Doing a race at the end of week 9 of competitive season

[Dominique]

Hello Mike,

I'm following your 36-week program to do my first half ironman on august, 23. In week 9 of comp. season of the program (july, 19), there's a 2k swim/60k bike/15k run race I really would like to do. Is it smart to do that race? If so, how should I change the workouts of that week to deal with the sunday race?

By the way, I really love the program, I love the way everything is written out in detail. Other programs on the internet just tell you the workout time. With your program, I just look at the workout, do it, and feel good for the rest of the day!

Greets, Dominique

[Mike Llerandi]

Hi Dominique,

Thanks for the kind words - sometimes I hear people say that folks will only value a good program if they have to pay money for it, but my thought was that if enough people started to actually use our programs and talk about them, that lots of folks would benefit while saving the expense of a paid program or coach. Great to hear you're enjoying it!

As for your question, that particular race sounds like a perfect distance with enough time before your first half to recover, so I'd definitely recommend doing it. Setting up the race during the week before -- and recovering sufficiently the week after -- just involves dialing back the volume by 25-50% and reducing the intensity to no more than 75% for the 2-3 days before and 3-4 days after.

Be smart about the recovery, since that's what you'll need to get back on track after the race.

Have fun with it!
Mike