How much down time do I need between a marathon and a half marathon?

I ran my 1st full marathon on Oct 9th and am thinking of signing up for a half on Oct 29th. I'm also planning on doing a 12 mile Tough Mudder (mud run) on November 20th so I figure I would already be training for that anyways.|||Alot of running books and websites would say these two races are too close together to achieve a personal best time in the half, but if you're running the half for fun/fitness and not a time goal then I say go ahead. I think you will be the only one who will know if it's too soon to race again. You might feel fine and even go for a run a day or so after the marathon. If you do feel fine then of course go for the half. If you find yourself cranky, tired and each run is a chore then skip and half and look forward to the Tough Mudder.


Have fun and good luck with all of your races :-)|||Three weeks is certainly enough time to recover between the full and half. Ultimately, there is no hard-and-fast rule. If you had a good, strong run on the marathon and you feel okay besides a little residual soreness, go try a 5-6 miler this weekend. See how your body reacts. Then you can build back up to 10-11 miles, no taper, and run your race.





Your body is already trained. You're ready to go. As long as you're not injured, you'll be fine. The same goes for the Tough Mudder, but I suggest working on more sprints and stairs for that. You'll be pumping the quads and calves for a mud race. It's completley different from a marathon or a half.





Good lucK!|||If you incorporate the 1/2 marathon into your training plan and run it as a "long run" in preparation for the Tough Mudder race, you should be able to run the 1/2 marathon fine.|||And you can do some synchronized swimming and sumo wrestling in between...