running event is in a new area for you (another city or even state), you would not have been able to conduct your running training program along its route. Therefore, if you are wondering what to do the day before a race, the answer is simple &#8211; test the route. After running, you will find out what awaits you on the way to the finish line, get acquainted with the track, and see where the water stations and toilets will be located. This can further calm you and give you confidence.<\/li><li>If you are wondering, \u201cshould I run the day before a 5k or 10k?\u201d you need to know that running the day before a race<a href=\"https:\/\/journals.physiology.org\/doi\/full\/10.1152\/physrev.00035.2013\"> improves blood flow<\/a> to your legs and relaxes your muscles. This way, you can delay fatigue and reach the intensity needed when running short distances.<\/li><li>Pre-race running also promotes the efficient storage of <a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/nutritionreviews\/article\/76\/4\/243\/4851715\">muscle glycogen<\/a>. Glycogen is the main fuel for runners, boosting endurance and helping overcome long and grueling distances. Keep this advantage in mind when deciding, \u201cshould I run the day before a marathon or half marathon?\u201d However, your run on the eve of the race should not exceed 20-30 minutes; otherwise, glycogen stores will be depleted.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2>Pre-Race Running: What to Remember?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>There are no universal answers to the questions \u201cis taking a day off before a race bad?\u201d or \u201chow many days rest before a race is best?\u201d It all depends on your individual training program. The main thing is to stick to the schedule that your body is used to. In fact, any experimentation close to race day <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upmc.com\/services\/sports-medicine\/for-athletes\/marathon-running\/preparing-marathon#new\">is taboo<\/a> as it can affect your performance. So, for example, if your half marathon training plan includes a final pre-race training session on Thursday and the event itself is on Saturday, you don&#8217;t need to run the day before a half marathon. It could confuse your body and throw it out of its routine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/runnersconnect.net\/coach-corner\/can-a-shakeout-run-improve-race-day-performance\/\">Some manuals<\/a> on when to stop training before a race say that your last run should be no later than 2-2.5 hours before the event. That is, you can freely jog both the day before and the morning of the race to warm up your muscles, improve blood circulation, and help your body wake up. The main rule is not to overdo it. Run for 10-15 minutes, do some light stretching, and return to your home or hotel to further prepare for the starting line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So to run or not to run? The only secret is to stick to the usual schedule. So check your running plan! And to avoid tiredness &#8211; simply adjust the duration of the workout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All running training programs are geared toward eventually leading athletes to the desired race where they want to show their best. Does pre-race running help or hinder this? Let&#8217;s figure it out in this article. Why Running a Day Before a Race May Be a Good Idea Some athletes are afraid to run the day [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.13 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Should You Run the Day Before a Race? - RUNZY<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"All running training programs are geared toward eventually leading athletes to the desired race where they want to show their best. Does pre-race running - RUNZY\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/runzy.com\/blog\/should-you-run-the-day-before-a-race\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Should You Run the Day Before a Race? - RUNZY\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"All running training programs are geared toward eventually leading athletes to the desired race where they want to show their best. Does pre-race running - RUNZY\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/runzy.com\/blog\/should-you-run-the-day-before-a-race\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"RUNZY\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-11-03T08:31:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-23T11:39:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/runzy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/blog-93-min.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1331\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Greg Rublev - Founder &amp; CEO, Runzy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Greg Rublev - Founder &amp; CEO, Runzy\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/runzy.com\/blog\/should-you-run-the-day-before-a-race\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/runzy.com\/blog\/should-you-run-the-day-before-a-race\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Greg Rublev - Founder &amp; CEO, Runzy\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/runzy.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d5079be7ff0db30f2f641cc06a5b7107\"},\"headline\":\"Should You Run the Day Before a Race?\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-03T08:31:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-12-23T11:39:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/runzy.com\/blog\/should-you-run-the-day-before-a-race\/\"},\"wordCount\":605,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/runzy.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Running insights and tips\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/runzy.com\/blog\/should-you-run-the-day-before-a-race\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/runzy.com\/blog\/should-you-run-the-day-before-a-race\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/runzy.com\/blog\/should-you-run-the-day-before-a-race\/\",\"name\":\"Should You Run the Day Before a Race? - RUNZY\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/runzy.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-03T08:31:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-12-23T11:39:02+00:00\",\"description\":\"All running training programs are geared toward eventually leading athletes to the desired race where they want to show their best. 