During the fall season, when the weather is cool and there's a race practically every weekend, it can be hard to control the urge to sign up to run every race.  Although it's important to stay focused on your main goal, the marathon, there's no reason why you can't incorporate smaller races into your training cycle.

One way to approach incorporating a race into your training schedule is to include some tune up races. A tune up race, as defined by Peter Pfitzinger, is a shorter distance race that you treat as an all out race effort during your marathon training cycle.  Tune up races can vary in length, but try to stay within the range of 8K (about 5 miles) to 25K (about 15.5 miles). Anything shorter is not specific enough to marathon training and anything longer is too harsh on your body and requires too much recovery time. My personal favorite is the half marathon distance.  It's long enough to feel like an accomplishment and give you some good feedback on your training, but short enough that you're not out there all day.

Running a tune-up, or indicator half marathon, serves a few benefits. First, it gives you a good idea of where you are fitness wise, and can help you set a reasonable time goal for your marathon. It will also help teach you mental toughness in a do-or-die situation. After all,  you can always cut a workout short on a training run, but on race day, there's no turning back until you cross that finish line. Finally, it's a good opportunity to practice running in larger crowds, perfect your water station technique, and test out your race day strategies before the big day.

But, of course, you can't run a race at an all out effort on tired legs! Pfitzinger recommends about a 6 day taper, which is long enough to for your legs to feel fresh, but short enough where you won't lose too much time in your training.  I try to schedule my indicator half about 6-8 weeks out from my marathon, that way I have enough time to recover, get a few more weeks of training in, and then taper down.  Don't forget to give yourself proper recovery time after the race as well - Pfitzinger recommends about 5 days of recovery post-race to give your body time to heal.

For a shorter tune up race, such a race within the 8K-12K range, there's less tapering and recovery involved. Pfitzinger recommends two approaches. First, which is how I normally treat these races, is to just train through them and practice running fast on tired legs. After all, your legs will feel much more tired at mile 20 in a marathon, then they will at mile 5 in a 10K.  Just to be sure to keep your race time within context - if you are a little slower then you usually are, it's most likely because your legs are tired. Secondly, you can do a mini taper of a few days before the race.  Pfitzinger recommends no interval runs 5 days before the race, no tempo runs 4 days before the race, and no long runs 4 days before the race, in order to reap the full benefits of the mini taper.

So what are you waiting for? Go ahead, and sign up for some shorter races in preparation for your marathon!