It’s common for people to do races as a training runs. Have you done this? It’s really not a bad idea – sometimes – but  other times it might be a very bad idea. 

You must go into it with a plan and stick to it. The key is to keep your goal in mind. Sometimes doing a race as part of your run – or instead of your training run – is a viable alternative, and it can serve many purposes, but we need to look at the big picture. You need to look at the big picture.

What if you have a 16 mile long run on your marathon training schedule for Saturday, but you really are wanting to do a local half marathon that day? You could do a 2-mile warmup, then do the race, then run one more mile, a cool down mile. Is that a good idea? Well, it might be a great idea, but there are many things to consider. Let’s talk about that scenario and a few others because runners do races as training runs all the time, someetimes with a great result, and sometimes not so much.