If you’ve read some of my other blogs or follow me on social media, you’ll know I’m a big fan of test runs/time trials or races when they’re available, in order to gauge the paces that my clients and I should be running at during the current training block There are however, times when it wouldn’t be the right decision.
Returning from injury
If you’re coming back from even a couple of weeks out due to an injury, whether a defined issue or general ache/pain, I’d not recommend testing just yet. Give it another 2-3 weeks of consistent training, pain free, before hitting the hard miles.
In this instance, the risk of re-injuring the area or at least needing to ease off training again afterwards would likely outweigh the benefit of knowing more accurately how hard you can push. Instead, closely monitor exertion levels and paces in each session to make an informed decision and check progress.
Close to another race
In marathon training you’ll go through various pace blocks, potentially focusing on 10k work then 10 mile to half marathon speed for 6-8 weeks each, before finally moving into your 12-16 week marathon specific block.
Whilst we’d ideally look to do a test run/time trial or race in the last week of a 10k or half marathon block, it won’t always be possible. It can be tempting to slot one in during the block, but it’s important to balance out how much benefit there would be.
Knowing your pace with a little more accuracy would definitely help, but to get an accurate idea of this you’d still need to taper in some way, and ease off afterwards, meaning you’d lose several days of more efficient training.
A client of mine (who’s given permission for me to share the conversation) asked me if we could test run her half marathon again within the 9 weeks before her next race as the last test run hadn’t gone to plan. Conditions were bad during a storm with winds well over 20mph and a lot of elevation gain which wouldn’t be present in the race. Whilst it was frustrating for her, the 9 weeks of training and taper, would have become 6 weeks of training if we’d done another test run, factoring in a 7-10 day taper for the main race, 6-7 days short taper before the test run and 3-4 days easier training afterwards.
For a 5k or 10k which will need less taper and shorter recovery after the run, you could perhaps use it, but the gains are likely to be even smaller.
The benefit of better training is likely to be greater than knowing if you could run a couple of seconds faster per mile than you currently think, plus the risk of injury is lower without the maximal effort of a race/test run.
During a lull
Life can get in the way of our best training intentions. If you’re feeling fatigued (not just tired) haven’t had much consistency recently or are in a negative mental state, then test running would be a bad idea. It could be easy to think that a good result would be a huge boost in confidence, but the more likely outcome of a slower time than you’d want could well leave you feeling even worse. You’re best of focusing on what you need to and can change to make things better, rather than pushing yourself.
Overall what I’m saying is that test runs and time trials can be a brilliant tool when used at the right time, but it’s important to consider the larger context of the athletes life and racing schedule before deciding to go for it.
Written by Kyle Brooks, Running Coach based in Norwich, Norfolk