Race in between a long run

I have read where some of y'all will schedule a few miles before and/or after a race in order to complete a long run distance you have in mind for a day.

I have a Half race coming up and I think I'd like to make it a 17 mile long run by bookending 2 miles coming and going.  I'll park my car a couple of miles away, then warm up, race, and cool down.  I plan on racing the race in order to see how my training is going for Houston in January.

My question is:  At what pace do I warm up for 2 miles?  I figure the pace coming back after the race would be any pace I consider prudent for the race I run.

Thanks for your time.

Just enough to get the blood flowing and feel warmed up.  I think a 2mi warm-up for a half is appropriate even if it's not an intentional "long run."

Mike MacLellan wrote:Just enough to get the blood flowing and feel warmed up.  I think a 2mi warm-up for a half is appropriate even if it's not an intentional "long run."

+1

Then run the last 2 at whatever pace feels comfortable.

2-4 miles warm up plus some strides

I know it helps to jog post race, but never did. After all, I am a lazy person.

I walked and then ran a few miles after my half this past weekend in order to run in with a friend who was running the marathon (I walked out to around mile 24 and ran back with her).  I thought it was going to be rough since I all out raced the half, but I rather liked it. I would do that again and maybe do a mile or two warm up if I needed to make it longer.

Michele \"1L" Keane wrote:

Mike MacLellan wrote:Just enough to get the blood flowing and feel warmed up.  I think a 2mi warm-up for a half is appropriate even if it's not an intentional "long run."

+1

Then run the last 2 at whatever pace feels comfortable.

I'll second that.

If you are going to race the half, you will not be up to running 2 miles afterwards. better to do 4 miles before very easy and then finish your day with the race.

JohnP wrote:If you are going to race the half, you will not be up to running 2 miles afterwards. better to do 4 miles before very easy and then finish your day with the race.

Agree.  When you cross that finish line, you want to be done.
I have actually done that one time with the race in between, and doing a few miles after the race was very difficult in terms of motivation.  You're tired anyway, you just raced and your emotions are everywhere, everyone else is chilling at the finish, and you have to do more miles (often while holding your medal unless you have someone to give it to).  You just won't want to run and it'll be this huge guilt trip, and either you'll give into temptation and skip the miles, or your self-discipline will win but it'll be some awful post-race miles.

2 miles before and after sounds like a good plan to me.  While John and Kathy are right that you may not feel like running 2 miles afterwards, it would be a good idea to do a cool down since that will typically help reduce soreness a bit in the ensuing days.

The cool down, in my understanding, will no be immediate after the race, unless one does not go all out in the race. I would hang around, change shirt and shoes etc, which would take 15-30 minutes, then go out for a jog.

Then again, I am lazy.

Thank y'all very much for the replies.  My definition of 'racing' it is to be able to take the, hopefully, good time and plug it into McMillan as a present indicator of what I might be able to do in January.

I have a 25K before Thanksgiving and a 30K on December 8, which are the other two races as part of the Warm-Up Series for the Houston Marathon in January.

And if the weather is acceptable, I'll park my car 2 miles away, so I'll have to either walk or recovery run back to it.  thanks again.

Yup - I call it a race sandwich. In this case, a half marathon sandwich:

a few years ago I wanted to get in a 20, but also race a half, so I ran 3.5 to a half marathon, raced the half and set a 4 min PR, then jogged the 3.5 home. worked for me. I may have been able to do the half a tiny bit quicker, but oh well.