Most marathon advice on race week is written for nobody in particular. This one isn't. It's for the recreational runner who has trained for 12 to 18 weeks, who has a goal time in mind, and who is now staring at the final seven days wondering whether to do more or do less. The answer: less, but not nothing. The taper before race week (those two or three weeks of reduced volume) is where the work either gets locked in or quietly undone, either by panicking and adding workouts or by sitting on the couch and going stale. By the time you reach D-7, the damage from a bad taper is mostly done. What you can still control is the final week: the small sessions that keep your legs sharp, the sleep you bank, the meals you don't experiment with, the gear you lay out two nights early. That's what this guide covers.
The Kenyan view on race week
In the Rift Valley, race week is calm. The work is done. You're protecting fitness, not building it. Athletes who train here for months don't suddenly try to prove something seven days before a marathon. They jog the dirt roads at sunrise, eat ugali and beans, sleep early, and trust the block they just finished. The mistake I see in Western runners is the opposite. They feel rested, they feel good, and they want to “test” the pace. That test costs them on race day. Pole pole. Slow start. Negative splits. These are not slogans. They are how Kenyans win marathons. Race week is the same idea applied to seven days: protect what you have, don't chase what you didn't get done.
“In the Rift Valley, we don't race our final workouts. We protect the work we already did. If you feel strong on Wednesday, that is the plan working. Don't spend it.”
— Coach Martin Karoki Muriuki
Day-by-day breakdown
Day -7 · Sunday before race day
Workout: 60 to 75 minutes easy continuous run on soft surface if you can find one. No long run. No intervals. If your last long run was the previous Sunday (16 to 22 km), this is a recovery effort, not a workout.
Effort target: Conversational. 4 out of 10. You should be able to speak in full sentences the whole way. If your breathing changes on a small hill, you're going too hard.
Why this day: Your aerobic system needs a moderate stimulus to stay primed without accumulating fatigue. Skipping this run entirely leaves you flat by Friday. Pushing it leaves you tired by Wednesday.
Mental / practical note: Start looking at the race-day weather forecast, but don't fixate. Seven days out, it will change three more times. Note wind direction and temperature range only.
Day -6 · Monday
Workout: Full rest day, or 20 to 30 minutes very easy walk. No run.
Effort target: None. If you walk, it's a movement day, not a training day.
Why this day: Monday is when most runners feel residual stiffness from Sunday's longer effort. Rest absorbs it. Cross-training (bike, swim) is fine if it's part of your normal week, but race week is not the time to add it.
Mental / practical note: Check your race kit. Shoes, shorts, top, socks, watch charger, fuel, anti-chafe. Don't buy anything new. Confirm bib pickup hours and travel logistics.
Day -5 · Tuesday
Workout: 40 minutes easy with 4 × 30 seconds strides at the end. Strides are controlled accelerations, not sprints. Build to about 5K race pace by the middle 10 seconds, then ease off. Full recovery (60 to 90 seconds walk or stand) between each.
Effort target: Easy portion is 4/10, conversational. Strides are 7/10: fast feet, relaxed shoulders, never straining.
Why this day: Strides remind your nervous system what turnover feels like without taxing the aerobic system. They are sharpening, not training.
Mental / practical note: Start shifting bedtime 30 minutes earlier than normal. Race-morning alarms are early. Your body needs three or four nights to adapt, not one.
Day -4 · Wednesday
Workout: 30 to 40 minutes easy with 6 to 8 minutes at goal marathon pace in the middle. Not threshold. Not tempo. Exactly the pace and effort you plan to hold on race day. Break it into one continuous block or two blocks of 3 to 4 minutes with 60 seconds easy between.
Effort target: Easy is 4/10. The marathon-pace block is whatever your race-day breathing should feel like: controlled, rhythmic, sustainable. If you finish the block thinking "I could not hold this for 42 km," your goal pace may be off. Note this honestly; don't bury it.
Why this day: A short dose at race pace calibrates effort and rehearses turnover. It is not a fitness session. The work is done.
Mental / practical note: Begin carbohydrate emphasis. Not a feast; just shift the ratio. More rice, pasta, potatoes, bread. Less raw salad, less very high fiber. Hydrate steadily; don't chug.
“If Wednesday's marathon-pace minutes feel hard, the answer is not to train more. The answer is to respect the pace on Sunday. Adjust by 5 to 10 seconds per kilometre and run a smart race.”
