How Much Racing Is Too Much Racing?
As I sit indoors on a snowbound January day and hear the weatherman reporting below-zero wind chills, my thoughts turn to spring—to racing of course, to the Pike's Peek 10K, to the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Run, and the many other races that follow them.
Runners often ask me how much they should race. My answer is generally, "It depends on your goals." Is your goal to make a personal record in a 10k? Is your goal to qualify for the Boston Marathon or run a specific marathon time? Is your goal to be competitive in your age group? Or do you go to races for the food and beer? Each situation requires a different answer.
First, let me pass on some accepted principals about racing and recovery. You should generally allow one day of recovery for each mile raced. Thus, after running Pike's Peek, it is okay to race the following weekend. After a marathon, however, you should allow a month of recovery before your next race. I now you will probably ask what about Ted Poulos who races three to five times a weekend? Well, I think there is a method to Ted's madness which works for him but may not work for you.
If your goal is to run a PR at 5K, 10K, 10 miles, or whatever, your training should go through a series of phases. You should begin with a base period, doing lots and lots of miles with no speedwork or racing. Then you should go into anaerobic threshold training in which you do a few races as workouts using your heart monitor (these should not be all-out efforts). Finally, you should enter a peaking phase in which you lower your weekly mileage while running shorter and harder intervals. You should do a couple of races at an almost all-out pace as mental tune-ups for your goal races. Then you should run a series of races in a four- to six-week period, expecting to run your PR time in at least one or more of those races.
If your goal is to be competitive year-round in your age group, you probably will not be running PRs very often. Indeed, any PR will be purely accidental because you will not be peaking for any particular race. You should probably stay in a permanent anaerobic threshold-training phase, doing a mid-week workout between races. The greatest danger is that you may become stale and find your race times
You should generally allow one day of recovery for each mile raced.
Slowing down, in which case you should back off for a few weeks. Even if you continue to run well week after week, you probably should take off a month a year just to recharge your batteries.
For those wanting to run a specific marathon time, racing will be quite different. Unlike shorter distances, you don't get many chances to run marathon PRs. As I have written in past columns, many marathoners need to become 10K racers before they can expect to see any appreciable drop in their marathon times. These runners should spend at least one season racing shorter distances while at the same time building up a mileage base. Unlike those trying to run shorter-distance PRs, they do not need to go through a peaking phase with reduced mileage because they are simply trying to become generally faster in order to improve their marathon times. They need to keep up their weekly mileage (but not their long runs) during the racing season, which means that they will not have fresh legs and thus their times will not peak. Nonetheless, many will still run PRs because this will be the first time they have raced shorter distances without having the dreaded dead legs from marathon training.
For those who go to races for the food and beer, you should have stopped reading this column after the first paragraph. You can join my good friend Jay McCarthy at his favorite watering hole, enjoying life as a retired racer.
Coach West is a licensed coach, affiliated with MCRRC, and available to coach motivated adult runners. A portion of his coaching fees for MCRRC members is returned to MCRRC. For further information about personal coaching opportunities, contact Coach West at kirtwest@comcast.net.
