Week leading up to a race

[The Sloth]

How much running do you do in the week leading up to a race you want to do well in? I can't work out what works best for me. On some occasions I've run better after a week of not running at all, sometimes I've felt better in races that have followed a race the night before.
Too much running definitely causes problems as my legs feel like lead, but how do you know how much/how often to run? I can never decide whether I'm overdoing it or not doing enough. I'm presuming there's no fixed right or wrong answer here, but I'd be interested to know what other people do/think.

[Derby Tup]

I think you have to experiment and find what suits you best. Like you I've sometimes run well the day after another race, other times it's been a bad idea I'm not even sure of use of tapering before long races, although carbo-loading is vital.

[TheHeathens]

How much running do you do in the week leading up to a race you want to do well in? I can't work out what works best for me. On some occasions I've run better after a week of not running at all, sometimes I've felt better in races that have followed a race the night before.
Too much running definitely causes problems as my legs feel like lead, but how do you know how much/how often to run? I can never decide whether I'm overdoing it or not doing enough. I'm presuming there's no fixed right or wrong answer here, but I'd be interested to know what other people do/think.

What distance races are you talking about?

[noel]

I'm a big fan of recovery runs the day after races. I also like doing them the day before a race if I've done a hard session the day before that.

The trick is to run very slowly (less than 120 HB). I normally only go for about 20-30 minutes, but it works much better than a rest day. This way, I find I can train pretty hard in the week leading up to a race and don't really need to ease off coming up to key races.

What I've described is only for short and medium races, however. There is a lot of information available about how to taper in the week approaching a long race.

[The Sloth]

I'm not talking about long races, anything from 4 miles to 15 miles really. I suppose I mean generally in my running as well. I'm new to all this and don't want to overdo it and end up injured or with my legs too tired to run when there's a race I want to do, and on the flip side I want to be doing as much as I can to improve. I just don't know where the balance is!

[ZootHornRollo]

Normally, the only reason why I feel pushed to go out and do a run in the days before a race, is because I feel I might not have done enough training. Whether thaat actually helps or hinders I'm not sure.

But I've always felt best when I've done my training well previously, and rested totally for at least four days before a race.

But, I suffer from sciatica, so a big advantage in resting up is that I'm not starting a race with pain in my arse and leg.