This past weekend I went out for my weekly long run on Saturday. I ended up going just over 16 miles on Saturday and finished just as it was starting to get windy and colder.
When it gets to be March in April where I live you really have to watch the weather for the whole week and plan out when you are going to go for a long run. The reason being that we get most of our rain and snow in these two months. People think Denver is socked in with snow all winter long but that isn't the case. We might get a foot of snow in mid winter but it usually melts in a few days. There are times where the cold and snow sticks around for awhile but that is the exception not the norm. Note: the mountains typically always have snow into May and sometimes we get it down here too.
My next race is the Salt Lake City Marathon on 4/19. Considering I just ran a marathon in February I don't do a traditional cycle to get ready for a race. My routine right now:
Run shorter distance (2-5): Mon, Tues, Thur, Fri, Sun
Run mid range distance (6+): Wed
Run long distance (10+): Sat
Lift weights and cross train cardio: Mon, Tues, Thur, Fri, Sun
Kettlebells and TRX: Wed
I do some form of core work everyday
I change my routine based on when and what the next race is. For example I have 2 10k races coming up in May so I will be working more on speed after I finish the next marathon.
When there is such a short turnaround for another race I have found that it is better to recover and not train too hard or I pay for it on race day. I do still believe the long run is needed to train mentally for a race rather than physically. This year I am going to run a 50k trail race in September so I will have to modify my training to include more trail running and going beyond the 27 mile mark for a long run.
I'm curious what others do for training when they are running races frequently?
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I ran two marathons just seven weeks apart last year and ran PR's in both of them. I spent a solid week in recovery with no running after the first one and then gradually worked back to 1-2 long runs (can't remember without looking at my running log) and then tapered. I loved being able to basically get two marathons out of one training cycle. :) Good luck in April -- it sounds like you are doing all the right things to run a great race!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the response, the recovery time is what I have hard time forcing myself to do. I try to space races out enough because if they are too close the second one never turns out very good. Several years ago I did two marathons 3 weeks apart and that second one was not fun.
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