So I left off last night, mulling over my race goals for the upcoming year.
As I mentioned, Erik and I have both decided to do the 10k race held here in Kelowna, on October 9th, part of the Okanagan International Marathon weekend. It will be my World Wide Festival of Races race for 2011. I've run lots of 5 k's and a few half marathons, but I've never ru a 10k, so this will be interesting and fun to do. I haven't trained specifically for the race, but if I'm feeling ok, I should be able to push hard enough to come in just under one hour. If not, plan B will be under 1:05. I don't really care - I just want to get out and race. :)
Marathon Training versus Triathlon Training
The dilemma for me has been how to train for both a half iron and a marathon. I think if you come from a running background and move to triathlons, you can d both simultaneously, but for me, it doesn't seem to work that way. One thing I've learned about myself is that I take a LONG time to recover from races, even a short sprint tri. If schedule a race in the middle of marathon training, I get behind on my long runs while recovering from the race. So next year, I need to have a different plan.
My Fall Plans
Here's my thinking - between now and January, I will focus on running three times a week. I will run 30-45 minutes twice a week on school days, and I will do a long run on the weekends. I won't try to lengthen my long run - it'll be from 60-75 minutes every week, just to build up my endurance. I've done this before but never long enough. I start building too soon and then hurt myself.
If I take 3 months to focus on running 2-3 times a week (yes, I snuck in the 2 there because some weeks I just can't get out for a run on two school days), then maybe by January, I will be ready to start slowly building my long run. I also plan to build my long run slowly, taking a step back week every 3rd week instead of every 4th. I am hoping that this will help keep me from being injured.
During this off-season time, I will also stick with my core and strength program religiously. I will ride my bike indoors or out, but only Zone 2 easy rides to burn calories. I don't want to tire my legs out.
No Oliver Half Iron? :(
The hardest part of all of this, is having to stop triathlon racing between now and June, and primarily that means missing the Oliver Half Iron the first week of June. I find that a really hard decision to make but I know that I won't be able to race a Half Iron one month after running a marathon. I just wouldn't be ready.
However, in 2012, Outback has decided to move the Wine Capital of Canada Sprint and Olympic races to June 17th (instead of mid May) so I think a new goal might be to do the Olympic distance in June. It would be about 6 weeks after a spring marathon - that seems manageable. As you probably know, I've never done an Oly, so maybe this year will be the year I focus on doing a few Olympic distance races.
Training for a Spring Marathon is tough
The other challenge will be doing some of those long runs in the winter when there is snow and ice. The longest I ran last winter on a cold snowy day is 1:45 and that was tough. For that reason, I am giving myself a time goal and a distance goal for each long run. If the conditions are such that my pace is slower than expected, I will stop when I reach my time goal, regardless of the distance done. My plan is to add 15 minutes each week. That is about 1-1 1/2 miles (2-3 km) per week. January will be the toughest with three or four 1:45-2:15 long runs scheduled during the cold, snowy, icy time of year. And no, I don't do treadmills. Maybe with any luck, we'll have another non-winter like last year.
Tentative race plans for the next 12 months
October 9 - 10km race in Kelowna
May 6 - BM Vancouver Marathon (or one of the other two BC marathons in that time period)
June 17 - Oliver Olympic Triathlon
August 19 - Kelowna Apple Olympic Triathlon
Other possibilities
- a few local 5-10k races
- Okanagan College Half Marathon on March 26 (as part of a 27km training run)
- Desert Half Iron in early July (not likely but always possible)
Tomorrow, I'll talk about my lesser goals for the next three months. Stay tuned!
3 comments:
I can't disagree with your thinking! Sounds like a good plan. We're similar in our recovery issues and injury propensity, so be careful, and good luck!
I'm starting to think about next year too. It's nice to see I'm not the only one.
As for running, YMMV but I find that if I run 2-3 times per week, I really don't improve much, I just maintain. For me to improve, I really need to run 4-5 times per week.
I didn't do an Oly until after I did a HIM and found it to be a nice distance. Long enough to justify the hassle of hauling and cleaning all your tri gear, yet short enough you do have to fret nutrition.
BTW, the hot pockets you tweeted look good!
I think your plans of running 3 days a week and keeping it slow and easy are right on. A lot of people try to do too much too fast and end up on the injured list. Patience people! Patience!
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