10 Tips for Your 10K Race Week
Starting the Wednesday before the 10k race, very light training should be done, emphasizing rest.
Tips from athlete and coach Pedro Esteso Herrera, Urban Runner
Go to the Physio
Try to visit a physiotherapist for a leg recovery session, increase hydration, and pay more attention to your diet.
1.- Do not try to go out and see if you can do 10K, nor try to find out what pace you can do them at.
At this point, the work is done, what's trained is trained
2- If the race is in the evening, eat something light 2/3 hours before; an energy bar, a banana, a sandwich, or something you know will sit well with you and you've tried before.
3- On race day, try to arrive with enough time to park and get to the starting area. Repeat the same warm-up routine you usually do before your most demanding training sessions.
Warm-up: Easy Continuous Run + Stretches + Progressions
Put on your chip on your running shoes before warming up to avoid last-minute rushes and make sure you've picked it up, as well as your bib, before leaving home.
Clothing
4- Try to warm up with a shirt different from the one you're going to use to compete, this way you'll avoid being soaked in sweat when you go to the starting area. And/or that sweat drying on you while waiting in the starting corrals.
Also, if the race is near the beach, there will be a lot of humidity. Put on your race shirt as late as possible, with the bib already prepared beforehand.
The Pace
5- If you're going to run with a GPS watch, activate it when you start warming up. Try to make the GPS helpful when you're running and a tool for pace control. But don't let it be a distraction or obsession, and don't constantly look at it.
6- Be very clear about the pace you want to run the race at and don't get carried away by the excitement of the start during the first few kilometers. It's preferable to be conservative in the first part of the race and increase the pace from the middle, always from less to more.
Hydrate before and during the race
Use the aid stations to also cool your head and legs.
7- Try to have visual references of key points during the race to encourage yourself and know where to increase the pace intensity. As well as dividing the race into 3 parts; the first 3 km for control, the next 4 for suffering and maximum concentration, and the last 3 km for acceleration.
8- Support and follow the people in charge of setting the expected paces in the race - pacers -, creating your internal race within it with teammates who can help you share suffering and enjoyment. You can also do the same with them, that's called running as a team.
9- Encourage yourself internally with each step of each kilometer with a motivational word. Or by recalling a similar situation previously experienced that helps you feel that everything is going as planned and gives you confidence.
Remember that you are fighting for yourself and for those people who deserve it most and who make your daily life a vital, necessary, and worthy support to strive for them.
Visualize
10- Try to visualize positive race situations during the warm-up that you would like to happen.
So that when they happen, they give you the sensation of having lived them and, above all, feeling that you are progressing and everything is happening as you imagined.
You know, when you reach the finish line, enjoy it your way and no matter what, with a smile. Feel happy and enjoy that moment of having fought to achieve your goal.
Pedro Esteso, Urban Runner's Coach.