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Finally, at age 33, after a co-worker convinced him to try crossfit, he got back to working out and being active. Greg did crossfit for 5 years and ran occasionally to supplement his workouts. As his distances grew longer, a friend inspired him to run a half marathon, which they did together on his 37th birthday. He felt amazing after the run - and it was this feeling that he became addicted to and began thinking about training for a full marathon. As the months went by, he was inspired by an opposition Russian politician Evgeniy Royzman who talked about his marathon training in his weekly youtube posts, as well as by a Boston-based venture capitalists, Semyon Dukach, founder of One Way Ventures, who trained for and ran several marathons that year. Finally, in November of 2018, Greg partnered with Joe McConkey, a head trainer at Boston Running Center, and began training for his first marathon. Greg ran his first marathon in Newport in April. The race was major struggle, as he started out too fast and quickly realized that he was not ready for the amount of hills that comprised the course. But, after stopping several times, he nevertheless finished in exactly 4 hours which was his goal. The experience inspired him to continue to train and he ran his second marathon later that year in Liston, Portugal in a much faster 3 hours and 36 minutes. This race was along the beautiful Portugal coast, stretching from Cascais to Lisbon, and Greg was once again inspired to continue to train with the goal of running the Boston marathon next. Based on his age, the minimum qualifying time is 3:10, but given how many applicants typically apply he will need at least a 3:05 finish time to qualify. He continued to train for another 2 years and improved his time to 3 hours and 21 minutes in Albany, NY in October 2021. He also ran a half marathon in Maine in May 2022 and another full marathon in Biloxi, Mississippi in December 2022. All throughout his journey as a runner, Greg struggled to find his next race. Every time started looking, he found himself combing through dozens of websites and spending hours trying to figure out which races fit his location and time criteria, while also being interesting and relatively easy to run. In early 2022, fed up with this problem, Greg decided to build and launch Runzy so that runners like him could easily find the perfect race for them to run next. After months of work on the platform, Runzy is finally live!\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/gregrublev\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/runzy.com\/blog\/author\/greg-rublev\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Should You Run the Day Before a Race? - RUNZY","description":"All running training programs are geared toward eventually leading athletes to the desired race where they want to show their best. 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Finally, at age 33, after a co-worker convinced him to try crossfit, he got back to working out and being active. Greg did crossfit for 5 years and ran occasionally to supplement his workouts. As his distances grew longer, a friend inspired him to run a half marathon, which they did together on his 37th birthday. He felt amazing after the run - and it was this feeling that he became addicted to and began thinking about training for a full marathon. As the months went by, he was inspired by an opposition Russian politician Evgeniy Royzman who talked about his marathon training in his weekly youtube posts, as well as by a Boston-based venture capitalists, Semyon Dukach, founder of One Way Ventures, who trained for and ran several marathons that year. Finally, in November of 2018, Greg partnered with Joe McConkey, a head trainer at Boston Running Center, and began training for his first marathon. Greg ran his first marathon in Newport in April. The race was major struggle, as he started out too fast and quickly realized that he was not ready for the amount of hills that comprised the course. But, after stopping several times, he nevertheless finished in exactly 4 hours which was his goal. The experience inspired him to continue to train and he ran his second marathon later that year in Liston, Portugal in a much faster 3 hours and 36 minutes. This race was along the beautiful Portugal coast, stretching from Cascais to Lisbon, and Greg was once again inspired to continue to train with the goal of running the Boston marathon next. Based on his age, the minimum qualifying time is 3:10, but given how many applicants typically apply he will need at least a 3:05 finish time to qualify. He continued to train for another 2 years and improved his time to 3 hours and 21 minutes in Albany, NY in October 2021. He also ran a half marathon in Maine in May 2022 and another full marathon in Biloxi, Mississippi in December 2022. All throughout his journey as a runner, Greg struggled to find his next race. Every time started looking, he found himself combing through dozens of websites and spending hours trying to figure out which races fit his location and time criteria, while also being interesting and relatively easy to run. In early 2022, fed up with this problem, Greg decided to build and launch Runzy so that runners like him could easily find the perfect race for them to run next. After months of work on the platform, Runzy is finally live!","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/gregrublev\/"],"url":"https:\/\/runzy.com\/blog\/author\/greg-rublev\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runzy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/runzy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/runzy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runzy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runzy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1254"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/runzy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1256,"href":"https:\/\/runzy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254\/revisions\/1256"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runzy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runzy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runzy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runzy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}