Many runners are faced at the end of training with the question of what to do the last week, the week of truth, the one where Martin Fiz (Spanish Olympic runner) says, “This week you have to listen to me more than in the whole program.”

My personal experience

These recommendations are based on my experience, which, by the way, I do not always follow myself, so I would not feel bad if you did not follow them. It is as follows:

1. Rest and take it easy; the work has already been done.
2. Do a short run of about 3,000 meters between Tuesday and Wednesday (fast but controlled pace). No more than that distance, as we know we will be able to recover quickly.
3. Go to the place of the marathon the day before and jog at the start and finish line (better if they are close like Berlin and Chicago), about 20 minutes. This has nothing to do with the kilometers or the pace but with visualizing the place and lowering anxiety.

What the coaches recommend

In addition to my personal opinion, I did a little research to see what some well-known coaches recommend in their training plans and found the following:

1. The plans rest, on average, between 2 and 3 days. This indicates that the authors do not recommend stopping altogether in the last week.
2. The plans recommend running, on average, about 27 kilometers in the last week plus the 42 kilometers of the competition (total: 69 kilometers).
3. Half of the plans do not recommend activity the day before; half do. Here, your criteria should prevail, although we must consider that our activity will be equivalent to at least one training session if we travel.
4. As for the speed, we find two tendencies, one of them to include a session in short repetitions, between 100 and up to 400 meters, or to include a speed work in a distance between 2 and 6 kilometers maximum. We can conclude that it seems that all coaches agree that at least one-speed workout should be done that last week and that it should be short, it remains to be clarified if they will be short repetitions or short distances.

Final reflection

Here are elements for each one to make a judgment and make decisions. Each case is very particular. Some are more tired than others; some are more affected by the speed than others, etc. Do not do what your teammate would do; do what you think is best for you. Remember that even though you will be with 30,000 other people on race day, you will be alone in your shoes.

Comparison of the last week of training of five training plans (plans to achieve a time of 3:30 in the marathon or based on training of 60 kilometers per week).

What to do the week of the marathon or race

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