I thought I'd take a bit of a break talking about marathon weekend and talk about what races I'm looking at doing over the next year. I was really expecting that after the Dopey I wouldn't want to run anymore. It was a hard training season and for the most part I didn't cancel any workouts. Right about when I hit my taper I was fried.
Anyway, I think for a variety of reasons including my personal success at meeting my goals during marathon weekend and having a good time running with friends, I'm ready to set some new goals for 2014. In my head I've broke up the year into three training seasons. Nothing is totally locked down yet, but I think this will be my overall plan.
Feb - May - Spring Training
The good thing is other than this cold going on right now (oh how I hate thee, the Disney crud), I have a strong base of fitness. I've decided I might as well use that fitness and try and hit a few goals this spring. I can tune my training with a bit of hill work as well as some trails. That will let me accomplish some races that I was considering doing without a bunch of extra training. I may not be at peak fitness, but I should be able to perform at a fairly good level.
April 20th - Desert Rats Trail Running Festival, 1/2 marathon, Fruita, CO
This would be the third time for me to run this race. How it works is they have a 50k and a marathon on Saturday, and a half and 5 miler on Sunday. We usually drive up on Saturday, stay the night, run the half and then drive home on Sunday. I considered running the marathon if I could convince my friend Brad to come out for it, but he's already got plans. So instead I'll be running the half with Andrea, Mike, Carrie, Rebecca and Kate. All in all Fruita is a beautiful race and each year the weather has been perfect.
April 27th - Cherry Creek Sneak, Denver, CO
I'm doing this one mostly to hang out with Bryan, Mel and Brad Jones (from TAE) who is coming out to run this race. I haven't decided which distance I'm going to do, either the 10 miler and run it easy, or the 5 miler and run it sort of hard.
May 3rd - Greenland 50k, Larkspur, CO
So originally I was going to do the 8 miler. It looked like a flat fun race that I could really work on my speed. But I have some base fitness right now, I figured it might be the time to do a 50k. It's longer than a marathon, but should be easier than Dopey for three reasons. One, I won't have all the travel associated with Dopey. Second, no early morning wake up calls. Lastly, I'm going to run it fairly easy. The course itself is 4 loops of around 7.5 miles on packed dirt. It isn't that technical of a course and the weather should be good at that time of year. My training for it will consist of less days of running than the Dopey and I'll probably top out at one 20 miler, and one 22 mile run before the race. Also since you loop around, you can have a drop bag of supplies.
June 1st - Skirt Sports 5 Miler, Louisville, CO
I did this last year and it was a really fun race. Short, sweet and hopefully both Helen and Michelle from TAE will be coming out for it. Men aren't allowed to do the half (females only) so I run the 5 miler. Not to mention it's about 15 minutes from my house.
June - Aug - Summer Training
Well this summer work is sending me overseas. It seems to happen pretty much any summer really killing any consistent training. So I'm going to take the summer off and just do some fun runs around Colorado and New Zealand. No specific focus on races during this period.
Sept - Nov - Fall Training
Fall is a bit more tentative since some of the races require travel. Until we have locked down our New Zealand travel plans, I don't want to plan too far into the future.
Oct 1st - Twin Cities Marathon, Minneapolis, MN
My good friend Andrea wanted to run a marathon this year, so we were both looking at possible races. This one seemed like a good destination race. It is fairly cheap to fly there, and I have a good friend Julie who lives nearby. Myself I won't be training to PR at this race, but more just to complete it in a decent enough time.
Nov 8th - Wine and Dine Half Marathon, Disney World, FL
Hands down my favorite RunDisney event they put on. This would be the five year anniversary of the event. I am still not sure that I want to do it as most likely it would mean going down without Joelle (which I'm not crazy about). It's expensive, both the race and the lodging. I do have an annual pass, and at least part of a free ticket. Also I promised my wife no more Disney races until my 40th birthday in 2015. But if I end up doing it, this would be my A race of the year. I think I hold my PR at this race currently so it would be fun to train to beat it.
Other Possible Races
There are a bunch of things up in the air right now that may change my plans. I have some friends that are planning on doing the Moab half/full trail marathon. If things don't shake out for Wine and Dine, that may very well fall on the books. Also the nerds are planning on getting together for the Las Vegas RnR half. This would be the week after Wine and Dine, so I'm not 100% sure it would be in the books for us. I also had a bunch of fun running the FLATS half marathon in Missouri.
