Anyways, hope this gets you thinking. You can feel free to contact me via http://www.challengebychoice.ca to discuss further. Part of my coaching for all my clients includes full assistance with gear prep – from how to treat your feet, what to eat, how to pack, how to fuel, recommended brands that provide quality yet are lightweight etc etc. I suggest VERY different equipment lists for warm races vs colder climate races.

Cheers – jen

I haven’t actually done a race where I’ve had to carry more than what I need for one day. I’ve got some friends who have, though – I’ll see if I can get some of them to post a comment here. So please check back!

I am doing the Vietnam Action Asia race beg of July. My first event outside of Hong Kong! So there’s a lot of apprehension – but quite looking forward to it as well. I will surely let you know how it went when I get back to HK. So far, training is going slowly but I am being consistent with running, stairs, hikes… fingers crossed I will be fully ready in a month.. :-)

For the last week before the race… well, that depends a bit on what kind of “racer” you are. If you are a really competitive racer, who will be pushing your limits during each day of the coming race to go as fast as you possibly can go, then this is serious taper time: some gentle jogs, keeping moving, but essentially rest time for the muscles. Me – I’m not that competitive, and I “race” at a pace that I feel confident I’ll be able to maintain. (The motto of my good friends Paul Romero and Karen Lundgren from Team Sole is “Go fast. Take chances.” I am more like “Go slow. Play it safe.”) So if you are more like me, not going to be fully pushing the speed limits during the race, aiming more to finish than to push, the “taper” period is not as critical. You still should not be pushing so hard in your training that last 5-7 days that you are really fatiguing your muscles at all. I’d recommend a last speed session something like 5-6 days before race day, and after that gentle jogs (short or medium length, not really long) and probably a full rest day or pleasant long walk day the last day before the race starts.
But you also have to listen to your own body. Don’t panic and get tempted to do any hard training that last week – but everyone is different, figure out what balance of rest vs. running works for you. Always remembering that the training that last week really makes little difference to your outcome – it’s the training that you’ve accumulated in the previous months that will count.
What race are you doing, and where? Good luck with it! (Please write in after, and tell me how it went).

Thank you very much for the reply. It is very helpful and I do have a friend moving :-) soon! So will offer help with packing etc!

There’s a public holiday this Friday, so I will do my first ever (yes I am very new to running!) back to back 10K this weekend and Sunday will swim + yoga. Then over the coming weeks will increase the KM until I can do 20K back to back. I am doing swimming and yoga (for muscles stretch) during the week as well. I am planning to do easy long hikes as well during the week before work.

Yes it is a 20K, 20K, 12 K race in warm weather – so I really appreciate all the advice and suggestions you have in your article above.

Do you have any advice for the week before the race?

Thank you again for your very useful reply (and the great article too).

Kind regards,
Rita

Sorry for the delay in responding to your comment and question! I’ve been really busy with a lot of things, and neglecting my website lately.

You’re right, actually. There are a gazillion marathon training plans out there, but not much at all about multi-day race training.I’ll try to write a more detailed post on this in the future, but here are a few things that I would advise:
1. Do back-to-back running days. The big difference in multi-day racing is that you don’t get recovery days – it’s not like running a marathon and then taking a week or even a month of recovery time. You need to get right back up the next day and do it again. And then again. So you need to prepare your body for that. It sounds like your days will be 15-20 km days, so I would include in your training sessions, if possible, two back-to-back 20 km days. Or, if you don’t have time for that, a 20 km day and then a 10 km day. I’d try to do that a couple of times in the months leading up to your race.
2. Don’t injure yourself – cross-train! You need to prepare you body for the back-to-back days, but you also don’t want to risk overtraining injuries. So try to have really long and active days, again, back-to-back. Include whatever else works for you, e.g. biking and swimming. And also just really long and active days, e.g. hard gardening (like digging new beds) or find a friend who needs help moving house and offer a full day of help to them. It’s not lost time if you work yourself hard, consider it good aerobic training and strength training combined (lifting and digging are great core exercises!). Try do medium or long runs both the day before and the day after the gardening/moving etc. day, so you end up with three hard training days but with less risk of an overuse running injury.
You could also consider getting a coach. One I would recommend is Jen Segger – one of the world’s top ultrarunners and adventure racers, and also a professional coach who will work with individuals via internet. I met Jen through the adventure sports reporting I’ve done for http://www.sleepmonsters.com over the years, and she is now also a personal friend. I am going to take her weekend running workshop here in Tofino this coming June. You can find her at http://www.challengebychoice.ca/.