— Coach Martin Karoki Muriuki
Day -3 · Thursday
Workout: 25 to 30 minutes very easy with 4 × 20 seconds strides at the end. Shorter than Tuesday's strides. Same principle: quick, relaxed, full recovery.
Effort target: Easy is 3/10 to 4/10. You should finish feeling like you barely ran.
Why this day: Keeps the legs moving and the nervous system awake. The shorter strides reinforce mechanics without adding fatigue.
Mental / practical note: Lay out your race gear tonight if you're travelling. If you're racing locally, you can wait until D-2. Pin the bib to the shirt you'll actually wear. Check that shoes are the ones you've run in, not a fresh pair.
Day -2 · Friday
Workout: Full rest, or 15 to 20 minutes walking. Travel day for most runners.
Effort target: None.
Why this day: Two days out is when the legs feel strangest: sometimes heavy, sometimes restless. That's normal. Rest is doing more for you than any session would.
Mental / practical note: If you're flying or driving long distances, get up and walk every hour. Compression socks during travel are fine. Drink water consistently. This is the night to sleep well, since D-1 sleep is often poor due to nerves, and that's okay if D-2 was solid.
Day -1 · Saturday
Workout: 20 minutes very easy shakeout in the morning with 2 to 3 × 20 second strides. Optional. If you'd rather walk for 15 minutes and stretch, that is equally valid.
Effort target: 3/10. You should feel almost no exertion. The point is blood flow, not training.
Why this day: A short shakeout breaks up nervous energy and keeps the legs from feeling locked. Some runners feel better skipping it entirely. Know yourself.
Mental / practical note: This is the day for logistics, not running. See the dinner and morning section below.
Race-day-eve specifics (D-1)
Eat your main meal earlier than you think, between 5:00 and 7:00 PM. The goal is to be finished digesting by the time you sleep. Pick something you have eaten before a long run in training. This is not the night to try the local restaurant's pasta special. Simple carbohydrates with a moderate amount of protein and very little fat work well: rice and chicken, pasta with a light tomato sauce, potatoes and eggs. Avoid heavy cream sauces, large salads, beans, anything fried, and anything spicy unless it is genuinely part of your normal training diet.
Drink water through the afternoon and evening, but stop heavy fluids about two hours before bed so you're not up at 2:00 AM. A small snack one hour before sleep is fine if you're hungry: toast with honey, a banana, a small bowl of cereal.
Lay out everything you need on a chair or table: shoes, socks, shorts, top with bib already pinned, watch (charged), hat or visor if you wear one, sunglasses, anti-chafe, fuel for the race, throwaway layer for the start. Put your race-morning breakfast next to the kettle or coffee maker. Have your transport plan written down: when you leave, which route, where you park or which station.
Set two alarms. The first one should give you at least three hours between waking and the gun. Eat breakfast within the first 30 minutes of waking, whatever you have eaten before long runs. Coffee if it's part of your routine, not if it isn't. Use the bathroom, get dressed slowly, leave with time to spare. Rushing on race morning costs more than ten extra minutes of sleep would have saved.
Sleep may be lighter than usual, especially if the start time is early or the venue is unfamiliar. Lie still, breathe, rest. The sessions you have already done are not going to be undone by one short night.
“Lay the gear out two nights before, not one. On the night before the race your brain is already racing. You don't want to be looking for your socks at 9 PM.”
— Coach Martin Karoki Muriuki
What this plan cannot do for you
This is a static plan. It does not know that your week-3 long run fell apart at 28 km because you went out too fast, or that your shin has been quietly complaining since Tuesday, or that the forecast just shifted from 12 degrees to 24 degrees with humidity. It cannot tell you, on Wednesday afternoon, whether to drop your goal pace by 10 seconds per kilometre because of the weather. It cannot read your face when you describe the marathon-pace block and tell you honestly that you're underestimating yourself by two minutes. It cannot adjust Thursday because Tuesday's strides felt sharper than expected.
That is what a coach does. A real coach watches the whole block, knows the runner, and makes small adjustments that compound. If you want that (someone in your week, reading your training, adjusting in real time before the next race), that's what we do at KenyanRunning. If not, use this guide, trust your block, and run a patient race. Both paths work.
“A plan on paper is a starting point. The runner who finishes well is the one who learns to listen: to the legs, to the weather, to the breathing in the first five kilometres. That listening is what we teach.”
— Coach Martin Karoki Muriuki