Also, as some you may remember, I was supposed to run a Triathlon last year. Well, I was able to defer until this year because of the flooding. Currently I'm signed up, and it's at the end of September. But at the moment I have no interest at all in training for it. That may change as weather gets better and I can get out on my bike.
Anyway, I think for a variety of reasons including my personal success at meeting my goals during marathon weekend and having a good time running with friends, I'm ready to set some new goals for 2014. In my head I've broke up the year into three training seasons. Nothing is totally locked down yet, but I think this will be my overall plan.
Feb - May - Spring Training
The good thing is other than this cold going on right now (oh how I hate thee, the Disney crud), I have a strong base of fitness. I've decided I might as well use that fitness and try and hit a few goals this spring. I can tune my training with a bit of hill work as well as some trails. That will let me accomplish some races that I was considering doing without a bunch of extra training. I may not be at peak fitness, but I should be able to perform at a fairly good level.
April 20th - Desert Rats Trail Running Festival, 1/2 marathon, Fruita, CO
This would be the third time for me to run this race. How it works is they have a 50k and a marathon on Saturday, and a half and 5 miler on Sunday. We usually drive up on Saturday, stay the night, run the half and then drive home on Sunday. I considered running the marathon if I could convince my friend Brad to come out for it, but he's already got plans. So instead I'll be running the half with Andrea, Mike, Carrie, Rebecca and Kate. All in all Fruita is a beautiful race and each year the weather has been perfect.
April 27th - Cherry Creek Sneak, Denver, CO
I'm doing this one mostly to hang out with Bryan, Mel and Brad Jones (from TAE) who is coming out to run this race. I haven't decided which distance I'm going to do, either the 10 miler and run it easy, or the 5 miler and run it sort of hard.
May 3rd - Greenland 50k, Larkspur, CO
So originally I was going to do the 8 miler. It looked like a flat fun race that I could really work on my speed. But I have some base fitness right now, I figured it might be the time to do a 50k. It's longer than a marathon, but should be easier than Dopey for three reasons. One, I won't have all the travel associated with Dopey. Second, no early morning wake up calls. Lastly, I'm going to run it fairly easy. The course itself is 4 loops of around 7.5 miles on packed dirt. It isn't that technical of a course and the weather should be good at that time of year. My training for it will consist of less days of running than the Dopey and I'll probably top out at one 20 miler, and one 22 mile run before the race. Also since you loop around, you can have a drop bag of supplies.
June 1st - Skirt Sports 5 Miler, Louisville, CO
I did this last year and it was a really fun race. Short, sweet and hopefully both Helen and Michelle from TAE will be coming out for it. Men aren't allowed to do the half (females only) so I run the 5 miler. Not to mention it's about 15 minutes from my house.
June - Aug - Summer Training
Well this summer work is sending me overseas. It seems to happen pretty much any summer really killing any consistent training. So I'm going to take the summer off and just do some fun runs around Colorado and New Zealand. No specific focus on races during this period.
Sept - Nov - Fall Training
Fall is a bit more tentative since some of the races require travel. Until we have locked down our New Zealand travel plans, I don't want to plan too far into the future.
Oct 1st - Twin Cities Marathon, Minneapolis, MN
My good friend Andrea wanted to run a marathon this year, so we were both looking at possible races. This one seemed like a good destination race. It is fairly cheap to fly there, and I have a good friend Julie who lives nearby. Myself I won't be training to PR at this race, but more just to complete it in a decent enough time.
Nov 8th - Wine and Dine Half Marathon, Disney World, FL
Hands down my favorite RunDisney event they put on. This would be the five year anniversary of the event. I am still not sure that I want to do it as most likely it would mean going down without Joelle (which I'm not crazy about). It's expensive, both the race and the lodging. I do have an annual pass, and at least part of a free ticket. Also I promised my wife no more Disney races until my 40th birthday in 2015. But if I end up doing it, this would be my A race of the year. I think I hold my PR at this race currently so it would be fun to train to beat it.
Other Possible Races
There are a bunch of things up in the air right now that may change my plans. I have some friends that are planning on doing the Moab half/full trail marathon. If things don't shake out for Wine and Dine, that may very well fall on the books. Also the nerds are planning on getting together for the Las Vegas RnR half. This would be the week after Wine and Dine, so I'm not 100% sure it would be in the books for us. I also had a bunch of fun running the FLATS half marathon in Missouri.
Also, as some you may remember, I was supposed to run a Triathlon last year. Well, I was able to defer until this year because of the flooding. Currently I'm signed up, and it's at the end of September. But at the moment I have no interest at all in training for it. That may change as weather gets better and I can get out on my bike.
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