In the Build period, weeks 3 to 12 before your race, you should be focused only on workouts – and making them racelike. What your weekly volume (hours, miles, kilometers) is has little importance. Race success will be determined not by what you did in general on a weekly basis at this time in the season, but what you did specifically in a few key workouts each week. These workouts must be as racelike as you can make them. Think “workouts,” not “volume.”
So what exactly does “racelike” mean? It’s defined primarily by duration and intensity. In other words, how long and fast your race will be determines how long and fast some of your key workouts should be in the Build period.
Note that not every workout should be racelike. If you tried to do that you’d soon be toast. You also need recovery days. These are easy days when physical adaptation takes place. Without adequate recovery the intensity of your racelike training sessions will diminish over time due to fatigue. You will only be going through the motions while checking off workouts on The Plan. That’s just a waste of time and doesn’t get you ready to race. Every key workout must have a defined and measurable intensity.
